Budget Friendly Everyday Minimalist Look

It's been a long time since I have done a look post -  so I thought I'd share with you my typical makeup style these days - the minimalist look. There's not a plethora of products to layer over, just a slick of foundation to even out my skintone, blush and lipstick for some colour, defined brows, mascara on curled lashes over lined and lightly shaded eyes to widen it up and away I go.

For an everyday look, I don't think you need to spend a small fortune (and some of us don't have the disposal income to do so) so I've decided to showcase how to achieve with basic products that are budget friendly and costs less than $20 per item.

Everyday Minimalist Look
First up, the products I used are below:

Face
Rimmel London Match Perfection in shade #102 Light Nude A$17.95*
Face of Australia loose translucent powder A$11.95
BYS Blush Trio in On the Bright Side A$6.95* (reviewed here)

Eyes 
Canmake four shiny eyes eyeshadow palette in #3 Milk Chocolate (bought online for approx A$13 when our currency was above parity)
Face of Australia Impact Curl mascara A$11.95*
Maybelline Master Precise liquid liner in black A$13.95
Daiso Eyebrow pencil in Dark Brown A$2.80

Lips
Rimmel London Kate Moss lipstick in shade #103 A$11.95

All up, the cosmetics will set you back just over A$90 at full price or cheaper if you can pick up some of the items during sale periods (eg. Priceline currently have 50% off Maybelline products).

Minimalist look

As you can see, that's almost a complete essentials set of  makeup products. The only thing that is missing from this essentials kit is a good concealer which is handy if needing to cover blemishes or dark circles (I've yet to find a good one at a budget price so have not featured it here).

How to achieve the look:

1. Dot foundation of moisturised skin and use brush or fingers to blend product into skin (I always use a synthetic flat top brush to do the job). 
2. Apply one, two or all three shades in the blush duo in a "C" shape from the temples down to cheeks and blend with a makeup brush to achieve a natural flushed look. 
3. Set face makeup with loose powder using a fluffy powder brush (I set  my makeup after blush to lock in the colour for longer as well as helping to blend out any harsh lines)
4. Define the brow with this brow pencil by drawing light quick strokes to fill in sparse brows. Use a brow comb on the other end of the Daiso pencil to soften any harsh edges (a cotton tip is also handy to lighten overly draw brows). 
5. 2. layer on the mid colour from eyeshadow palette onto lids with a flat eyeshadow brush or sponge applicator. 
6. Use a crease brush to apply the deepest shade shadow in the palette 1/4 from the outer corner of eyes and then blend the edges to soften the look (sponge applicators won't work here to give that smooth look).  
7. Line eye with this precision eye liner with sharp tips that give fine defined lines that only liquid liners can provide. 
8. Curl lashes and then apply a coat or two of Impact Curl Macara. 
9. Apply lipstick onto lips directly from tube (or if you want well defined lips, use a lip brush), blot with tissue and reapply to make the colour more lasting. 

So you can see, the eye are only slightly enhanced as I've blended away aot of the colour, the cheeks are lightly flushed and lips are just natural pink shade. I usually carry this look to work as it's easy to put on in the mornings and easy to co-ordinate with any outfit without too much thought involved.

These items are products that I actually use regularly, if not everyday basis and just to create this look either as they are good value, and provide great quality. If you don't mind the non-fancy packing, the smaller selection of colours/shades, then you don't need to spend a fortune to look good.

All the products (except Canmake eyeshadow which is an Japanese cosmetic brand and only available online) can be picked up at accessible stores such as Priceline, Big-W, K-Mart or your local pharmacy.

What look do you wear everyday and how much does the products you use to create the look cost?

Products marked * were provided for editorial consideration. The rest were purchased by yours truly. 

Review & Comparison: Kiss Me Heroine Make Smooth Liquid Eyeliner & Kate Super Sharp Liner

I am terrible at lining eyes. With my shaky hands and unsteady strokes, I make mistakes all the time when trying to draw and line my eyes. Adding to my woes, I have a small eye crease space so I steer clear of thick eye lining techniques as it can unintentionally give me the goth look.

And if that isn't bad enough, my oily eye lids mean no eye makeup stay on for long without massive effort and copious amounts of priming and prepping the skin beforehand so understandably I often forgo lining the eyes to avoid smudges during the day.

