Pantone Colour of the Year 2015 Marsala: Shopping My Makeup Stash

Marsala is Pantone's Colour of the Year 2015, and unlike some previous years' Colour of the Years, I'm actually pretty excited for this, because as a makeup junkie, I feel like Marsala is pretty versatile on lips and cheeks. (I wouldn't be keen to wear it on my eyes, though.) Naturally, you can expect lots of commercialization with the Colour of the Year - like the Sephora X Pantone collections, and to be honest, the whole "Colour of the Year" thing always feels a bit enforced/commercialized to me - for one, the colour of the year is a decision that is made a year in advance by a small number of people in the industry, as Wiki helpfully points out: "Twice a year the company hosts...a secret meeting of representatives from various nations' color standards groups. After two days of presentations and debate, they choose a color for the following year...the color for summer 2013 was chosen in London in the spring of 2012." So yes, for some reason, people we don't know choose a colour for us a year in advance, and deem it the "Colour of the Year". It sounds arbitrary and a tad bizarre to me, but there it is.

My Marsala-ish coloured makeup stash!

At least, this year's Colour of the Year looks pretty good to me. Unliek 2013's Emerald, which I found a tad unwearable makeup-wise (emerald eyes just aren't my thing, let alone lips or cheeks, although I did rock an Emerald eye look in 2013!), and 2014's Radiant Orchid, which I liked personally but can imagine how some people with warmer skintones might find unwearable, Marsala looks pretty universally flattering, and actually wearable when it comes to makeup.

The closest things I have to Pantone's 2015 Colour of the Year

I'm definitely eyeing some of the items in the Sephora X Pantone collection this year, but I thought, as an excercise in frugality (don't look at me like you're not convinced - I said frugality, not futility!), I should attempt to dig through my makeup stash to see what Marsala-coloured products I already have in my stash, to see whether I am already all up to my eyes in Marsala products, or whether I still have room for a few more!

Top 10 Most Popular Blog Posts of 2013, and 3 Honourable Mentions

Now that it's almost the end of 2013, I thought it might be good to do a recap of some of the most popular posts from the year. Some of the results are expected, some were unexpected, meaning that when I wrote them, I didn't think too much about it - it was just a post I threw together that surprisingly did well among my readers.

I've chosen the top 10 by raw number of blogpost views, because it's the simplest way to go about doing things, but I feel like this method invariably leaves out posts that are popular but were written at the end of the year, or posts (like posts on classic topics like skincare, foundation, etc) that may not garner as many initial views, but tend to do very well over a longer period of time. I tend to think of these as "evergreen" versus "trend" posts, e.g. a post on sunscreen, versus, say, a post on MAC's latest collection. But regardless, every method has its flaws or is just too much work, so I'm just going to roll with the raw views. (As an aside, I briefly thought of roughly pro-rating the number of views to length of time post was up, but that seemed quite problematic because the pro-rating wouldn't be linear for all posts, and assigning linear vs non-linear pro-rating would be an on arbitrary basis, and even with pro-rating, it's impossible to predict posts with long viewership tails anyway.)

Alright, without further ado, let's do a quick recap of what you guys read in 2013!

Quick Look: Sleek Lip4 Palettes (Lip⁴, Really) in Ballet and Siren

Sleek has released the Lip4 (it's really Lip⁴, meaning Lip Cubed, but Lip4 seems easier to type, heh) Palettes, and because I've been busy in real life (which you know, I have, because I can't exactly survive solely on the light and heat emanating from my laptop), I've been kinda...sitting on these. No excuses, I know, but I hope some pretty Lip⁴ Palette photos and my first thoughts of them will be sufficient until I swatch these babies for you! I have Ballet and Siren here with me, and man, are these gorgeous looking!


Sleek Lip⁴ Palettes - L: Siren, R: Ballet

Sleek Haul: Mostly Blushes and one Eye Dust!

I hauled from the Sleek Makeup website sometime back, and now I'm the proud mama of four Sleek blushes and one Eye Dust! I'm pretty excited! I actually really liked ordering from the Sleek website, the swatches provided on skin really helped to visualize the products (although there are already tons of Sleek swatches out there, including mine). But it was the delivery that was a little bit problematic. I have no idea what went wrong, but the order had to be shipped out three times before it got to me. Fortunately I was third time lucky! But all this was back at the end of last year, so I hoped whatever caused that snafu has been cleaned up.


