Benefit Hello Happy foundation review

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When Benefit started showing sneak peeks of their new foundation, Hello Happy*, my interest was instantly piqued. The squeezable bottle with a heart eyes emoji design drew me in straight away. What can I say, I’m a sucker for cute packaging! As more information came out about it, my interest wavered. It’s described as soft blur meaning it’s blur imperfections - great! It’s light to medium coverage - not so great, I’m normally a full coverage girl because I like my acne and subsequent scars covered. However I’m always hopeful that there’s a lighter foundation out there that could do this! Could this be it?! When I heard that there were only 12 shades my heart sank a bit, I knew this would mean a lot of people wouldn’t find a shade to suit them, probably me included as I’ve very pale! But I like to give brands the Benefit of the doubt (see what I did there 😜) so when they assured us all that the shades are flexible and there would be a shade to suit everyone, I trusted that. I do find that with lighter coverage foundation, you have a bit of leeway with shade matches.

I’d originally intended to get shade matched at my local Benefit counter in House of Fraser, it’s one of the few decent brands that are sold in Grimsby (and HOF is now closing down! 😭) However after seeing a brilliant deal shared by @fyibeauty on Instagram I could help but place an order from Escentual. I ordered a mini Hello Happy foundation* in shade 1 (the palest) and got a mini Benefit concealer and mini Porefessional Matte Rescue primer for free! An absolute bargain, especially as I’ve been wanting to try the primer for ages! I knew the concealer was a tad to dark and warm for my skin tone as I’d previously used it so I sold that.

So on to the foundation - what does it promise to do and what do I think of it?! Spoiler alert - I’ve ordered a full sized bottle!

Benefit describes the foundation as being able to perfect your complexion with soft focus optical blurring spheres, which minimise imperfections. It’s meant to be weightless, natural looking, light to medium coverage with a matte finish that lasts. It also provides broad spectrum SPF 15, which is a bonus to increase your usual SPF.

The foundation is a great texture, not too thick, not too runny. It applied really well using a damp blending sponge. It’s nicely pigmented, I didn’t need loads of foundation to get a level of coverage that I was happy with. I was pleasantly surprised by the coverage, it’s light enough that it shows my freckles but it did a pretty good job of covering blemishes and marks. Once I’d applied concealer and set with powder, I was pleased with how it looked. Very natural, perfect for the warmer weather!

No makeup

Just foundation

Fully made up including concealer

The first day I used this, it was a really warm day and we were having a bbq. I’d used the Benefit Matte primer under the foundation and I’d set with my usual powder and setting spray. I took another photo after 6 hours of wear with no touch ups. Bare in mind that I’d been out in the sun, cooking at the bbq and had topped up my SPF by spraying it over the top of the makeup a couple of times. Plus I’m oily skinned anyway. I was so impressed by how well it lasted! After wearing it numerous times since, it’s quickly become my go to summer foundation. As I’ve said, I’ve already ordered a full sized bottle.

After 6 hours wear in hot weather

I’ve been impressed with the Benefit Porefessional Matte Rescue primer* too. It promises to mattify skin, control oil and blur pores whilst keeping skin moisturised. It has a light fresh scent, nothing overpowering. It’s a gel texture, nice and cooling when applied. It doesn’t visibly make skin look super matte, I think it’s very natural looking, which I like. It certainly helps control oil throughout the day, which for me is very important. I’ll definitely be buying a full size version when this one runs out!