Review: Benefit's They're Real! Push-Up Liner

Do you remember at the beginning of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, the black monolith that appears and all of the monkeys go batshit crazy (have no idea what I’m talking about – you're welcome)? I kind of feel like that is the reaction this bad boy has been getting in the beauty world (still don’t know what the hell I’m talking about – we are the monkeys and the liner is the monolith -ahhh). It’s the Benefit They’re Real! Push-Up Liner and it has been all over the blogosphere for months now. Benefit describes it as a gel liner in pen form, that will give you perfect long lasting winged liner every time. Since reviews have ranged from “this is the greatest invention ever – I’m going to give up my firstborn for another tube” to “this thing downright blows,” I decided I needed to know for myself. So I picked one up with the hopes it would up my liner game!

Let me preface by saying that I am absolutely horrible at liquid liner! No matter which brand I use or what technique I try, it always comes out wonky! My end result always looks like I tried applying it while holding on one of those Shake Weight’s and I can’t ever get close enough to my lash line, so I end up with that ugly strip of flesh between my liner and my eyeballs. Lucky for me, the peeps at Benefit promised both of these issues would be a thing of the past due to the AccuFlex tip.

As you can see in the shot above, AccuFlex is really just a fancy word for rubbery-angled-tip-thing. Let me tell ya though...it does what it's intended to do and then some! So they can call it what they want! The rubber is soft and smooth, so you don't have to worry about poking your eyes out, and since it has less give than a brush would, it doesn't wiggle around on you. It really does allow you to get right up to the lashes for a smooth application. I would give this part of the product four stars! Seriously, liners should only come designed this way from now on! Ah-mazing!

Then things started to take a turn for the worse. The supposed gel liner is really too thick, in my opinion. So much so, that as I was applying it, it began to ball up rather than just adhere to my lids. The bottom of the pen has a twisty piece that you turn in order to push the product up into the tip, so I cleaned it off and started from scratch, thinking that I had gotten a little twist happy. still.little.balls. (no not that kind, get your mind out of the gutter!).

I was able to work with it and successfully picked off the little pieces without interfering with the lines themselves. I must say, that considering my past liner horror shows, I was pretty impressed with what I was left with. The lines were [decently] symmetrical and squiggle free! I also really love the color and finish of the gel. It's a very dark true black and most importantly, it's matte! There is nothing I hate more (well, except maybe country music and green beans), than a shiny black liner. Ew. 

All in all I was pretty impressed with this little tube.Was it perfect? No. But I do think the overall design and ease of application made up for its shortcomings. If you are a pro with liquid liner already, I wouldn't bother with this, but if like me, you find yourself on the liner struggle-bus, definitely give this a try!

x's,