Showing posts with label beautycard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beautycard. Show all posts

Thursday, September 08, 2011

Review: Sleek Oh So Special Palette

A couple of days ago I decided it was about time to treat myself to a new Sleek palette. I had a couple in mind that I wanted, however, the biggest Superdrug (and only one that stocks Sleek) in my city barely had any in stock. And those they did have in stock were mostly all damaged :-/ In the end I went with this palette - one of the only ones in perfect condition. 

Luckily for me this was actually one that I quite fancied getting :) 


I absolutely love the design on the box it came in, wish they did this actually ON the palette itself! 

This palette is filled with quite neutral colours although I think the variety of pinks and browns are better than what has become the norm of neutral palettes. I much prefer to have the option of colour - even if it is still a soft, pastel colour as opposed to something brighter.

Here are some swatches, all taken with my iPhone 4 in natural lighting.



From bottom to top:
  • Bow - a matte, cream colour that can be used as a highlight shade.
  • Organza - a shimmery, light/medium pink
  • Ribbon - a matte, barbie pink colour. This comes out quite sheer upon first application but can be built up into a nice colour with as little as two swipes from the pan. 
  • Gift Basket - a shimmery, light/medium brown colour
  • Glitz - a shimmery, metallic blue almost grey colour
  • Celebrate - a dark, shimmery brown. This is one of my favourite colours in the palette. 
From this row I think I would use Bow on the inner corner to brighten up the eye area then Organza as the lid shade and one of the browns on the outer corner and blended into the crease. Me being me, I would probably go for Celebrate and blend it out quite a lot in order to tone it down within the crease. Going back over the outer corner with a little bit more would add a slight smoke to the eye. 



This picture above is my quite poor attempt to show how gorgeous the blue is. I wouldn't go as far as calling this a duo-chrome type shade but in different lights you definitely pick up slightly different colours/shades of blue/grey. 


From bottom to top:

  • Pamper - A matte, light pink. I feel this is a shade that will need building up should you wish to use it on the lid or anywhere else. I personally would use this as an inner corner highlight. 
  • Gateau - Another light pink but this time a shimmer. Nothing to say except that it's gorgeous.
  • The Mail - A light, matte brown. This would be a perfect lid shade for achieving a "natural" day time look.
  • Boxed - A medium, matte brown.  
  • Wrapped Up - A dark, matte brown. 
  • Noir - A uniform shade within any palette - the classic matte black shade. 

 The bottom row contains the majority of matte shades that are all ideal accompaniments to any make up look. Unlike the top row, I don't think I could create an eye look purely from the bottom row. Especially as I don't feel I could wear a purely matte look. I would perhaps pair Gateau and either the medium or dark brown together but it looks 


This is my second poor attempt at capturing the different shades of Gateau. Much like the blue, it appears to be different colours in different lighting, giving multiple dimensions to a make up look.

At the moment I don't feel I could pick any fault with this palette until I have given it a bit of a longer trial run and shall probably do a "review: take two" to update on how it fairs. I find sleek to be a very consistent cosmetics brand, particularly with it's line of palettes, something which is a huge selling point to me. I'm very interested in purchasing the curacao palette next to test out the gorgeous looking red eyeshadow - if anybody has a review of this to leave a link to in the comments I would be very interested to see! 

As you probably ALL know by now, Sleek is available online at Link and in various retail stores at a price of £6.49. 




Disclaimer: I have purchased this palette using my own money and am in no way affiliated with Sleek.


Friday, June 17, 2011

Superdrug Haul

Working close to the city centre certainly has it's advantages; plenty of lunch options, the ability to go on emergency shopping trips and easy access to transport to name but a few. However, the down side to this is that if I am ever having a bad day, a 'pick-me-up' trip to the shops on the way home often occurs. 


This happened today. My day in the office was so super, super stressful that I just HAD to pop into the shopping centre on the way home. There was no other option! But, on the plus side, I definitely do not regret it for a change. I made some really wise, non-impulse (well, sort of) purchases that I'm actually mega pleased with! And as I keep repeating to myself "at least I haven't wasted the money on alcohol" (as I was highly considering going out on the town tonight!).




This picture does no justice whatsoever to the actual size of the bag. 
Firstly, the essentials. 


Superdrug own brand 6-in-1 Mouthwash - £1.99
Sure for Men Quantum Anti-perspirant - £0.86
My boyfriend has very recently been converted to the world of roll on deodorant. After staining 90% of his t-shirts/shirts/polo shirts under the arm by using too much spray-on deodorant, I managed to convince him to try out a roll on and it seems - *touch wood* - to not have such an adverse effect on his clothes. At least until he runs out and ends up using spray ones again! Silly boy. I'm going to try and convince him to a mini review of it to put up on here, not the sort of thing you see every day on a primarily female blog but why not? 


L'OrĂ©al Elvive Colour Protect Shampoo & Conditioner (400ml) - £1.79 each (Currently on offer!)
Superdrug Expertise Salt Spray - £2.49
Schwarzkopf Live Salon Style (Intense Red 5-29) - £4.29
I've actually only just recently dyed  my hair, I used a mahogany colour from the same brand as I wanted a brown/red colour, but with more than a hint of red. Needless to say, it didn't work as well as I wanted it to. So I bought this "intense red" in the hopes that it will make my hair just that smidgen (yes, that is a technical term) bit more red. I feel I may be sending the boyfriend out to Superdrug again in the morning for a dark brown though! 
The shampoo and conditioner were purchased alongside the dye in an attempt to protect my hair and give it that healthy kick it needs after dying. 

A few impulse purchases:

Clean & Clear Morning Energy Daily Facial Wash (Oil-free) - £2.49
Superdrug Mud Therapy Raspberry Exfoliating Mask - £2.59
Dove Summer Glow (Normal to Dark) - £3.00
Now, in a few weeks I may be back on here complaining about having a 'Geordie Shore' orange glow about me, but hopefully not! I've been using the other Dove Summer Glow recently but I bought the one for fair skin which I clearly was mistaken about and actually do not have, and so it hasn't really made any difference to my tan (or lack thereof) whatsoever. 


The face wash I have purchased due to my usual Body Shop Seaweed one running out. It's about £8 or £9 for a bottle, which although it works really well on my skin, I do feel is a little expensive for me. I'm hoping that this cleanser will work well and not irritate my skin in any way as I'm desperate for an inexpensive holy grail face wash. The face mask should also help sort my face out a little too - and the boyfriends, not that he knows this yet.


My last purchase was from a make up brand I have never really seen much of before. They are called Make Up Academy and have a wide range of products available for only a few pounds. I believe when they first came out everything was a pound. They've just released a new professional line of products that although more expensive are still actually really affordable. First impressions have been really good and I hope to get a more detailed overview of the products on here within the next few days. Or as soon as my photography skills improve a little, whichever comes first.


MUA Professional Primer (27ml) - £4.00
MUA Professional Matte Foundation (30ml) - £4.00 

MUA Professional  Extreme Curl Mascara (7ml) - £2.00
MUA Professional Dusk til Dawn Palette - £4.00
I completely fell in love with the mascara as soon as I saw it. Obviously, the point of this packaging was to attract the magpie part inside every beauty obsessed girl.

And last but not least, I finally got hold of a Beautycard! 318 points already! 




I've also just realised I completely forgot to purchase what I intended to get from Superdrug in the first place! D'oh!

Any recommendations for the inevitable trip back to pick up the new Sleek palette?