Sleek I Divine Jewels Eyeshadow Palette

Continuing the love for Sleek, I thought I’d show you the second palette I picked up at the weekend. This one is called Jewels for its rich, deep colours.

As far as I can find out about this palette, it was released at the end of last year along with Acid. For some reason my local Superdrug only just decided to stock Acid within the last month, but I’ve still not seen this one. I picked this one up from a larger city store and I might go as far as to say I like it even more than Storm! While that palettes great, it has a lot of neutral colours you can wear on the lid, and much darker colours for the outer corner and the crease. The Jewels palette makes up for what it lacks, with much bolder colours you can work with to create a brighter look as dramatic as you feel.

None of the colours are duped from Storm, the champagne colour in this looks very similar but it’s a little darker, and the black is even blacker in this palette too! The consistency of the shadows is pretty much the same shimmery, pearlescent effect, with no matte colours besides black. The mint green is more sheer, as is the silver and gold. Where the other colours have an iridescent, almost two tone effect, these give just a sheer wash of one colour, they’re just as pretty though. I wouldn’t say buy this instead of Storm, but certainly alongside it to create a wider variety of looks. Swatches:

Make-up Product of the Month - June: Sleek Ink Pots

Even though I’m not 100% happy with this product, I’ve still decided to feature it as my product of the month. Firstly there aren’t many drugstore brands that actually make their own gel liners so the fact that Sleek do one at all is pretty good, but to be able to compare it to MAC is even better.
Black eyeliner is pretty much a staple item with me. I think I used to overdo it when I was younger, but I’d like to think I’ve mastered the art of applying it now. Liquid eyeliner, namely the Loreal Superliner is one of my top ones, but I am trying hard to replace it with gel liners after hearing such great things all over the magazines and beauty television programmes. The reason why it’s supposed to be much better than liquid is that you can still create quite an intense line but it doesn’t look overdone, and much more natural compared to liquid. Admittedly liquid liner can look a little cakey. Gel liner is also recommended for older women because it’s a more toned down way to wear it. My general opinion of it is that it’s the hardest to master, and the messiest, definitely not for if you’re in a rush as you need an eyeliner brush to apply it, but once you get the hang of it, it can really set your makeup to create a flawless finished look. When I decided to venture over to gel liner territory, I started with MAC’s Fluidline because when can you go wrong with MAC? I was happy with it, but wanted more colours to create different looks. At close to £11 for 3g these are a bit too expensive to buy just to play around with colour. I was pleased to find that one of my favourite budget friendly cosmetic brands had their own version. Under £4 for 4g of product!

The range of colours available is not bad at all, and although I didn’t like all of the colours, I think there’s a colour there for everybody. My favourites were Purple Rain, an aubergine and Stone Cold a navy/silver blue. I plumped for Purple Rain, wanting to give it a try before I purchase any more.
The testers in the shop had been seriously manhandled so were pretty scutty and dried up. I assumed my untouched version would not be as dry. I was a little disappointed at first to be honest. The brush that came with it is perfect for picking up product but hopeless at applying it so was soon discarded. I used my MAC 263 which works fabulously with Fluidline, but not so well with Sleek inkpots. I had to warm this product a little before I could use it more effectively with my eyeliner brush. After a few uses, the product does appear to be loosening up and gradually getting easier to use. Perhaps it is just the top layer of product that’s a little on the hard side. The quality of the liner is still very good, once it’s warmed up, it’s much easier to work with and has great staying power, it lasts all day with no smudging. So I still wanted to rate this highly and call this my make-up product of the month because considering this is nearly a third of the price of the MAC liners, I can forgive it for being a bit on the hard side.

Sleek Eye Shadow Palette Review

Yesterday I came across this eye-shadow palette. It's available from Superdrug in the UK and is by a brand called Sleek. I think the palettes were released a while ago but not that easy to get hold of since not all Superdrugs stock them. There's 3 different palettes to choose from, Original, Chaos and the one I bought, called Storm. I chose this one because I thought there was a great range of colours in there, plenty of neutrals, and a few bolder colours, but overall very wearable.

Having got it home and been able to try out the colours on my eyes, I'm very impressed with the quality. I tried the testers in the store and they felt very smooth and looked richly pigmented. Over a primer, they apply very easily, blend well and are very long lasting!
The first one and the fourth one along are lovely golden colours that will look great as a lid colour. The second one I've used as a highlight colour, it's probably the only colour suitable for a highlighter as the rest are too dark. Most are shimmer eyeshadows, with the exception of three of them, the third one on the top picture, and the first two on the picture below. The black eyeshadow is noticeably pigmented, usually you don't get a very good colour pay-off with black, they can be quite grey-ish, but this is very impressive, a great eyeshadow for the outer corner and under the eyes for a smokey evening look.

I would definitely recommend purchasing this palette, the colours are quite unusual, and it might be unlikely you owned a dupe of the bolder colours. The browney-pink shadow in the top right corner, and the denim colour on the bottom row second in are the two stand out colours for me. I hope to make some fun looks from this palette, and am tempted to buy the others, at only £4.87, can't really resist them! And the good news is, if they're not available in your nearest Superdrug, check on their website to see if they will be soon. This summer Sleek will be expanding and will appear in a further 132 stores. Has anyone tried these before, and how do you rate them?