Desi Perkins On The Sunglasses She Created For Her Collab With Benefit

Forbes

07-05-2025

Desi Perkins wearing the Benefit Cosmetics x DEZI Tints Out! collaboration sunglasses Benefit Cosmetics
Wearing matching accessories to up your outfit is nothing new—think pairing a bag with your shoes, or a belt with both. But coordinating your sunglasses to your makeup? Now that's unexpected, and the very essence of the Tints Out! collaboration between Benefit Cosmetics and DEZI, the eyewear brand by entrepreneur and content creator Desi Perkins.
'I think the crossover is amazing,' Perkins says. 'Some people wouldn't expect an eyewear company to collaborate with a beauty brand, but there is so much crossover in this world—they're both accessories to change up your look, so it plays together well, especially right before summer. I don't want to call it a car collab, but what are the essential things that you have in your car? That's always a lip product and sunglasses to amp up your look. So, to me, it makes perfect sense.'
The Benefit Cosmetics x DEZI Tints Out! collaboration Benefit Cosmetics
Launching today exclusively at Sephora.com, the Benefit x DEZI: Tints Out! collab celebrates the two new shades of the iconic Benetint. Benefit partnered with Perkins's DEZI Eyewear to create a limited-edition Dezi x Benefit Tints Out set, featuring a new style of DEZI sunglasses and a matching case with the new Benetint Dark Cherry Lip + Cheek Stain attached. Benefit's iconic Benetint Lip & Cheek Stain will also be available in Raspberry, marking the first time Benefit added new shades since launching Benetint in 1976.
'After all this time to have the shade range extended is amazing,' Perkins says. 'I love the Raspberry shade and the original. The Dark Cherry looked really good on set day with more maroon tones. It was a monochromatic look on me, on my skin tone.'
The Benefit Cosmetics Benetint in Dark Cherry Benefit Cosmetics
The Benetint Raspberry and Dark Cherry shades have the same formula as the original Rose Benetint. Like the OG, the new shades provide a natural-looking flush that has major staying power yet doesn't dry out lips, plus it's smudge-proof, transfer-proof, water-resistant, buildable and lightweight.
'I've always been a very visual person,' Perkins says. 'The minute they shared their new color range on their deck, I immediately saw the marketing in my brain, playing it all out right in front of me as they're speaking. I thought it would be a neat concept to make the sunglasses look ultra glossy, as if they were made from Benetint themselves. I immediately started grabbing swatches that were closest to the Benetint shades. I wanted them to have a fade lens to complement the blush, so that even your blush could peek through the very bottom of the lenses. I thought that was a special touch.'
Perkins applying the Benefit Cosmetics Benetint in Raspberry Benefit Cosmetics
Perkins love a monochromatic moment, so she wanted the sunglasses to match Benetint. 'In my office, I have a whole—I almost called it a Rolodex—of all the different acetates, in different colors and shades, and when they sent me their samples, I pulled as close as I could to the shades,' Perkins says. 'With art, it doesn't have to be so exact. It's more like an interpretation. We weren't so worried about it looking exactly the same, but we wanted it to compliment and be in the same family. Even if it was slightly different tones, that's still so fun.'
To compliment the collab, Perkins already has her outfits picked out. 'This color is so beautiful because even though it's a pop of color, it could be easily worn every day,' she says. 'That's what we did with the design. We wanted the frame itself to feel like an everyday pair of glasses, but the color to be fun. I have monochromatic raspberry jackets, purses and tops and things to pull it all together. Even if you just pull it together with accessories—if you get a little maroon bag and then the glasses—it's fun and playful. It can be styled so many different ways.'
The Benefit Cosmetics Benetint in Raspberry Benefit Cosmetics
When it comes to her makeup routine, Perkins is all about one extreme or the other—she either goes full beat or opts for no makeup-makeup, depending on her day. 'Benetint has stood the test of time,' she says. 'Now my makeup style is more everyday makeup and I absolutely love Benetint. My obsession with it has come later in my career. Especially because I'm a mom, I need something easy. I put it on my lips and cheeks, and I feel like I have some life breathed into me.'
Perkins loves an Easter egg moment and wanted to deliver one with the collaboration. 'Of course, I looked at their iconic packaging design,' she says. 'They always have the most amazing packaging, and I was looking closely at how we can incorporate elements of their packaging into the sunglasses. We did that by applying the actual top of the cap design [of Benetint] on the hinge of the glasses. It's not super obvious, but if you're a Benetint fan, you would pick up on it.'
It was also important for Perkins to create a custom sunglasses case. 'Benefit is this really big, bubbly, fun brand, so I wanted the case to represent that and just have this fun, bubbly, cute, rounded design playing off not only their pink tone—because pink is very signature to them—but also the inside of the Raspberry shade,' she says. 'I was trying to mold both of our brands together. We're both individually very bold and fun brands in different ways, and I merged us together so that it feels like us but also like them.'
Perkins with the Benefit Cosmetics Benetint in Dark Cherry Benefit Cosmetics
It wasn't just Benetint that served as Perkins's muse—candy was also an inspiration. 'My whole mood board was candy. It was Jell-O. It sounds weird, but there was a lot of textures. I wanted them to feel like candy; I loved the idea of them feeling ultra glossy.'
The Tints Out! collab is a full circle moment for Perkins, since it's her second time partnering with Benefit. The first time was about nine years ago, when she worked with Benefit on behalf on her personal brand on a successful collaboration on a brow kit. 'They were still to this day one of my favorite brands to work with,' Perkins says. 'They were so inspiring. Their team was amazing. They supported all of my creative ideas, and that's so important as a designer and as a creative to work with someone who you enjoy working with, who aligns with you and then also supports your ideas.'
Though almost a decade has passed between collaborations, that sentiment hasn't changed. 'It was such a collaboration,' Perkins says. 'They are amazing at being so open to every creative idea. Not like I had any restrictions, but I was also open to their feedback and what they wanted. That's what makes a great collaboration, where you both put in your two cents, and maybe they see something I don't see, or vice versa. There was no disagreeing; we both saw eye to eye the whole way through.'