Anyway, let's get to the haul. My previous experiences with Sleek blushes have all been good, so I was really very excited to get ahold of these babies! I'm just going to spend some time drooling over these now, because they just look so gorgeous. The photos below are provided for you to join in the gratituous drooling! Take that, overly-expensive, crappy makeup! Sleek's got your ass kicked!

Emerald Colour of The Year Eye Look (And Random Thoughts on this Colour of the Year Thing)

So, Emerald has been officially declared the colour of the year for 2013. Speaking of which, who on earth decides these things? Fortunately Wiki has the answer: "Twice a year the company hosts...a secret meeting of representatives from various nations' color standards groups. After two days of presentations and debate, they choose a color for the following year...the color for summer 2013 was chosen in London in the spring of 2012." So I guess this means they chose a colour for the future nearly a year before it has arrived, LOL.

Regardless, companies are always quick to jump on the Colour of the Year bandwagon - Sephora's contract with Pantone means they release a bunch of "Sephora x Pantone Colour of the Year" makeup every year. And the fashion brands and houses? They're all over this like white on rice. I always thought fashion involved creativity, but seems like every year these companies just try to put out different iterations on the same old trends. (That said, I still love peplum. That frilly thingy in front hides my tummy so well.) Just look at my artfully-created below diagram (yay for fiddling around teh interwebz!), and you will know what I mean.

Sleek Showstoppers Palette: Swatches and Review

Yes it is indeed another Sleek Makeup Palette! I love their palettes, so this is a welcome addition to my growing collection of Sleek palettes! This time, the palette is the Showstoppers Palette, and it is indeed an apt homage to all the stunning palettes the UK-based drugstore brand has put out.


The palette is perhaps one of my favourites so far, in terms of colour selection. While some of the earlier Sleek Makeup palettes tended to be rather one-note (e.g. all brights, all neutrals, or almost all dark shades, and so on), I do think Sleek Makeup has gotten better at curating the colours of the palettes they put out. This is definitely a good palette, with multiple colour bases covered - there's everything from sultry purples to lovely browns, to stormy, smokey blues and greys, and even a couple of rust-inspired reddish brown and coral shades. There are also highlight and lid shades to complete the palette. There aren't any neon shades, so excepting that colour family, I think we're mostly covered here.

Sleek Lagoon Eyeshadow Palette: Aqua Collection

Sleek Makeup has put out yet another awesomely cool collection, the Aqua Collection, and with it comes another i-Divine Eyeshadow Palette, the Lagoon Eyeshadow Palette. And as the name suggests, this is a palette comprised of aquatic shades of blue and green, with dashes of compmlementary purple and neutrals, along with a couple of bright shades to spice up the entire palette. Take a look!



I don't know about you, but this colour palette is definitely evocative of the poolside for me! The watery shades, contrasted with a couple of brights, reminds me of summery weekends by the poolside - a hot day, but a cool pool. Even the box is pretty cool and aquatic looking. Loves it!


The colour names for each individual shade are listed along with the box. The white shade is Oyster (in keeping with the aquatic theme). Some of the names are super cute - Sassea and Ariel are my favourite shade names.


And, for your viewing pleasure, a close-up of the Sleek Lagoon Palette, without the reflective plastic sheet of names to obstruct your view! One thing I gotta say - I'm absolutely loving the mix of colours. These are what I'd call "wearable brights" - sure they're bright shades, but at the same time the colour palette is more cool and laid-back, instead of being all screaming neon (not that Sleek hasn't done that before). So these are shades that add a pop of colour to your eye look, without being too loud.


And of course, how could we do without swatches! Along with my (hopefully) helpful commentary on the shades. As always, the pigmentation was very good on the Lagoon Eyeshadow Palettes (as it is for most Sleek Makeup palettes I've tried), and the texture is good - the mattes are always a little harder than the shimmers, but they are not too hard or unblendable.



