Sleek MakeUp: Westfield Pop-Up & Base Duo Kit

Over the Jubilee weekend I decided to  visit Sleek's Pop-up store in Westfield Stratford to pick up a few bits. I love the idea of a pop-up store and attended their last event in Westfield Stratford where I was sucessfully matched in thier foundatuion range (Choclolate Fudge) and manged to pick up a few blushes at a decent price. 

If you’re new to Sleek then their Pop-Up store is an excellent way to learn about the products in their range, directly from their makeup artists. A vast array of their products was on sale, with some lines being discounted. 

Base Duo Kit (Foundation): 

I was pleased to see that Sleek had also allowed visitors of the Pop-Up store to get their mitts on their forthcoming Base Duo: a compact that contained a cream foundation and with the corresponding powder to be placed on top. You can tell that a lot of thought has gone into this product; the addition of a mirror on each section and a compact design ensured that this new product will fit into all of my hand bags without any problem. 

Purchases:

I decided to add three new lipsticks to my collection and try the Kajal in Odyssey, a vibrant metallic purple. Bare All and Barely There are two shades that I have been trying to get for a while, seeing them in the Pop-Up store it was a no brainier that I would make them mine as they are always sold out in Superdrug.  In keeping with the ethos of my blog I have provided swatches below of each product.

 

Overall I was pleased I attended the Pop-Up, nothing beats being able to play around with products in a relaxed enviroment!

Sleek Makeup - i Divine Ultra Mattes v2 Darks

This afternoon I purchased Sleek's new addition to the i-Divine palettes: Ultra Mattes v2 Dark. 

There are two palettes in total, Brights and Darks, and I had intended to purchase both palettes but unfortunately the colours came off as very faint on my skin, not at all pigmented in the infamous Sleek way.

*should be Flesh not Fresh!

 

Fortunately Ultra Mattes V2 Darks were up to their usual pigmented standard as my swatches show

 .

At my age matt eye shadow increasingly appeal to me, I find myself increasingly staying away from shimmery, glittery products during the day and so am pleased to see this palette. 

 Flesh and Orbit are my favourite shades at the moment; Ink reminds me of a colour from the excellent Bad Gal palette - what do you think? 

 <a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/3677605/blkmimildn?claim=g5cn6ucmf94">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Quick Swatch Series: Sleek's Mystic Vs MAC's Girl About Town

Sleek Mystic vs MAC's Girl About Town (natural light)

 I love these two colours! 


The sun has been out in London town for the last week and the temperature slightly above 10 degrees *whoop whoop* so I have decided to brighten my makeup up a tad, wearing my usual cat eye with a bright lip. The two colours of choice have been Sleek's Mystic, a matte fuchsia / purple shade, and MAC's pink Girl About Town (GAT).

Natural light (left) vs Flash (right)

At first glance I thought these colours would be similar but MAC's GAT is clearly on the fuchsia pink range and Sleek's Mystic clearly has a blue tone visible. Each lipstick has been lined with NYX's Purple Rain liner.  

 

GAT is far creamer as Mystic is a matt colour. I use them both to 'pop' an outfit and so find them easy to wear. 

 

Following a recent trip to a MAC counter I managed to convince two of my girlfriends, both on differing parts of the colour spectrum, that they could wear a bright lip colour as a women of colour with GAT! This lipstick tends to stain my lips after use.

I tend to use Mystic for night's out when I'm trying to be fun n' free (but respectable). As a matt colour I have to make sure that my lips have been primed (MAC's Prep + Prime Lip) and scrubbed to remove flaky skin. It is long lasting.

Overall I'm glad I bought both.

Have you got a fave pink / purple lip colour?

Stay safe

BML xx

Sleek Blush By 3 - Pink Sprint

Okay the final Blush by 3 review....

Sleek Bush By 3 - Pink Sprint

 

Pink Sprint marks the third palette purchased by me in the Blush by 3 collection.

