On trial: Is Benefit’s Fan Fest mascara their best yet?

Finding your number one mascara feels great. One swipe and you’re ‘pulled together’, two swipes and you’re ready to take on the world and/or morning. 

As a beauty editor, I’m forever asked, ‘What is the best mascara?’ so you can imagine how giddy I get with every new mascara launch – let alone a *jazz hands* Benefit mascara launch… 

So how does Fan Fest measure up against other mascaras? Honestly?

The sixth mascara in an already impressive line-up (Benefit is the UK’s number one prestige mascara brand), Fan Fest boasts a full-flex fibre brush (with 40º custom curve for root-to-tip lift and corner-to-corner coverage) + fanning formula (provitamin B5, cranberry extract and rice wax). Available in Hyper Black, it’s Benefit’s answer to full, fanned-out lashes.  

Loaded with fibres designed to grab, define and separate lashes, BFF helps to multiply and stretch, for an even, clump-free finish. The featherlight formula is buildable (minus flaking), plus it’s smudge, water, sweat and humidity proof. Oh, and it’s ophthalmologist-tested – great news for sensitive eyes and wearers of contacts. 

Yes! The 40º curve brush works wonders on short lashes, while the formula gives just the right amount of flutter – lengthening the look of lashes and fanning them out to create depth. And because it’s buildable, it’s ideal for fine lashes too – Fan Fest won’t weigh down hairs like heavier, dense formulas can. 

Step 1: Use an eyelash curler.

Step 2: First coat – gently wiggle wand from base to tip. 

Step 3: Want lift? Hold brush vertically against upper lashes, stroking upward.

Step 4: Layer on as desired.

Step 5: Use an oil-based cleanser to remove.

Like its Benefit bedfellows (above), Fan Fest’s RRP is £25.50 – making it an easy swap for Benefit loyalists. Fan Fest is for mid-spenders who trust the value of a high-quality product, but also appreciate that mascaras have a six-month shelf life. 

Truthfully, us Benefit lifers are VERY loyal. Every Benefit mascara has been reviewed, rated and ranked, with millions of us betrothed to Benefit – wedded by mascara monogamy. It’s what’s helped make Benefit the number one mascara brand for as long as I can remember. 

Me? I’ve been a diehard fan of They’re Real! since it launched way back in 2011. Sure, I’ve dabbled with BADGal and flirted with Roller Lash but if I had to pick ONE favourite Benefit mascara? It’d be They’re Re… 

Oh no. It’s happened. I’m team Fan Fest. 

I can only speak for my eyelashes (longish but straight, fragile and somewhat straggly) and my eyes (increasingly deepset, erring on exhausted, but y’know, so far, so 40). Any beauty product that has the potential to instantly lift my lashes and AWAKEN my eyes has my full attention. 

Benefit Fan Fest delivers – it’s the best for lengthening ‘natural-looking lashes’ (one coat); the best for volume (two coats) and the best for false-lash lift and curl (three coats). Personally? Two coats was my cocktail of choice and – as with so many curved wands – it’s not as easy to coat the lower lashes, but it more than passed the test, including six hours spent herding kids around Peppa Pig World in the rain, brolly-less, without a single smudge in sight. 

Hand on heart, Fan Fest is The One for wide-awake, WOW lashes that fix.

Like a morning coffee for your lids, Benefit has wheeled out yet another banger, and I am ob-sessed.