Benefit Cosmetics PH, the leading brand in brows and more, celebrated its sixth year in the Philippines by launching the new POREfessional Pearl Primer, a soft-radiance face primer that minimizes pores and brightens the complexion.
DrinkManila collaborated with Benefit to create fun pink drinks inspired by Benefit Cosmetic’s Pink Holiday Party in partnership with Absolut Vodka, Malibu Rum, and DaVinci Gourmet Philippines.
For Benefit Cosmetics PH’s sixth anniversary celebration DrinkManila made a drink inspired by the innocent yet provocative glow of one of Benefit’s first products, the universally flattering rose-tinted lip and cheek stain Benetint:
6 Shades of Pink
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How to make it:
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To mark the launch of Benefit’s new POREfessional Pearl Primer, which brightens the skin with a hint of soft, pearly pink, DrinkManila created the luminous Dust Me Pearl:
Dust Me Pearl
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How to make it:
Put ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake. Strain into rock glass with ice. Garnish with dehydrated lemon wheel.
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The DrinkManila Pop-up bar also served one of our signature non-alcoholic drinks:
Country Pink Lemonade
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How to make it:
Watch the how-to video for Country Pink Lemonade here |
Founded by sisters Jane and Jean Ford 41 years ago, Benefit Cosmetics is known for having a playful approach to beauty, with quirky packaging, cheeky labels, and sayings like, “If you can’t be good, be gorgeous,” “Lip gloss speaks louder than words,” and “Laughter is the best cosmetic” painted on the walls of their stores. “It’s all about the quirkiness and all about the fun. Things that make you happy when you look at it,” shares Brand Manager Donna Shaw. “We like to think of ourselves as this land of makeup, where our products are the souvenirs.”
Things could have turned out differently. “The Ford sisters were deciding between going into casseroles and cosmetics,” Donna says. They tossed a coin, which thankfully landed on cosmetics, and they opened up their first shop in San Francisco. The name came from their trip to Italy, where they kept hearing the word “bene” which means good. “They were thinking of a good fit for ‘bene.’ And they just kept repeating that: what’s a good fit for ‘bene.’ And they came up with Benefit, and decided to run with it.”
The brand’s history is as amusing and quirky as its products. “Benefit actually started with Benetint. An exotic dancer went inside the store and asked if they had anything for nipples,” shares Donna. “Because the younger ones got tips because their nips were pinker, so she needed something to pinken up her nipples a little bit. Jane and Jean Ford, being the entrepreneurs that they were, told her that they just ran out and to come back tomorrow. Then they ran to the kitchen, boiled up some roses, and a magical concoction—rose tint (which was later named Benetint)—was born. And after that, it started flying off the shelves.”
Since they opened up their first brow bar in 2003, Benefit has become the go-to place for brows that are on fleek. “If you noticed, our brow bars are located by the windows because it serves as advertisement for the brand,” notes Donna. They do brows sitting up, instead of lying down as most salons do, to make sure that the brow alignment is most flattering when you’re upright.
When Benefit opened its first store in the Philippines, there was a long line outside, not unlike that of the Apple Store when a new phone would be released. Before then, to get their Benefit fix people would have to go to Hong Kong or have their relatives overseas buy Benefit products for them. There may no longer be long lines outside stores, but the interest and clamor for Benefit has not waned, especially with the current brow trend. “Filipinos are so obsessed with their brows now, when five years ago, no one even cared,” Donna observes.
Apart from their brow bar and products, the bestselling item in the Benefit line is their POREfessional Primer. Made to minimize the appearance of pores, this mattifying primer glides on smooth, dries translucent, and settles into the skin very nicely. “One POREfessional Primer is sold every 15 seconds worldwide,” Donna shares. “They love it so much—people drink it, they go to bed with it, they love it so much, people want to marry it,” she jokes. The overwhelming success of POREfessional allowed Benefit to extend the concept to include a brightening primer, the POREfessional Pearl, which makes your skin dewy and your makeup pop.
Check out the new POREfessional Pearl Primer, along with other makeup essentials, at Benefit Cosmetic stores and their online store www.benefitcosmetics.com