Sassea is a lovely midtone aqua shade, equal parts blue and green. It has gold shimmer in it, which I love.
Deep Water is a deep, matte grape purple.
Reflection is a pale shimmery purple lilac - isn't it cute that the Deep Water shade is dark purple, and the Reflection shade is light purple?
Emerald is a emerald green - not quite the really bright, jewel-toned green of an emerald, but a slightly faded out version, a little more blue and lighter. Like an emerald under water, I guess.
Oyster - as the name suggests, this is a off-white shade. Like the inside of an oyster shell.
Black Pearl. Plain ol' black with some shimmer.
Pink Jewel is a pinky-magenta shade with gold shimmer. Pretty.
Sand Dollar looked like a bright-ish yellow in the pan, but on me it applies a lot more like a neutral gold shade. As you can see from my swatche, this shade blended in quite nicely with my skin. I like it - it didn't look brassy or orangey on me as some golds do.
Underworld is a midtone blue with some green thrown in, also with gold shimmer. It's more blue than Sassea, though.
Sea Shell - ooh, another pretty neutral. This one is the lightened colour of a copper penny. I'm not sure I've actually seen sea shells in this shade though (I sure wish I had!).
Night Sky. Pretty dusky purple. Not too dark, though, more like the sky when the sun is starting to set, and you get that awesome orange/red/purple sky colour.
Ariel is a pretty shade that I think could be used as a blush too, not just an eyeshadow! I'm guessing they were thinking of Ariel's hair, but this isn't quite as simple as just red. It's actually a little more of a coral shade, and very pretty too.

Although most of the shades look cool-toned at first glance, this palette would work for girls with warm undertones too, as there are enough neutrals and shades that would look good on both warm and cool-toned people to make this work. So if blues and greens and purples are your kind of eyeshadow colours, this would be perfect for you.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Sleek True Colour Lipstick & Flick It Eyeliner Swatches!

I always look forward to Sleek Makeup's new releases - they do have some of the most pigmented, yet budget-friendly products around, and are no slob in the creativity department, either! This time, Sleek has introduced not one, or two, but TEN shades to their True Colour Lipstick range, and have also added a new line of Flick It Eyeliner. Sounds interesting? You bet!


As usual, all the products are packaged in Sleek Makeup's trademark black paper boxes. I like that there are printed swatches of the colour on the paper boxes, so you know you're getting the right shade! Inside the paper boxes, the products are all encased in black plastic, another Sleek Makeup trademark here. I like the fact that the Flick It! Eyeliners indicate the colour on the plastic tube packaging - it helps prevent confusion that way.


Now, without further ado, let's delve right into the products! First up, my favourite product of the lot, the Sleek Tangerine Scream lipstick from the True Colour range. This is bright, bold, very neon, and (as they say in the UK) bang on trend for the Spring/Summer 2013 runways, down to the exact shade. Funny thing is, I actually recently wrote a guest article on matte bright lips being a Spring beauty trend, and the next thing you know, I get sent a lipstick just like this!

Next lipstick we have is Sleek Smoulder, which is another hot-ass colour. I know it looks like just your average rosy, wearable shade in the tube, but you have to try this on to know how deep it is. Definitely deeper than at first glance!


And the Flick It! Eyeliners. These aare fun. They have a soft pliable felt-tip-pen-like applicator, and are meant to make it easier for you to get that coveted eyeliner with a flick at the end. I did notice, though, that one of my eyeliners came with a little bit of a fault? The tip appeared to be retracted into the casing, making it harder to use. You can see this in the photo below - the one on the left is the "normal" looking eyeliner, and the one on the right looks like something went wrong during the packaging process...Anyway, it's still usable, just that you have less applicator to work with, I guess. The two Flick It! Eyeliners I have, Royal Blue and Purple Aura, are limited edition, so if you're eyeing either or both of those, do get them soon. The third, non-limited edition colour, is a black shade.


Now I know you guys will want swatches, so here you go! Swatches of everything. And I kid you not when I say Sleek Makeup stuff is mega pigmented - each of these swatches was EXACTLY ONE SWIPE only. Only! I was super impressed. It's hard to find this level of pigmentation in a drugstore brand. You'd imagine it would be only companies like MUFE, MAC and Illamasqua that do this kind of thing, but I guess not! I like both Royal Blue and Purple Aura, the Flick It! Eyeliners. These are actually very wearable colours, to my surprise. I was kinda expecting neon blues and purples, but I got a medium royal blue and blackened purple. So much the better for everyday wear. They are also excellent in terms of staying power - once you let the liquid ink dry, it will stay on even if you splash your face lightly with water (wouldn't advise you to wear it to a water park though!). You'll probably need an oil cleanser or similar makeup remover to fully get this off.


