Battle of the Budget Liquid Liner, ft. Rimmel, Essence and Australis!

Essence I Love Punk jumbo eyeliner pen ($4.50), Rimmel Scandaleyes Precision Micro eyeliner ($10.76),  Australis Tiny Tip eyeliner ($12.95)

I'm a big fan of liquid liner. For me, it's the easiest way to get a good winged liner look.  I would prefer gel, as it always seems to last longer, but it's easier for me to use a pen. I had a good thing going with the Covergirl Line Exact liquid liner, but it ran out while I was in England. And they don't sell Covergirl there. So I decided to try something new, and I ended up walking out of Boots with the Rimmel Scandaleyes precision Micro Liner after testing just about every single pen eyeliner in the shop. Since then decided I needed a thicker one and ended up at the Essence stand, and I managed to win an Australis liquid eyeliner in a twitter comp.

May Favourites

It's been a while since I've done a monthly favourites post! So here you go!

April Favourites!

This month I found it really hard to stick to 5 products, because I've been loving using so many products this month. So I cheated a little bit, and found 5 groups of products, hehe. I know a lot of these products are really new, but they're so great they've definitely earn their place in this list.

$10 haul!!

I mentioned in my last wish list that I just really needed to spend some money! It's been a long time since I bought anything I didn't need that was beauty related, so I was getting a bit itchy to spend mney. So I decided to set myself a budget of $10, and head down to Priceline during my lunch break. I knew it wasn't going to get me much and I was likely going to be restricted to Essence, but I just needed some new makeup to play with!I ended up getting 3 new things to play with! Rimmel I love Lasting Finish in Black Cherries, Essence Party All Night single eyeshadow and Stay All Day Long Lasting Eyeshadow in For Fairies. I ended up spending a little over my budget, with all 3 coming to $10.75.  I was expecting it to be a little bit more, but turns out the Stay All Day eyeshadow was only $2.75! Just incase you've been living under a rock they and many other great Essence products are being discontinued, so if you want to grab one you better hurry as my Priceline was running low!

What I wore: Confetti dress

excuse the duck face

I bought this dress towards the end of last year off Modcloth and I really love it. It was reduced from like $90, and I was contemplating buying it at full price, but then it went on sale for half price! I had to get it then, but left it too late and they had sold out of my size. Just when I was about to order it a size down, my size came back on sale! Fate! It is a little frumpy, the bust is huuuge! I could probably get it tailored but I don't really mind. Possibly the best thing about it, after the awesome print that makes me think of confetti, is that it has pockets! It's still been reasonably warm here. We had a nice week where it was really cool, but now it's hot again. I really really cant wait for the weather to cool down more so I can start wearing tights and cardigans again (I bought some lovely scarfs and a granny jumper that reminds me of Grifindor from work recently and I can't wait to be able to wear them!).

Products:

Nude by Nature Undercover Airbrush Mineral Primer

Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in 51

Rimmel Stay Matte powder in Peach Glow

Essence Renesmee Red Blush

MUA Shimmer Kisses Bronzer

MUA Pro-Brow eyebrow kit

L'Oreal Color Infallible Tender Caramel

MUA Undressed palette shade 1 and 4

MUA single matte shadow shade 19

Revlon Photoready 3D volume Mascara

Ulta3 Lipliner in Honey Bun

MAC Angel

This is basically what I've been doing with my face lately! Neutral eyes and lip, no liner, bronzer. I dug Tender Caramel out recently because for some reason I didn't get much use from it after i bought it and I've been loving it lately! Same goes for the Revlon 3D volume mascara, for some reason it sat in my draw unloved... but it gives amazing length (not so sure about volume though). The formula is a little wet and I've managed to poke my eye with it more than once, so it took a little to warm up to it. I've also dug out my Essence Renesmee Red blush from the Breaking Dawn Pt. 2 collection, which I hid because it's scary lookin'. Candice from YouReview inspired me to give it another go after reading this post and I've been applying it with a very light hand and we've been getting along ever since. The Rimmel Stay Matte is a new purchase and so far, so good!

Today I'm going to my university graduation! 3 years of hard work (ok, just work) and I get a degree! Yipee!

What have you been wearing a lot lately?

Win the MUA shimmer kisses bronzer and undressed palette in my giveaway!

Sailor Klerr's 1st Giveaway! Closed!

Today I thought I'd do something a little different to my usual Monday NOTD and finally post my giveaway! I've had this in the works for a while now :)

When I started blogging I really didn't expect anyone to even read my posts! It was just something to do with my spare time (ok, to procrastinate from doing uni work). I've really enjoyed blogging and I want to give something back to my lovely readers by hosting a giveaway.

Unfortunately this giveaway will only be open to Australian residents (sorry!)

