I decided back in December to literally chuck my entire bag of drugstore brands and completely replace everything with MAC.
I just always heard that MAC was a good brand and quite frankly, I like being fancy!!
OK I guess it is a little deeper: MAC seems to be a good go to source with every product you can think of. They seem to be innovators and a company interested in keeping a steady stream of new products to feed makeup fiends' addictions. I also like that they have such a wide variety of foundations; when it comes to black skin, most brands either a) carry one or two colors, one of which is inevitably generically called "dark" (*involuntary flashback to generic black Barbie who looked NOTHING like me or anyone I knew...) or B) they don't carry much for black skin at all. Drugstores - oh man, don't get me started on the endless line of "for black women" brands. THey all look so cheesy!!!!
I'm not yet an expert on makeup, though I surpass the average woman walking down the street with a big white stripe drawn under her eyebrows. However, I can say this much: cheap mascara will always clot, cheap e/s is powdery and will get all over your face and cheap lipstick requires about 19 sweeps before you can see it. So point me to the MAC counter!
PS - I have tried some Benefit stuff and though I live for the packaging, I must admit, I'm not necessarily impressed by the colors and actual products. I like Cargo lip duos.