And I know some of you will be interested in the lipsticks, so I've devoted more of my post to the lipsticks, and have swatched them on my own lips for you guys! First up, we have my favourite Tangerine Scream Lipstick. In the Glam Asia article I wrote, I actually mentioned that one of the Spring/Summer colours out on the runways was neon, matte orange. And here you have it - neon, matte, orange, straight off the runway, but without the pricetag. I'm genuinely impressed by this colour, and Sleek's timeliness in putting it out. I hope it is hot for the upcoming season, because I'm going to be a bit disappointed if it isn't! This shade leans warm, but I don't think it's extremely warm - I thought I actually liked how it looked on me (I know right!? Orange lipstick and all that?! But it actually didn't look too bad!), and I usually don't like shades that veer too much into warm territory.


And of course, Sleek Smoulder lipstick. Also another hottie, this is a blackened cool-toned burnt berry shade. I like berry shades, but on my fair skin, this kind of just looked a little more black and less berry on me. I imagine though, that this would look fab on darker skin shades. Both lipsticks are a creamy, matte-ish finish. They tug a little when applied, but aren't chalky feeling. Like I mentioned previously, matte lips seem to be the trend this season, and Sleek has definitely readied their product range for this trend. If you have extremely dry lips, maybe lipbalm applied beforehand might be a good idea.


So that's my take on the new Sleek True Colour Lipstick shades, and the Flick It Eyeliners! While the two shades I have, especially Tangerine Scream, are very much geared towards the up-and-coming Spring/Summer 2013 runway trends, not everything that is newly-launched is trendy. The Flick It! Eyeliners, for instance, while in keeping with the colour trends (blue and purple were both seen on the runways), will actually be suitable for daily wear if you want to add a pop of colour to your makeup wardrobe, and will be in use long after the season's trends have faded. For now, though, it's always fun to enjoy the colour!


Oh, and Blondie says hi to everyone! Actually I really just wanted to sneak a little bit of him into the blogpost, because he is such a dear and we all love him! I mean, the Sleek products are also in the photo, so it still counts as being vaguely makeup-related, right? :P Unfortunately he's kind a blur of activity in this photo, so it's not all that sharp, but man, even in a blurry photo he is still so adorable!

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Sleek Sparkle 2 Palette: Simmer and Shimmer for the Holidays!

Sleek Makeup's Sparkle 2 Palette, the latest eyeshadow palette to be released, comes just in time for the holiday season! A follow-up to 2010's Sparkle Palette, this is also, as the name implies, full of sparkle! And it's a gorgeous-looking palette, too!

Even the box for the Sleek Sparkle 2 Palette is pretty! I love the effect of pretty lights on the box...so festive!


I love how the colour names are so festive, too. Sleek Makeup has also come up with names for each of the shades, which you can see below. I realized the silver shade on the bottom row blends in with the white text; the shade name is Tinsel.


As with most Sleek palettes, this has 12 shades of colours. I actually quite like the colour selection this time round - the palette is pretty wearable overall and the colours actually go with each other. Yet it still has some interesting colours just in case you feel the need to jazz up your eyes a little. And as with a holiday palette called Sparkle 2, most shades have glitter.


And, here are swatches! Along with my commentary on each individual shade! One of the things I noticed when swatching these shades is the fallout I got. Some shades have more/less or larger/smaller glitter than other shades, so some shades, generaly the ones with large pieces of glitter, will have lots of fallout, while other shades, which have a metallic rather than glitter finish, have very little. But I think if you use a good primer, they will be fine. Otherwise, I've little to complain about - pigmentation is good, as per most Sleek palettes. I swatched on bare skin, no primer.


Chocolate Penny is a lovely shade - a neutral golden brown, very wearable. Not too much fallout, either.
Blue Spruce isn't totally blue, more like a medium-deep aqua. This is a lovely shade, it's got big glitter bits that do tend to fallout.
Mulled Wine - gorgeous plum with big gold glitter. Once again, a base is needed with this one.
Truffle. Possibly my favourite shade in the entire palette. No glitter, but a beautiful shimmer finish, and the perfect shade of suits-every-skintone brown that's not too brassy, not too grey.
Mistletoe. Ooh, nice name. Forest green with big gold glitter. The glitter doesn't show up in my swatches, though.
Illusion. Lovely violet purple, with big glitter.
Festive. Another violet purple, but more pink-toned and less blue-leaning than Illusion, also with big glitter.
Gold Ribbon. A metallic warm gold shade with a metallic finish, no glitter. It kinda looks a little yellow-y on me, but maybe I don't have the right skintone for it.
Glitz and Glamour. Deep, deep, blackened purple-brown with big glitter bits. Looks almost-black on me.
Tinsel. Your silver metallic, no glitter but a shimmer finish.
Twinkle. Evocative of the night sky, this is a deep, deep nighttime blue with big glitter bits. Also looks almost-black on me.
Starry Night. The usual black shade that Sleek likes to close out its palettes with, but now with more bling! This one is also a little bit fallout-prone due to the big glitter.

