Sleek Oh So Special and Curacao Palettes

I bought these palettes together so I might as well write a joint post about them. Sleek you've done it again. Just when I thought there were no more colour combinations that I needed, you brought these two into my collection. I don't really think I needed these, but I am a make-up addict, I am weak, and I caved.


This is Oh So Special, the palette I have been waiting for. A gorgeous collection of neutrals. There is not a skin tone, eye colour, age range etc etc that could not find a colour combination in this palette. It's suitable for day or night although I have only ventured towards the left hand side of the palette rather than the right as I've only used this for day time. My favourite lid colours are the second from the left, top and bottom colours, they're called Organza and Gateau, both quite similar rose gold shades.

I think out of all the palettes I own, this will become my most used as it is so versatile. I suppose I do still have a criticism of this as a neutrals palette however. For me there's a couple of shades that are just a bit out of place in this palette, Ribbon and Pamper. Ribbon is a gorgeous colour but not entirely in keeping with the rest of the palette, it does work well but I think I would have replaced it with a colour more like MAC's Retrospeck. Pamper is a pretty colour too but it's just neither here nor there as a lid, crease or brow bone colour, and I think I will wear it the least. What would have made this palette perfect is another shade or two for the crease (Boxed is perfect for this) and another lid colour. The four shades on the right side are all suitable as outer corner colours, when a couple would have been enough. This is of course me being fussy and dreaming up my perfect Sleek palette, one day I'm sure they'll nail it and bring out a palette that has it all.

I also happened to find the Curacao palette, which I really hadn't seen anything of beforehand. This is from the Caribbean collection and prior to this I had only seen the blusher and pout polish from this same collection. This reminds me a lot of the Circus palette which was also limited edition, the colours are very bright and because they are so pigmented, are true to the colour you see in the palette.

This is a good palette to buy if you're a green eyeshadow lover, there's 5 shades in there that are in green or aqua family. Apart from those, it might be difficult to pick out a few shades to wear together but it's a nice palette to have to choose one colour and make that your focus, mixing it with more wearable shades from elsewhere.

Merry Christmas and a Giveaway!

It really doesn't seem that long ago since I did my 100 followers giveaway. I decided to do another since reaching 250 followers seems like a big milestone to me. Since I have been all over the Sleek Sparkle palette since it's release, and since it's Christmas time, I think a Sparkle palette is the perfect giveaway gift (sorry if you have it already!) so here's an opportunity to get hold of one.

I wrote a previous post about this palette and another post with a FOTD using the palette which you can check out if you want to see how pigmented and wonderful the colours are.

The giveaway is international so wherever you are in the world I will post it to you! The only requirement I ask is that you are over 18 years old, or if younger, you have parental permission to enter the giveaway. You must be willing to provide an address I can post the palette to via email.

Since this is a followers giveaway, you obviously have to be following my blog. To enter, please leave a comment below, and keeping it Christmassy, I want to know:

What is the thing you love most about Christmas time?

The winner will be picked randomly. For an additional entry to the contest and therefore a greater chance of winning, you may post a link to my giveaway on your own blog.

The giveaway will be open for one week, so you have until 31st December 2010, 17:00 GMT to leave your comment. Good luck and Merry Christmas!

Beauty finds of the month so far

I am trying to complete my MAC palette, and getting there slowly. MAC shadows are a little pricey so I’m quite happy to fill just the one palette with colours for everyday wear and I’m choosing colours that I know I will wear frequently and not get bored of. The palettes are also useful for travel as it’s more convenient to have all my shadows in one place. Three of the shadows I chose I’ve seen blogged about a lot, and really felt these colours were staples that I had to have in my collection, they are: All That Glitters, Satin Taupe and Shroom. Shroom I think is the perfect highlight colour, it brightens your eyes without being too brassy like a pure white eyeshadow. My fourth choice was close to being Carbon which I consider another staple colour, but I noticed a close shade to this called Typographic. I think Carbon is such a popular shade as it’s possibly MAC’s darkest, closest to black shade. However, I think for a lot of amateurs like myself, black is not a very forgiving colour and unless applied flawlessly can really make your eyes look smaller. After swatching Typographic, which looks incredibly similar to Carbon on first glance, I could see that this was a more muted version of the colour, more of a dusky grey colour, and the consistency was more concentrated yet blendible, a combination I thought would work well for me, so I chose this as the darkest colour in my palette.

