First Impressions: Sleek MakeUP The Primer Palette

I'm a huge Sleek fan and hardly ever skip any new product launches, and this eye primer palette really caught my eye as priming lids isn't just a gimmick and when I use the right product, I can seriously prolong the wear of eyeshadow on my oily lids (gak!).  Nothing looks worse than creased eye make up.

The palette was £6.99 from Superdrug and comes in the standard black plastic palette with a mirror in the lid.

Now ever since the Bad/Good Girl palettes Sleek have monikered their eyeshadows but I think something went awry with this insert as the green certainly isn't 'peach', or the peach shade 'noir'.  No biggie.  They just need to get these plastic inserts reprinted and replaced.  The double sided brush is pretty useless with the product, but works okay with powders, so I'm going to keep it in my 'work' make up kit in my desk.

Pretty pretty iridescent colours.

The Good: the palette offers a great range of neutral and bright shades, the consistency is creamy and they are nicely pigmented.  I prefer to apply them with my finger as it goes a bit streaky if you use a synthetic fibre brush.  I've tried using the white and two neutral shades as cream cheek highlighters and they're not bad.


Now, The Bad: it creased on me.  Very swiftly.  I chose the bright green hoping that would show up well enough in my little experiment.  In the photo below I'm wearing nothing but the green primer on my left and with Urban Decay's Misdemeanor on the right.  I noticed it had creased after half an hour, but it could have been sooner.  I also found it difficult to blend Misdemeanor over the top of it, so that's why it looks like it's been applied by a toddler!  Can't say it did anything to intensify the colour either.  What I don't want to have to do with these is apply UDPP under to make them work like I did for the Molten Metals, but I hate letting a product go to waste, so I may just do that.  Or I may just host a blog sale :)




I'm surprised I haven't seen more of this palette on other blogs, and where I have, there haven't been swatches or anything on durability.  Now I haven't played too much with the other primers in this palette, but I wouldn't rush out and buy this.  Instead it might be better to wait and see if Sleek reformulates the next batch into something with more staying power. In the meantime, I can highly recommend their Storm palette - truly beautiful and versatile - I always take it on holiday; the test of true love.  Any of these beautiful shadows works wonderfully over the infamous Urban Decay Primer Potion; the best eye primer I've tried. 


Have you got this palette? What do you think? Any tips for how I could use it better?

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Could Do Better: Umberto Giannini Backcomb in a Bottle

This was one bandwagon I wish I let roll on by... I've tried it out a few times, and maybe I'm not using it right, but I can only get it to work like a hairspray, and an average one at that.  I didn't expect miracles to I lightly backcombed my hair and spritzed it with the Backcomb in a Bottle and this was the result: 

It held the volume for a few minutes, and then fell flat.  The smell is horrid - very chemical.  I feel it actually made my hair look greasy at the roots.

Come on hair! Resist gravity! My hair's quite long now, so it may work better on shorter, lighter hair...

Oh hang on...do we have volume?....

Uh, that would be a 'no' then...and in it's place, a lovely white cast to the hair.  Gorgeous.  At £5.61 it's safe to say I won't be repurchasing.

If you want to bump up your hair, your best - and much cheaper bet - is Batiste dry shampoo. This stuff is a holy grail bit of haircare for me and my current favourite version is 'Brit' - it smells lovely and reminds me of an expensive perfume.

Have you had any success with BIAB?

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Sleek MakeUP Molten Metal in Pewter/Gold Leaf

These sold out from Superdrug pretty swiftly but I managed to grab the last one from a display in a little tucked away branch.  Sleek seem to be starting a price hike as it set me back £6..99, which considering that amazing eyeshadow palettes like Storm with 12 shades were only £4.99 a year ago, is quite a rise.

I like the packaging, although I did have to rip the cardboard box a bit to get the palette out.  It's very sturdy and has a handy mirror in the lid.

Pewter on the left and Gold Leaf on the right.

These are very creamy shadows and even feel more luxurious than my beloved Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadows.  I've seen the Molten Metals compared and even praised above Illamasqua Liquid Metals, but I've not tried the latter so can't add to that!  As you can see they are very pigmented and gleam when swatched.

You can apply it with your fingers but you get a more precise application if you use a small compact flat shader brush, preferably with man-made fibres.  This one is from Coastal Scents brush set.

The colour I applied was Gold Leaf and I was pretty impressed...at first.  I was so excited to try the Molten Metal I just whacked it over the shadow I'd had on all day which had pretty much worn off - but that's why my liner and mascara looks a bit skanky!

And this is where it all goes a bit wrong...

I'd read a few reviews which claimed it didn't crease (unlike the Illamasqua ones), but it creased on me after 5 minutes.  Now I do have quite oily lids...but come on!

Ans here's the state it was in after an hour.  Not good.

I was really looking forward to glamming up with it on Saturday night, but I'm not so sure now.  I might try the Pewter on to work tomorrow over some Urban Decay Primer Potion to see if that makes a difference.  Other than than I have a Stila eyeshadow in a similar gold colour which I could use over the top to set it - but then of course I wouldn't get that glossy cream eyeshadow look!

I'll let you know how I get on, but from first impressions, for £7 I'd give these a miss and save up for a Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow, which if you pick the right shade can double as either a powder eyeshadow base or eyeliner.