Overall, I'd say how much you like or dislike the palette really depends on your tolerance for glitter, and potentially, fallout. If you only ever wear matte shades and don't like big bits of glitter, I'm afraid this isn't your cup of tea. But if you want a holiday palette with wearable, well-edited colours that still has some zing, and can take glitter, this one is for you.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Olympic-Inspired Eye Look: Gold, Silver, Bronze

So, I've been following the Olympics (who hasn't, right), and I just felt inspired by all the atheletes and the action to do a quick Olympic-inspired eye look! I just decided to go the easy way out and use gold, silver and bronze. Just like the mdeals!

Source
After looking at a few photos of the medals (above), I realized the medals were actually rather dull in colour. Not that the medals themselves are dull, but a lot of the metallic shades I originally thought of using were not quite the same shade as the medals - they were either too flashy-looking, too shimmery, or too orangey, or so on. So I ended up rummaging through my stash to find colours that were similar.

So in the end I used Urban Decay's Maui Wowie for the gold, and the silver and bronze were from the Sleek Glory Palette that I blogged about sometime back. The shades I used were Bakerloo and Jubilee.


My plan was to put Maui Wowie on the outer lid, Jubilee (silver) on the inner lid, really just at the inner corner, and Bakerloo (bronze) on the contour area. That was the theory anyway. In reality, I think the gold and bronze colours got kinda muddied up together, so you can't really see the contrast :( But there are too different colours there, I swear!


But anyway, that's my way of getting some of the Olympic Games fever out of my system! Is anyone else following the Games? What are your favourite sports?

Sleek Glory Palette Swatches and Review!

Sleek Makeup has launched the Glory Palette - and it's a stunner of a palette, too! I always love the Limited Edition i-Divine Palettes Sleek puts out, they're always a little breath of fresh air and colour to the makeup scene, and the themes are usually (as the British colloquialism goes) bang on-trend.

The Glory Palette is obviously inspired by the 2012 London Olympics (I'm so looking forward to that, are you? I'm definitely looking forward to seeing Michael Phelps swim again!), and even the name, "Glory" is very evocative of competitive sports and the spirit of the Olympics. But what I really love about this palette is that it's not just a palette riding on the Olympic bandwagon, but it's also a celebration of London itself! And having lived in London for a short period of time and being a total London-lover, this really made that palette so much more special for me.



What made the Glory Palette special to me was the various colour names that match up to the Tube lines. Ah, the Tube, that bane in many the life of a Londoner. It is so cute that the line names and the colours match up! Like, Piccadilly is dark blue! And Central is red, and Victoria is light blue, and Jubilee (that line that is always shut down on weekends) is light grey, and so on. I mean, I don't know about you, but I absolutely love it. It made me smile and brought back fond (and not-so-fond, in terms of transport congestion) memories of my time in London. In particular, I was a heavy user of the Piccadilly and Central lines, so it made me a little nostalgic to see that they were in there.



And the best part? These are now translated into colours, and the range of colours covers almost all the colour bases out there - I guess it has something to do with trying to match the shades to the Tube lines! Unlike some other Sleek palettes, which tend to be either all dark, or all brights, or all neons, or all neutrals, the Sleek Glory Palette has a really good mix of brights and neutrals. I tend to see the top line as the "neutrals" line (and yes, I am amused that "Platform" is a dull concrete grey, just like the real-life Tube platforms), and the second line is the "brights" line. I like this line up of shades. Makes it easy to colour-coordinate, too.



Anyway, enough about me waxing lyrical over the palette and over my time in London. I'm pretty sure you came here for the swatches and not my nostalgic recounts, so here you go, swatches of the Sleek Glory Palette! The first thing you'll notice is that almost all the shades are shimmery.



