I Won The Beauty Junkee's 5th Ultra Super Mega Giveaway!!!

I rarely join contests online since I'm never lucky enough to win. I even tried to join a blog giveaway wherein the grand prize was an Ipad Air but obviously I didn't win, not even the gift pack consolation prizes (boo!). The first time I won something online was when I became The Beauty Junkee's Commenter of the Month for March. It was such a happy moment for me as I totally wasn't expecting to be picked. Ms. Martha's a very nice beauty blogger who really cherishes her loyal readers. I wanted to meet her personally and get the chance to share stories with her.

Finally met Ms. Martha when I picked up my beauty bag (she's so pretty!)

Fast forward to April, Ms. Martha posted her 5th year anniversary giveaway mechanics. I'm really a sucker for beauty products, and all her prizes were mostly great products from famous beauty brands so I couldn't resist not joining this super generous giveaway. There were a lot of mechanics to follow but I knew that winning this would be super worth it. I allotted 2 hours of my time to finish all of the said mechanics. 

One of the mechanics was to answer this question: What's your most favorite post by The Beauty Junkee? I thought long and hard for the answer as Ms. Martha really has a lot of articles worth reading. After much thought, below is my winning answer to her question. 

My favorite post by The Beauty Junkee would be the Fan Mail Fridays: My Rule When It Comes to Splurging on Material Pleasures. This post really had a big impact on me because I’ve been becoming a bit of a shopaholic lately. After reading your post, it suddenly hit me that I must not forget to save a big portion of what I have earned. This is why your advice, which is the 50/50 Rule, is such a great help for me. I must really thank you Ms. Martha for sharing your financial tips with us. The main purpose why I read your blog is because of your beauty tips and knowledge, but knowing that I also get to read useful life knowledge on how to handle money matters and other topics that help us take better care of our health and body, is more reason for me to be a loyal supporter of your blog. Happy 5th anniversary and more power to The Beauty Junkee!!!

The winners were announced early this June and I wasn't really expecting anything as there were about 300 people who joined and there can only be 12 winners. That's why I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that my name was also included in the list. My heart was pounding wildly the whole time afterwards. I won Beauty Bag 6 which is really great because most the products are stuff that I can use for myself. I also shared some of the prizes to my family members as well. 

I met Ms. Martha last June 22 at High Street's Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. It was great as I got to know her more and I even met the other giveaway winners, and some of them are also bloggers as well. Even Ms. Martha's family and cousin Ruth was there who was super adorable and entertained us the whole time. Ms. Martha really is super nice, and she even treated us to a drink from Coffee Bean (talk about generous!). She's really a beauty blogger to be admired and I'm glad that I found her blog.

Ms. Martha's cousin Ruth (she calls herself Mini Martha sooo cute!)

Here are pics with my fellow winners! Just grabbed these pics from their IG accounts as I wasn't able to take a picture using my camera wahh.

Photo grabbed from Marjorie's IG account

Photo grabbed from becomingsleek's IG account

Here's a breakdown of the prizes that I won. Click Read More to see the items!

Happy Skin's Peppermint Eye Am Here to Stay 24h Gel Pencil Eyeliner

I had been eyeing Happy Skin's Peppermint eyeliner for about a month now ever since its launch. I have always wanted an eyeliner in mint green color but cannot find the exact shade in brands being sold here in Manila. It was a nice surprise for me when Happy Skin suddenly came out with an eyeliner in this color. You would assume that I immediately bought this eyeliner while jumping with glee, credit card in hand to the counter. Well no, that is totally not what happened. What went down was one look at the price made me have second thoughts. Could I possibly spend P499 for an eyeliner in a color that I might not even get to use everyday? I decided to just hold on spending for what might yet be another impulse purchase on my end. 

Okay, after one month of indecisiveness, I finally caved in and bought the darned mint green eyeliner. Well, I couldn't stop thinking about it, and I would always try it on whenever I would pass by a Beauty Bar store. What's the use of stalking it when I can have one for myself right?

I just bought this eyeliner the other day and I can sincerely say that I love it to bits! Here are my thoughts on this wonderful product:

Packaging The eyeliner is a retractable pencil type of product. This is totally convenient as there is no need to sharpen the liner from time to time. As compared to other brands, the pencil is a bit longer than normal. This also means that there is a bit more product here as there is 0.5g of product compared to other brands that only have 0.28g.

Texture As stated in the description, this product is a gel pencil eyeliner. Most gel eyeliners are normally housed in a small round container wherein you would have to use a brush to apply the product to the eyelids. In this case, it's already in pencil form which is quite innovative. You still get the consistency and long wearing effects of a gel liner but it's now easier to use for application. Texture of this product is creamy and it easily dries up in a matter of seconds just as you let it set properly. The color is also very vibrant and applies evenly on the eyelids.

Swatch at the back of my hand

Longevity When it comes to the long-wearing effect of the product, does it really stay true to its description of being a 24hr gel pencil eyeliner? Well, this color is a little hard to pull off when put on top of the eyelids so I put it on my waterline to make my eyes look brighter. However, it didn't stay too long when put on the waterline as it faded away after only 2hrs of wear. So instead, I just put it on my outer lash line as it has the same effect anyway, and it makes the color much more noticeable as well. This way, the color gets to stay on for a longer time. I observed that the color starts to look a bit faded after 5 hours so I just retouch with the eyeliner. 

Applied on my outer lash line

Waterproof? This product is also waterproof as I tested it in running water after I did a swatch at the back of my hand. It's not totally smudge proof though as the color did fade away a little when I accidentally rubbed my eyes.

There you have it, a full-on review of my new favorite eyeliner. It really does brighten my eyes and I do receive a lot of compliments when I have it on. You should try it out as well to see the effect!

Ciao!

Kat <3