Also in the picture is the GOSH Extreme Art eyeliner. I was keen to try this out after being impressed with their various pencil eyeliners, and have not been let down by this. I like GOSH’s colour collection, although it’s not as big as I would like, I feel like they could provide a few more experimental colours, I do like the majority of colours there are to choose from. Some are quite different and might be colours I would usually avoid, for example I’m not a great lover of blue on my eyes, but in the form of a quick line near the lashes, I think it’s possible to be more daring and try out colours you’re afraid of or not used to. I do slightly wish GOSH would work on improving the brush because I don’t find it very user friendly. I have become accustomed to Loreal’s Superliner which as well as being of great quality, is honestly the easiest liquid eyeliners to apply I’ve ever used. So comparing the two, I find the shape of the applicator quite difficult to apply, it’s the same thickness from root to tip, not gradiated like the Loreal liner. I also find that it picks up slightly too much liner so I find myself getting eyeliner in places where it shouldn’t be like on my eyelashes. Hopefully with practice I will learn a better technique in order not to do this.

The other MAC product featured here is High Tea lipstick which I haven’t seemed to put down this month so I will write a little more on that in another post and include a few extra pictures. Sorry the picture quality is not great, the days are getting shorter now we’re getting closer to winter and the lighting once I’m home from work is not great.

Onto my latest hair product purchase, and right now I’m loving this straightening spray which bizarrely, (I found) is a Morrison’s own brand product. I will give a full review of this product very soon, but for now just want to say I’ve been pleasantly surprised by this product, quite smug in knowing I only paid £1 for it! It’s formulated with vitamin B5 which is a key ingredient in rival brands and seems to be giving my dry, lacklustre blonde locks more of a shine than it used to have, so I'll be updating with a full review of this product very soon.

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:

Sleek I Divine Acid Eyeshadow Palette

Whilst perusing the isles of Superdrug, I also noticed Sleek had a new eyeshadow I Divine palette. This is definitely not one for the faint hearted, I saw it (from a mile away), and approached with caution. These are some shocking colours!
I think because I’m aware of just how pigmented and vibrant Sleek eyeshadow turns out on the skin, I saw these and knew that the colour I saw in the palette would be the colour on my eyelid, and I’m not sure I’m ready for fluorescent eyelids. So I didn’t buy it, but now I’m left wondering about it, because whether I like it or not neon is a trend that doesn't seem to be disappearing as quickly as maybe I'd like it to. Maybe I could make neon green work for me somehow. Has/would anyone try this palette? Is this one to be left for the teens, or do I need to be more openminded?!

EDIT: I am currently selling a Sleek Acid and Graphite palette on ebay, they are brand new in box and I'm shipping internationally! Ends 13 December 2009.

Eye of the Day - black and gold

I'm not sure what's going on with the weather, London looked incredibly murky today compared to the past week. I haven't really been wearing a lot of makeup recently, because it's been so hot, but I took advantage of not feeling like my face would melt today if I put any makeup on and resorted to this look which I love.

It is a little dramatic I suppose, as in I normally wear this on an evening, but you know, it's Friday so why not. I think black and gold together looks stunning, quite a contrast between the two but because they're neutral they don't clash. I used shadow only from the Sleek palette I previously wrote about, and only used a tiny amount of shadow over primer which gives you an indication of just how pigmented they are. The black especially is very impressive, I think it's hard to find a black that gives a good colour pay off but I literally touched the brush into the black shadow and it gave more than enough product.