First, the row of neutrals:
Tube is a soft, shimmery gold shade. A little like a medal, a little like champagne.
Overground is a light beige shade. This is a great all-over lid shade.
Bakerloo is a shimmery brown shade, inspired by (I'm guessing) the Bakerloo line! Nice brown with the barest hint of bronze.
Jubilee is a pretty silver shade. Damn, this line never seemed to work on weekends.
Platform is one of the few matte shades in the Glory palette, and is a light matte concrete grey.
Northern is a shimmery black with the slightest hint of what looks like blue to me.

Next, the brights:
District is a bright green, the shade of green you see on colour wheels.
Hammersmith and City is a shimmery hot pink. Now, who knew Tube line colours looked so cool?
Piccadilly is a lovely shimmeru navy blue, that really reminds me of the Piccadilly line.
Circle is a bright, shimmery canary yellow.
Victoria is a bright shimmery sky blue.
Central is a matte red.

The Sleek Glory Palette shades generally have good pigmentation - the only one that didn't show up as well on me was Tube, but pretty much all the other colours were nicely pigmented. Also, the shadows seem a little less crumbly than some of the older Sleek palettes I have (especially the ones with the hatchmarks that look like waffles), so this is also a good thing in my book.

The Sleek Glory Palette is available from 4th July in stores and online. I'm going to say that everyone needs this palette because it totally reminds me of my time in London. LOL. But seriously, if you appreciate a palette with a good range of colours, ample pigmentation, and a London/Olympics twist, you'll like this.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Strawberry Inspired Red, Yellow Green Eye Look

I love strawberries, and it's strawberry season! So I decided to do an eye look using strawberry colours. Here's how the look turned out.

The eye look was really just three colours - red, yellow, and green, all the colours I associate with strawberries. It was a simple enough eye look to achieve - red on the inner lid, yellow on the middle lid, and green in the contour area.



I can't remember what colours I used, but chances are, they are probably from my Sleek palettes. Usually if I do a bright look, I tend to reach for my Sleek palettes, that's how good they are. Come to think of it, I can't remember what mascara I used either, much to my chagrin - that was one of the few mascaras that didn't look clumpy on me. Rats. The eyeliner was my trusty Stila Jade Smudge Pot.



All in all, I really liked this look. It's too abstract to really look like a strawberry, of course, but I like how fun and happy it looks. I probably wouldn't think of a colour combination like that myself, but I gotta say, the colour schemes and pairings found in nature are so pretty!

Sleek Ultra Mattes Brights Palette Swatches + Review!

Sleek has finally given in to consumer requests for an all-matte eyeshadow palette, and released not one, but two, matte i-Divine eyeshadow palettes. Since the i-Divine palettes were always one of their most popular products, I'm sure these will be a big hit too. The two palettes consist of a Deep Palette, full of dark neutrals, and a Brights Palette, which is, of course, full of Brights. The one I have is the Ultra Matte Bright Palette.

I'm sure most of us are pretty familiar with how the Sleek i-Divine Palettes look, so I'm not going to rehash the details. I'll go straight to talking about the colours and quality. Colour-wise, it's a bright palette with enough shades to cater to your every need - there's pinks, greens, blues, oranges, yellows - but at the same time, there are also three more neutral shades, Floss, Crete, and Pow! And can I say how glad I am that this time there isn't a matte black? It seems to me that almost every Sleek palette I've come across inevitably has a black shade sitting in a corner, so I'm glad to see that this is a little break from the black. Here's a shot of the Sleek Ultra Matte Bright Palette, with the colour names for each colour. And lastly, this is a very on-trend palette, too, colour-wise, containing over half of the upcoming Fall Season 2012 colours, too. So yes, although it is a palette that looks like a Spring/Summer palette (brights of course being very Summer-y), it'll also be relevant well into Fall.



Top row, L-R: Chill, Pout, Sugarlite, Dragonfly, Pucker, Bamm!
Bottom row, L-R: Cricket, Bolt, Strike, Floss, Crete, Pow!

Quality-wise, I found the pigmentation to be generally very good, as per Sleek Makeup's general quality. There are only a couple of shades I felt were slightly lacking in pigmentation. In terms of texture, these are much like the other matte shades in other Sleek palettes, meaning they're a little harder than the shimmer shades. Depending on your preference, this is a good or a bad thing - bad because the texture is harder, good because the shadows are less prone to crumbling and disintegrating. I personally love soft shadows, but as long as the pigmentation and staying power are good I can live with most textures.