Swatches

Pink Sprint (natural light)

Pink Sprint with flash

Whilst I have a few pink shades they tend to fall in the plum / berry family and so I sat on the fence for a while. I found the middle colour, Pink Ice, to be a bit garish initially but after reading a few reviews I realised that this colour is thought to be a similar shade to Santorini from the Mediterranean collection and quickly came to my senses as I have seen this shade looking amazing on. 

Back of palette

Positives

• Suitable for all skin shades
• Super pigmented 
• Excellent price point of £9.99
• Able to mix colours together to create other shades
• Handbag friendly size palette size means that it is easily portable. 

Negatives:

• Limited Edition -  normally I stay away from limited edition items as I hate to fall in love with a product and not be able to re-purchase it later. However, as previously mentioned many are [similar] dupes of existing shades. 
•  Only able to purchased from Superdrug. I am fortunate to like in an area where several Superdrug's stock Sleek but I am aware that this isn't the case in other areas of the UK.

 Did you manage to pick up any palettes?

Sleek Blush by 3- Flame

Dear reader,

It has come to my attention that I have been a bit remiss  in not fulfilling my statement to post swatches of Sleek's Blush By 3 Flame -sorry.

Sleek Bush By 3 - Flame

 Recap

Sleek is a UK brand that women of colour of a certain age in the UK have practically grown up with over the years. Previously, every good black hair stockist had Sleek makeup in their store and many of us started out on our makeup journeys with one of their lipsticks / foundations/ blushers/ eyeliner/ mascara.  We liked that they had shades that catered for us, weren't afraid to show black women in adverts and had extremely pigmented products that stood the test of time on our skin.

Good, quality makeup for women of colour was soooo hard to come by in the UK, despite there being  a sizable ethnic population. It is only in the last five years that brands have started to cater for a wider range of skin shades, the revamping of Sleek co-inside with this revolution and a new 'sleeker' [intended pun] brand was relaunched with many of the products you see on the various social media sites today.

Back to Blush by 3....

I have passed on the other two palettes (Sugar & Lace) as I wasn't enamoured with the swatches I took in store. As you may have read on other reviews, many of the shades are similar dupes to existing blushes within the range, I would not go so far as to say they are exactly the same -perhaps a matt version, but they were worth the mini stampede on Superdrug by those of us who love Sleek. 

Sleek B-lsh by 3 - Fame swatches

 I am a bit of a blush junkie and so wanted to add to my collection, with my favourites shades from La Femme. I noticed that the majority of my blushes were reddish - browns / brown and a few coral and plums to the mix. Not going to lie, the idea of a red blush kinda scared me but the shades in the Flame palette didn't have me running for the hills so I decided to be brave and purchase it.

The £9.99 price didn't hurt either!

Sleek Blush By 3 Palette- Back of Palette

Quick Swatch Series: Sleek's Liqueur

Sleek's Liqueur is an excellent pink toned nude for women of colour. This is my colour of choice and wear it all the time. It is long wearing and the texture does well to last on my dry lips. 

Sleek Liqueur

Sleek Liqueur swatched

I will no doubt show other pictures of this shade in the near future; I tend to venture into the bright pinks as the weather picks up so there is enough time. As a true Brit, I expect to have another dramatic weather change before spring fully settles in and so have bright pink lips on my mind.

Sleek Blush By 3 Pumpkin

Sleek Blush By 3 Pumpkin 363

Sleek Blush By 3 (Back of case)

Sleek, C'est Chic
(Five points to anyone who gets this reference!)

Sleek Blush By 3 Pumpkin

Ok this week Sleek's Blush by 3 landed in store. Now I had an idea something was up as I was rummaging around the secret draws of my local superdrug on the Sunday and saw said items boxed up. (In my defence I waited for staff but they weren't around, security said I could have a look as long as I didn't steal anything - what a nice young man!).

So during some down time I went in and came across their latest offering, Blush by 3.

I quickly chose Pumpkin; I love me some orange blush on my skin but as I passed on Aruba last year, living to regret it ever since, Lantern stood out to me as being a possible substitute. This morning I finally go around to swatching it and thought I'd put it up for you all to see.




