Product review: The POREfessional

Happy International Women’s Day, everyone! Today isn’t a post about that, I’m afraid, because I didn’t realise International Women’s Day was coming up until yesterday and by then I didn’t have time to write something about it. Sorry. I promise a feminist post soon. In the meantime, here’s a review of The POREfessional by Benefit:

 

I think a lot of people are pretty excited about this new product by Benefit. Benefit are always good at what they do and they have been marketing this one hard. Case in point: I picked up my sample as a freebie run through o2 Priority* and when I arrived at the first Benefit counter I visited (at Boots in the St Enoch Centre) they told me they had run out. I ran down to the second Benefit counter (at Debenhams in the St Enoch Centre) and I was lucky enough to snag they very last one.

The POREfessional, by Benefit

So I’m not the only person who was keen to try it. I’m also definitely not the only person who is blogging about it. However, there’s nothing wrong with blogging about something others are talking about so now I’ve tried it a few times I think it’s time to share my thoughts about it.

The packaging is lovely, obviously. When has Benefit ever got this wrong? Never, that’s when. The inner label tells me to apply it outward from the centre of the face and to focus on problem areas. Seems simple enough.

The product is smooth and lightly tinted and supposedly it sits quite happily either under or over make up. Honestly I felt it sat most happily under make up and I don’t think I’d apply it on top. It also smells really great, it’s slightly floral and slightly citrussy but it doesn’t last very long which is almost a shame.

Texture-wise it’s smooth, silky and non-greasy. It blends nicely to a matte finish and you don’t need a huge amount of the stuff to get a nice effect. It also lasts forever like, I could plainly still tell I was wearing it about ten hours later. So plenty of points are earned there. It definitely does reduce the appearance of pores and it’s a nice base for make up to go onto.

The only downside for me was that it felt a little drying, however, a good moisturiser applied before The POREfessional meant that this wasn’t really a problem. I guess if you have really dry skin or combination skin you might want to test a little out before buying this one.

Also, and I know this is nothing new in cosmetics, but it appears to come in just one shade. A shade that works fine for me, as it happens, and will likely work for most white skin – after all it’s not a foundation, the pigmentation isn’t super strong, it’s all about reducing the appearance of pores. So, y’know, great for pale complexions. I’m just not sure how great it would be on darker skin and it seems like it wouldn’t be soooo hard to release a similar product in, oh, six shades? Come on Benefit, you can do it, I believe in you.

Ok, rant over. I like this stuff, it works well for me but it needs a good moisturiser. It’s still not going to replace the Dermalogica Skin Perfect Primer as my favourite but it is lovely and if you don’t like the Dermalogica one then it’s a great alternative.

 

*Again, o2 doesn’t sponsor these posts and neither does Benefit, or Dermalogica (sadly). I did get my sample for free but so, apparently, did thousands of other o2 customers. I love a good freebie but I’m nobody special here. I’d tell you if anyone did sponsor a post, promise.