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?