Prizes up for grabs! (click links for reviews/swatches of products)

MUA Undressed, Glitterball and Pretty Pastels palettes

MUA Lipstick in Juicy

MUA Shimmer Kisses Bronzer

Essence Cherry Girl Blush Asian Sensation

Face of Australia Budge-Proof Gel Eyeliner in Blackest Black

Australis Lick the Icing lipstick

Surprise nail polishes! I'll buy these based on polishes the winner wants/doesn't have.

Almost all of these products were purchased with my own money - Others are regifted because I have doubles and I want my spares to go to people who really want them or haven't used them before (I though I'd be truthful here, I'm really not trying to be stingy but I do want these items to go to good homes)

How to enter:

You need to follow via GFC OR Bloglovin' and comment below, including the name you follow under, email address and tell me what posts you like seeing here the most in your comment! (3 entries)

Earn extra entries (include what name you follow under and blog address in your comment):
 Follow on twitter: @_klerr (1 entry)
Follow on instagram: @klerr (1 entry)
Add a link to my giveaway on your sidebar using picture above (3 entries!)

Entries close exactly 1 month from today (11th April). The winner will be drawn using random.org, and announced and notified soon after.

Good Luck!!

February Favourites

This month seems to have flown by! But doesn't every month? For some reason, not many products really stood out for me. For some reason, not purposefully, I ended up using a lot of my stash. I did manage to find 5 products that I really enjoyed using, or used frequently.

My Essence Blushes

I thought now I own two of these blushes now that it's time to do a little review of them. These are the only Essence blushes I've tried, and they're both limited edition (I'm becoming a sucker for LE products, damn).

My first was from the Breaking Dawn pt 2 collection, called Remesmee red. I never got around to reviewing it at the time, as when I bought it I kind of got a bit scared of it and put it at the back of my draw. It's a really bright, matte red, which I haven't really had much use for (because I'm too scared to use it, haha). I find this blush has very good colour payoff, so you really need to use a light hand to apply it, otherwise you'll end up looking like a clown! It is a lovely colour though, and it's uniqueness (especially compared to a lot of other 'drugstore' blushes) is what drew me to buy it in the first place, and I'm sure when I get the hang of applying it lightly I'll use it a lot more.

My second is from the current Cherry Blossom Girl Collection in Asian Sensation. I bought this almost as soon as I heard about it, as I'd been wanting to get a coraly blush for some time. It's a lovely peachy colour with a lighter and a darker section, which look great used separately - as a highlighter using the lighter shade or darker blush, or swirled together. I've used this a few time since I bought it, and I prefer to use them together. This blush is quite sheer (and a tad chalky) and probably not the blush to get if you want strong colour, but it does give your cheeks a lovely glow which I really like.

l-r (swatches in shade) Renesmee Red, Darker half of Asian Sensation, Lighter half, and blended.

Asian Sensation in the sun

Renesmee Red in the sun

Asian Sensation on the left and Renesmee Red on the right, taken in the sun.

Asian Sensation taken in the shade with flash

Renesmee Red taken in the shade with flash

What I won: Sweetaholic Beauty's Christmas Giveaway

I recently won my second ever blog giveaway, which was Jasmine from Sweetaholic Beauty's Surprise Christmas giveaway! The prizes were a surprise up until the winners were announced which was exciting. She's also hosting a Valentines Day blog swap, so head over and check out her blog if you're interested (blog swaps are always super fun!).

Here's what I won - I've also managed to try a few of these things out already!

MUA Undressed: I already have this palette and love it! I'm still undecided if I should keep this as a backup or give it to someone (I love giving people products that I love). I'm going to the UK at the end of May and my palette will probably last till then. See swatches here.

Essence quattro eyeshadow: In the picture on Jasmine's blog it looked like the quad I already had from Essence, but I was pleased to find it was different! This is a grey-toned neutral palette with 2 matte - the lighter shades, and 2 slightly shimmery shades - the darker shades (The shimmer didn't come up in either photo, sorry) . I love my other quad so this will definitely get a lot of use.

Lush Snow Fairy: I wanted to try this but never got around to getting it (I never go into the City where our only Lush store is), so I'm so pleased to get a chance to try it. It smells great, like the bubble gum lip scrub. The sweet smell means it's not something that you could use daily, and it leaves a really nice scent on your skin which isn't as sweet as from the bottle. A little bit of this also goes a long way.

Costal Scents Kabuki Brush: Yay! I need a new kabuki brush! This one is so soft, and it's PINK!

Face of Australia Once in a Blue Moon polish: This is another product I already own and love. Again, I may keep it as a backup (although I doubt I'll ever finish my first one because I have so many polishes), or give it away to share the love. See NOTD with this polish here.

Daiso Body Wash Mitten: I've been meaning to get something like this for a while so it's great I won it. It's quite soft so it'll be ok to use regularly.

Lovisa ring: This was the surprise Jasmine mentioned that she didn't show when she announced the winners. This isn't the kind of thing I'd usually wear but I can see it growing on me.

Montagne Jeunesse Very Berry face mask: This is a moisturising and cleansing mask with blueberries and cranberries. I've been meaning to try one of these masks and it's great this is a moisturising one as I have very dry skin. I also love cranberry scented things at the moment!