Here's a closer look at the shades in the Sleek Ultra Mattes Brights Palette, this time without the plastic cover.



Top row, L-R: Chill, Pout, Sugarlite, Dragonfly, Pucker, Bamm!
Bottom row, L-R: Cricket, Bolt, Strike, Floss, Crete, Pow!

And of course, what we've all been waiting for. Swatches! Let's start with the first half of the palette, consisting of the left half of the palette, along with my commentary on the shades. All shades, of course, are matte.



Top row, L-R: Chill, Pout, Sugarlite
Bottom row, L-R: Cricket, Bolt, Strike

Chill is a very nice aqua shade, that's like the eyeshadow version of China Glaze For Audrey. I like it, mainly because I also like For Audrey. Matching tips and peepers, anyone?

Pout is a hot pink matte shade. This shade is almost neon-looking. Very cool.

Sugarlite is a medium purple shade. This is one of the shades that is a bit o a dud. The pigmentation wasn't as great, although the purple was cool.

Cricket is a bright, grassy green - the kind MAC would probably call "yellow green".

Bolt is a bright cobalt blue. I really like how this looks.

Strike is a bright straight up orange. Also another colour wheel type colour.

Now for the second half of the palette. This consists of the shades on the right.



Top row, L-R: Dragonfly, Pucker, Bamm!
Bottom row, L-R: Floss, Crete, Pow!

Dragonfly is a bright secondary green, the kind you see on colour wheels. A good basic green.

Pucker is another hot pink shade. To be honest, I'm not sure what's the difference between this and Pout, since on my skin they look the same. In the pan though, Pucker more pink and less red than Pout, but only by a hair.

Bamm! is a bright canary yellow. Not the strongest pigmentation in the palette, but it's still a vibrant shade.

Floss is a light neutral pastel pink, and is one of the three neutral shades in the palette. It's a little less pigmented than some of the really bright shades.

Crete is a very light, whitened concrete grey. Another very nice neutral. Like Floss, pigmentation on this one is also a little less than the brights.

Pow! is a white that's medium in pigmentation. Not much to say, it's a basic white everyone can use.

Lastly, here is the whole palette crammed into my arm:



Top row, L-R: Chill, Pout, Sugarlite, Dragonfly, Pucker, Bamm!
Bottom row, L-R: Cricket, Bolt, Strike, Floss, Crete, Pow!

Some of the colours may look a little familiar, and that's because I do think some of the shades are similar to that in other palettes - although most are quite unique. In particular, I thought the shade Chill looked like the shade Blue Hawaiian in the Sleek Curacao Palette. And similarly, I thought Sugarlite looked a bit like Purple Haze. I'm not certain though, and I'll probably need to swatch them side by side to be sure.



So, do you need the Sleek Ultra Matte Bright Palette? If you like brights, or want a palette of vibrant shades to jazz up your collection, and don't already have similar shades, then this is for you. On the other hand, if you don't like matte shades, or dislike brights, then I guess you may not like it as much. For the price, though, this is a good palette that is value-for-money. These will be available from 9th May onwards at Superdrug stores in the UK, and online at Sleek Makeup website.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Chanel Peridot Inspired Eye Look: Gold/Green/Blue/Purple!

After all the Chanel Peridot (along with its two dupes, OPI Just Spotted the Lizard and Sephora Diving in Malaysia) hype, I thought to myself, since I liked the Chanel Peridot colour so much, why should I limit myself to just wearing it on nails? I wanted to see if I could recreate the look or feel of Chanel Peridot on my eyes!



I was looking at my own bottle of Sephora Diving in Malaysia (one of the Peridot dupes - I'm cheap like that, but hey, my spending money comes out of my salary, aka money I actually have to earn), and I paid attention to the colours at the edge of the bottle, where you see the duochrome. To me, it looked as though the gold colour was ringed by concentric circles of green, blue, and purple, each blending into each other. Well, it's quite complex, but that was my oversimplified way of breaking it down.