Types of eye liners for clean sharp lines

Pencil liners are great for blending out to create the smokey eye look but tend to only give sharp fine lines from freshly sharpened pencil so liquid or gel liners are more dependable for clean sharp lines.

Having narrowed down my choice of liners, I only have the product staying power to contend with when looking for eyeliners. Today I'm sharing with you two products that meets these demanding needs.

Packaging of Kiss Me and Kate by Kanebo eye liners

Kiss Me Heroine Make Smooth Liquid Eyeliner
I came across this brand when I was visiting an Asian beauty boutique in Box Hill, an eastern suburb of Melbourne a few months ago. The sales assistant swore by this product so I decided I must try it myself to see if it meets the needs of my very fussy eyes.

This Japanese brand is one of the most popular drugstore brand in the Asian market and I can see why as the quality rival those of luxury brands. 

• Pen type packaging - it reminds me of a good sharpie felt tip pen. It boast a fine 0.1mm tapered felt tip, giving you alot of control and is capable of drawing medium or very fine lines depending on the pressure and angle you apply it against your skin when drawing. 
• Beautiful rich black colour - just the deepest opaque black shade you want from your everyday eye liner and it only fades slightly after 8 hours. 
• The ink flow beautifully out of this pencil and makes drawing lines effortless - it glides on smoothly with no bleeding on the sides and even improved my clumsy drawing skills and is practically idiot proof - I love it alone for making me look like I'm a pro with lining eyes meaning that I can now master drawing wings and flicks with the fine tips - see exhibit below for proof. 
• It promises tear-proof, sweat-proof, oil-proof stay-put colour once dry and I'm happy to report that it delivers on all these promises. I don't get any smudging on it when lining the top lids and only the slightest smear after a good 3 hours when I do use it to tightlining work from my watery eyes (i.e line the water line or inner rims of the eye). If you don't have watery eyes, you will have no smudging problems with this product at all. 
• Comes off fairly easily with eye makeup remover.

Lined eye using Kiss Me Heroine Make smooth liquid liner - check out fine flick at the end

Kate by Kanebo Super Sharp Liner

Kate is mid range Japanese cosmetic brand from Kanebo who is reowned for his leading luxurious skincare products. I was introduced to this liner over a year ago by a girlfriend who had lived in Japan for over 3 years and is equally obsessive at finding the best beauty products.

• This is another pen type ultra fine liner with also with a 0.1mm felt tip (are you sensing a theme here?) so is great for any detail work you want to do on your eyes/face. Flicks at the end of eyes are also very easy to control with this pen liner. 
• The ink flow of this liquid liner can be a bit finicky at times and needs going over your strokes a few times to even out the thickness of the lines and achieve good opacity sometimes but thankfully the fine lines means multiple layering doesn't add too much thickness and also helps to deepen the colour. 
• The colour is a deep black shade but I find that by the end of the 10 hour day, it does fade to a dark grey shade so the formula is less superior to Kiss Me's . 
• Is also non-bleeding, smudge-proof and tear-proof and stood up well against the majority of liquid liners out in the market. I find it again to not be as good in weathering my oily lids as Kiss Me's at the end a long day. It stood up well if you only need it to stay on your eyes for 5-6 hours. 
• Comes of easily with eye makeup remover.

Comparison of both liners - look how fine the tips are

Final thoughts
I love both liquid liners and use them both interchangeably depending on how long I need to have my makeup on for. I find that the tip of the Kate eyeliner is less firm than the Kiss Me one, so can be slightly harder to use as I don't have a steady hand. For the working day, Kiss Me is the fail-safe option and for a night out, I'd happy draw away with Kate.

Is Kiss Me Heroine Makes' eye liner worthy of HG status? I think so as I've tried many liquid liners over the years and most fall short of the staying power or ease of application. It is now my benchmark liner when comparing all other liquid eye liners and at such an affordable option, I can't recommend this product enough.

Kiss Me Heroine Make Smooth Liquid Liner 0.4ml RRP US$12 at Sasa.com | ~A$25 locally at Asian beauty boutiques
Kate Super Sharp liner 0.7ml RRP US$12 at Cosme De | ~A$25 locally at Asian beauty boutiques