Had to Pass: Benefit Erase Paste

When I bought the always sold-out Fake Up, I didn't have any question in my mind that I would love this hydrating concealer. It's just a given. I'm always whining about dry skin around my eyes and I'm always complaining about dark circles so of course, BUY.

I was looking around the counter while the SAs were preparing the stock and I thought to consider Erase Paste. I've read MAJOR, as in, MAJOR raves about its salmon-shade perfection, so I swatched a bit on the very green veins at the back of my hand.

Benefit Erase Paste in Light: Skin Swatch

The concealer itself is light enough to brighten, but not too much to give tanning goggle-marks. Look at the correction AND coverage on the left side of my hand! What a phenomenal finish! I t seems to be glowing, huh? Light reflection is a great characteristic in undereye concealers, by the way, as it distracts from the darkness on your eyes without making your skin look completely flat.

So why would I pass on this?

I didn't want to pass on Erase Paste, initially. Just a few hours later, still within the mall, I was basically kicking myself as I thought it foolish to buy the Fake Up when I hadn’t fully checked out Erase Paste. The Erase Paste blended fabulously with my skin and seemed really hydrating, eeeeep! I was heading back to the store with a mission, seriously ready to double-purchase the same thing...

Benefit Fake Up

... But I tried to reason with myself and calmed down a bit. You know how when you make a mistake, you're not thinking straight and are just so eager to make it right? I had to stop myself from trying to "right" a "wrong" purchase by replacing it with the correct merchandise. Truthfully, I was also just too damn tired to walk all the way back. I tried to console myself by thinking: I haven't read too many reviews on it anyway. It's okay. I won't miss much, I'm sure Fake Up is true to all the hype.

Boy, am I glad I turned back.

I got home and immediately turned to the net for reviews. Benefit Erase Paste seems to get a lot of flak from people with dry under eyes. While it’s generally agreed that color-correction, radiance and hydration are out of this world, people with dry eyes tend to complain about how it is a NIGHTMARE in terms of creasing.

Thinking back, I also think I wouldn't appreciate using Erase Paste on a daily basis as the extreme stickiness and thickness would force me to be super duper extra careful about tugging my eyes. Its consistency is a very difficult in-between of a liquid and a solid concealer :(

It took forever to blend at the back of my hand; and to think, I have to use a lighter touch on my eyes! That’s a little bit too high maintenance for my taste. When I need quick coverage, I just want something that I can swish on without much thought. This honest-to-goodness paste needs to be blended for at least a full minute, and honey, I would rather go to work early than take one minute longer to blend my dark circles.

Normally I would still stubbornly give Erase Paste a try because of the perfection of that salmon shade, but I think I’m more impressed with Fake Up and will use that first.

You can visit Benefit PH’s Facebook page here,

and the Benefit website here.