So, in order to recreate this look, I used a bunch of colours. I used Urban Decay Maui Wowie for the gold part, mixed with the tiniest bit of Sleek Screwdriver, from the Sleek Curacao Palette, to make it a little bit more yellow for colour accuracy. For the blue and the green I used two shades from an el cheapo Love Alpha Palette I got sometime back (middle two shades on the bottom row, if you really want to know). For the purple shade, I used the purple shade in my BeautyUK Day and Night Eyeshadow Palette. I don't know how much of each of the individual colours you can see (other than the gold), because I was trying to blend them one into the other - sort of like the nail polish.



Anyway, I used the gold shade on the lid, and then added on the blue, green, and purple respectively nearer the contour area. And then I blended everything together. And that's it, really. I had to adjust some of the blending a little bit here and there to match my bottle of Diving in Malaysia a little more. It's not a perfect match, but it sort of looks like Peridot, right? Sort of?



While this isn't normally a look I'd wear (or a colour combination I'd even think of making up), I think I quite like it. I wouldn't wear it out or anything, but I did have fun doing this look!

Sleek Eau La La Eyeliner: Swatches, Reviews, and Comparisons

Sleek Makeup has just released their Eau La La Eyeliners, which are pencil eyeliners that promise vibrant, well-pigmented colour, and are touted to be long-lasting as well. I'm always on the lookout for a good and cheap eyeliner, so I was all over this like white on rice. Sign me up, already, will ya?

The Sleek Eau La La Eyeliners come with a really sleek (ha, ha) black casings, and look quite nice. These also have a cap that's really tight - when I opened the caps, I could literally hear a "pop" sound. I guess it's got some sort of airtight seal in the cap? That's usually a good thing, as higher end eyeliners tend to have more airtight caps, to prevent emollient ingredients from evaporating.

This is a wooden pencil, so you'll have to sharpen it. Here's a close up shot of one of the eyeliners (Tonic), to give you a better idea of what the eyeliner nib looks like.



The Eau La La Eyeliners come in a large variety of colours. I have three to show you - Canary Yellow, which is a bright happy sunshine yellow, Tonic, which is a gorgeous shimmery forest green with a metallic finish, and Noir, which is a matte black, pure and simple. You can see the swatches here:



As you might guess, Tonic is my favourite, since it has that gorgeous metallic, bejeweled quality to it. How pretty is that? All three eyeliners were very nicely pigmented, and felt smooth and creamy going on. In terms of pigementation and texture, these actually rival high-end brands with really good eyeliners, such as Urban Decay and MUFE.

So, we know they swatch well. But how do they hold up against other more famous brands when it comes to long-lasting-ness (if there's such a word)? Well, I knew that would be a question you guys would want to know, so I took the trouble to compare these with some of my other favourite eyeliners.



In the photo above, you see the Sleek Eau La La Eyeliners swatched. Next to them, there is Urban Decay's 24/7 Eyeliner in Stash, MUFE's Aqua Eyes Eyeliner in 3L, and GOSH Velvet Touch Eyeliner in Golden Moss. These are three of my favourite eyeliner brands, as I've found them to have the best colour range and quality, both in terms of pigmentation and lasting quality.

In order to test these eyeliners out, I drew the lines on my arm, and let the eyeliners "set" for 5 minutes (although I know in real life wee don't always wait 5 minutes before rubbing our eyes and so on). I then subjected them to three tests: 1. Frantic rubbing with my finger test (you know, like when you rub your eyes really hard), 2. Putting them under a running tap (so like when you wear them to swim), and 3. Rubbing them frantically while putting them under a running tap (so if you rub your eyes underwater, I guess).

So after these three crucial tests, how did all these eyeliners hold up? See for yourself below:



Wow. I have to say, I'm impressed! I'm already familiar with the Urban Decay, MUFE, and GOSH eyeliners, so I knew they would be good (that's why I tested the Sleek ones against these), but the Eau La La Eyeliners really performed just as well too! I think actually the MUFE one did the best, and some of the Sleek ones smudged a little more, but the difference is pretty marginal. I was expecting them to be all wiped off, but they're still there. I guess the only key differernce, thebn, would be how fast these set - so maybe I should repeat the experiment with a shorter waiting time, eh?

Anyway, I love these, and I'd definitely recommend them if you liked the Urban Decay, MUFE, or GOSH eyeliners, since the Sleek Eau La La Eyeliners are pretty similar. For me, I think I've just found another brand of eyeliners I love.

(Sleek product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)