Review - Benefit They're Real! Push-Up Liner and Remover

Hello Princesses!

Today I'm going to be talking about the super hyped Benefit They're Real! Push-up Liner! This is an innovative gel eyeliner in a twist up pen form and if you haven't heard of it, I really don't know where you've been. :3 It's been thoroughly reviewed and hyped up by Benefits social media and Beauty Bloggers/Beauty Youtubers alike, so what did I think?

I'm definitely an eyes girl. If I had to have only one product in my life (apart from sunscreen) it would either be Eyeliner or Mascara! I've been wearing eyeliner for a wee while now (probably about 5/6 years or so) so I've had a lot of practice lining my eyes and know what aspects I like in an eyeliner. I was so excited to get this product I literally drove to Auckland on the release day so I could get my fix!

 These are some big claims.

The packaging is quite simple, but literally just lists how amazing this product is, in stark comparison to the majority of Benefit's other products and their cute packaging, which is quite disappointing for me.

It also came with a little leaflet with tips and trick to using the eyeliner and a list of ingredients in many languages.

The eyeliner applicator itself is very interesting, it's super soft and flexible with a very narrow opening for the product to come out. The applicator was my main problem with the eyeliner, it just really didn't work for my eyes and my style of eyeliner that I like to wear. I found it hard to maneuver around my eyes without creating chunky uneven wobbles since the applicator is so bendy, its literally like a little piece of silicone!

As you can see, the eyeliner doesn't really line thinly, but it quite good for thick lines! You can also see that the eyeliner looks quite chunky at the top of the "thin" line and faded down the bottom. This was another problem I encountered, I would always have to wipe off a little chunk of the eyeliner before I started lining my eye, but having to twist up the liner and wipe it again to actually line my whole eye. I do love how matte this eyeliner is though, it has a lovely finish!

As you can see again, this eyeliner doesn't really work for what I do for eyeliner. I don't have all that much lid space (puffy eye problems) and usually wear my eyeliner quite thinly and only in the inner or outer thirds of my eyes to emphasis the shape of my natural eye. It was ridiculously hard to line the inner third of my eye and to do the wing (this wing isn't even a wing for goodness sake) I couldn't curve the wing up without it looking absolutely horrible, so this is what I ended up with.

The push-up liner doesn't last as well on my eyes as my favorite liquid eyeliners. I've previously loved up a whole jar of Bobbi Brown Gel liner (until it dried up of course) which lasted amazingly on my oily lids, so I'm not entirely sure why this does so badly. I can only assume that because I can't really apply enough of the liner, that it flakes or is too dry to start with.

I was not happy to use this eyeliner to be honest, I found it to be way more trouble than it's worth and I also really dislike how the packaging brags about how good the product is, when for me it actually falls quite short of it's claims! I also can't believe that the packaging claims that the eyeliner makes eyes look visibly larger. I use all eyeliner to make my eyes look larger, but this doesn't work any different for this aspect, I still end up lining my eyes the same way. Am I just confused? Is it too late at night to be summing this up? Potentially yes.

I also received a tester of the They're Real! Remover with my eyeliner. This remover has been marketed as one of the only/best ways to remove this eyeliner and the accompanying They're Real! Mascara which I find to be a little untrue.

The Remover instructions say to use a cotton pad to apply and remove makeup, but I found this to be very ineffective as the cotton pad just soaked up the remover and did nothing. Instead I just apply it straight to my eyes with my fingertips and massage it in. Be careful not to get it in your eyes though, it makes them misty and oily for ages -.- The remover does work, and it does work well, but it's not the only thing that can remove the eyeliner. (My eyes are red from my contact lens, not from the remover ^.^)

It's also interesting to note that when I removed my mascara (Eye of Horus Mascara) with water, quite a lot of the eyeliner also came off, which does not make it very waterproof as 81% of people stated. 

You can use pretty much any oil based remover to take off this eyeliner. There's hardly any left on this eye because it came off with water, but I like to remove it with The Body Shop Camomile Silky Cleansing Oil which works just as well as the Benefit remover (for less than half the price). Coconut oil works a treat too if you're into that hype-train!

What I Love

- Very matte and black

- Great for thick lines

- Remover works very well and gently

What I Don't Love

- Not great for thin lines

- Very chunky, and wasteful

- On the expensive side

- Not waterproof, doesn't last long

- Difficult to use, time consuming

Final Thoughts

I think this was way too over hyped. I appriciate that some people may really love this eyeliner, and that's great! I'm happy for you! But for me personally I really disliked using this product. I actually dreaded having to use it for reviews because it was just so hard to use and looked so bad on my eyes. I did use it to create thicker lines a couple of times, but they also looked wonky, uneven, chunky and flaky. I much prefer using thin tipped liquid eyeliners or gel liners with brushes. This eyeliner and I just did not get along at all and I will not continue to use it.

Have you tried the Benefit They're Real! Push-up Liner and Remover? What did you think of these products and the massive hype-train that accompanied them? 

*choo-choo*