Daiso false eyelashes: I've only used false lashes once before and we didn't really get along (this was many years ago), so it will be interesting to see if I can get them to work this time around.

Accidental Revlon haul.

I swear when I woke up today, I did not have the intention of buying so much. All I wanted was to go into Myer and buy a gift for someone (ok, and get the GWP), and go into Priceline just to look at the Revlon kissable balm stains. I also got my Priceline online purchase from Tuesday's click frenzy in the mail too (I got on at 8am to check it out. So glad I did). This isn't even all of it, because I was buying gifts for people too (which I wont include, just in case).

Firstly in Myer I got Revlon's Silver Dollar nail polish. I was a bit bummed about paying full price for this, but I needed to buy something small to get the free gift and I don't have a colour like this yet.  The gwp contains a clutch, colorstay nail polish in Pale Cashmere, colorstay eyeshadow quad in Adventurous, colorburst lip butter in Sugar Plum, photoready 3D volume mascara and photoready perfecting primer. I can't wait to use all of these!!

Then I went into Priceline. Always a bad choice when you don't have the intention of buying anything! They have a sale at the moment for 2 for 1 on Revlon products, so I had to buy the balm stains. I knew I wanted romantic, but I ended up not being able to pick a pink so I ended up just grabbing any of them and picked lovesick. I also got Essence quattro in To Die For (as I haven't tried their eyeshadows yet, and it's also the name of a really great song by Tonight Alive!) and a travel size St. Ives invigorating apricot scrub.

From the click frenzy sale I scored a Revlon colorburst lip butter in Peach Parfait for 40% off for myself (I got a few other things for gifts). They threw in some samples of Simple cleansing facial wipes and Sukin facial moisturiser (I've used this before and think it's great) and their intensive firming serum which was a great surprise!

I'm so excited to try all these products. I don't own any Revlon products apart from one lip butter I bought recently, so I'm excited to have all these products to try! Hopefully now these means I can ease off buying things for myself until at least after Christmas.

New lip products

(l-r) Australis colour inject mineral lipstick in Honky Tonk, Face of Australia lip quench in Lychee Crush and Essence stay with me lasting lipgloss in Me and My Ice Cream.

As you can see from my recent lipstick wishlist post, I've been wanting to try honky tonk and lychee crush. I managed to get honky tonk during the priceline 20% off sale, and, after a lot of searching, I found Lychee Crush at Big W. Honky Tonk is such a nice coraly pink colour, and it's not too in your face so it's good for every day wear. Unfortunately it doesn't last very long, only a couple of hours, and isn't so great for dry lips. I don't really need to talk about Lychee Crush, seeing as everyone ever already owns it, but I am super happy with it. I haven't actually bought a lipgloss in ages. I had some when I was in high school, and since then I've always thought of them as messy and sticky (of course because I used to buy cheeeeap brands, and back then they were horrible). This one is just the right about of glossy and not too sticky. It also has a really nice colour and is good for putting over pinky lipsticks or just by itself. I especially liked how cheap it was (less than $5!).

Australis honky tonk.

Face of Australia Lychee Crush

Essence me & my ice cream.

(l-r) honky tonk, lychee crush and me & my ice cream.

Wish list: Blush

1. Benefit Hervana face powder   2. Benefit ChaCha tint lip & cheek stain
   3. Australis High Lights mineral face highligher in Pearl
4. Essence Breaking Dawn pt 2 Blush in Renesmee Red   5. Bourjois little round pot blush in Rose D'or.

So I might want to buy all of Benefit's box o' powders, but that would be silly, right? Hervana looks like the prettiest to me, and when I do a Benefit order in the near future this will be the first thing in my cart. I also love the colour of ChaCha Tint. I'm totally digging coral right now. But I'm not sure how great I'd go at using a cheek stain so I'll just stick to powders for now. I blogged recently about the Australis High Lights mineral face highlighter I won in gold recently, and this is their other shade. Pearl is a lighter, pink colour which I think would suit me a lot better (or at least I would feel more comfortable using). The essence blush is from their Breaking Dawn pt 2 collection and is called Renesmee Red. I think the only reason I want this (and pretty much the entire collection) is because it's Twilight and I used to be a massive fan of Twilight (ok, kinda still am a little...). Regardless, this blush looks a little dark and scary but I will probably end up buying it (and the entire collection) anyway. I'll make sure I give a review when I do! I've heard so many good things about Bourjois blushes but I am yet to buy one for myself and try it out. There are so many shades it's hard to pick a favourite but rose d'or looks like a really nice light pink.

I would also like to add that Rimmel's wake me up instant radiance shimmer touch in peach glow is another illuminator I'd like to try. It's such a pretty colour, but it's a little too close to my Nude by Nature illuminator that it's not worth the purchase. Also, I can't seem to find a picture of that shade on the internet! What's with that? I think it's the nicest of the 4 available shades.