Each palette contains two different shades and textures: two matt and one shimmer. In keeping with Sleek's MO, all are highly pigmented and thus women of colour friendly. You will need to pay around with them and I recommend a light hand with them all at first.  Please note that I have swatched them heavily in order for it to show on the camera so if it looks powdery then please forgive me.

Sleek Blush By 3 Pumpkin Swatches

The colours:

P Pie = Shimmer coral with red  / gold undertones
Squash = Matt pink - with blue undertones - nice baby pink
Lantern = Matt Orange - this palette gets its name from the pumpkin colour of this shade. I love it, I have Pan Tao and find it blah, this shade ignites my fire and I am looking forward to rocking it in spring.

Check out http://thatgurlwho.co.uk/2012/02/sleek-blush-by-3-in-pumpkin-pie-swatches-and-comparisons/ post, as she has made some smart comparisons between this and the existing (permanent) ranges.

These blushes are limited edition and only sold at Superdrug. For my lighter skinned ladies I would suggest you run out and grab LACE as it is selling out fast and looks beautiful on your skin.


I have already decided to go back and get Flame so will post swatches in the week.


What do you think, another winner by Sleek?

Sleek's Contour Kit in Dark

Sleek Contour Kit

Sleek Contour Kit Dark

Hey there

I have had his little gem in my kit for a while and I have to say I'm might glad I bought it 'cause it rocks! The darker shade is excellent for my jawline and temples whilst the highlight is quite simply 'toots amaze'.

Sleek Contour Kit Dark Swatched

Purchased from Superdrug, I initially took a while to get used to the idea of contour as you see, despite having a chubby face my cheek bones are second to only to www.nunaavane.com , they are hiding at the moment due to recent weight gain but trust me they are there and I love 'em. So it was only after studying the enclosed leaflet and scanning the YT before I thought, 'right I'm gonna do this' and quickly became a contour convert.  For those of you that care I adopt a technique makeup artist Mally uses with a fan brush and my gosh it does wonders for me.
I never fail to get a luminated look from this product. The highlight is an exceptional gold colour that doesn't leave me feeling like I've been attacked by glitter like some alleged highlighters. As I place near the end of Sleek's (new) foundation spectrum I was completely satisfied by the product. The negative reviews I have seen thus far tend to be where the reviewer has not chosen correctly, so I would say take the time to try and match yourself to the product.

Sleek's Contour Kit in Dark - I salute you!
Please note I have used an extremely heavy hand to swatch this product in order for the camera to pick it up.

Sleek's Berry Collection

Hi there!

In the run up to Christmas The Berry Collection was launched by Sleek here in the UK. My initial reaction was 'blah' but fortunately a late running friend, coupled with my inability to simply wait and do 'nothing', saw me venture into Superdrug's makeup aisle where I promptly swatched and bought this excellent bit of kit.

Now I'm no fool, three items for £9.99 they had my attention at the price, but really it was the quality of the blush that sold me. The lipstick reminded me of a matte but credible version of NYX's Black Cherry which I love with a vampire sucking passion but when I swatched the blush I was like ahhhh; it's adorable - a soft plum and pink mash-up. The kohl ain't worth toffee for darker skin ladies on the eyes, so don't waste your time. It makes me look ill. Like all thrifty makeup fiends I quickly thought lip liner! You don't really see that many reviews for their lip liners but I really recommend you seek the out the retractable liners as they are quite good; I have paid between £1.39 - £1.69 for them from various black hair shop as Superdrug is way overpriced - check out Paks online or search through the hair shop's makeup sections for a similar bargain.

Overall I'm happy with the purchase; I am a Sleek fan and am pleased to have a UK brand going from strength to strength. As a lot of other bloggers have shown the collection is suitable for all, no matter where you place on the spectrum of the skin wheel, I would urge creative with the Kohl and advise a light hand with the blush - no one likes coco the clown cheeks!

See ya!