Sleek Palette - Storm

Here is another of my Sleek Palette swatches/reviews. This week we have the Storm palette, I think this was one of the permanent range so you may be able to source one somewhere or find it on ebay.

My previous Sleek palette swatches can be seen here: Bohemian, Safari and Graphite.


I knew I had to get this one as it is stacked full of neutrals and makes a great staple for any cosmetic collection. Great for days when you are not feeling so brave, or just want to look more natural.

This palette has a mix of matte and shimmery, though more shimmery shades this time, nine out of the twelve. It is full of browns, beiges, with a few deeper shades of green, blue and grey for good measure.


Colours inside:

1. Beige Gold metallic
2. Buttermilk metallic
3. Beige matte
4. Gold metallic
5. Pink metallic
6. Deep red rust metallic
7. Brown metallic
8. Dark grey metallic
9. Deep moss green metallic
10. Dark navy metallic
11. Mid brown matte
12. Black matte


This is a great palette for more natural looks, though very heavy on shimmer and metallics so not as subtle as your average neutral.

Benefit Box Powder/Blusher Comparison

I thought it was time I showed my Benefit powders, as they sometimes seem to get a bad press. Mainly due, I think, to people expecting them to do something they are not designed for.

I love the Benefit box powders, I went through a phase of having to own them all, but at £23 a pop they are not cheap and I still have to buy a couple I am missing.

I love the whole thing, the packaging is adorable, I know some people hate the cardboard, but I love them. I love the little brushes that match the boxes. I also love the powders, they are very finely milled and all have a small amount of shimmer, but they never look glittery or over the top, the shimmer is very, very subtle, with the exception of the highlighter in the 10 powder, but then that is supposed to be more shimmery by nature!



I thought I would show you swatches of the ones I have for comparison purposes. Most of them are very sheer, I would say they were more complexion powders than blushers, though a couple are more pigmented and so can easily be classed as blusher.
By showing them here I hope to help you avoid disappointment when buying them, as some people buy the lighter ones as blusher, which I feel is not their purpose, they are more finishing powders or brighteners.
I would class the first three as complexion powders and the last three as blushers.

Okay out of the range, I have the following:


Georgia: Most definitely a complexion powder I think, you would have to be the palest white to use this as a blusher, though if you are pale it could be built up as a sheer blush I guess. A very pale peachy toned powder. It makes a perfect finishing powder for the whole face and is best used this way in my opinion.



Dandelion: This is one of my favourite ones. A sheer pink powder with a small amount of shimmer, not at all obvious, just glowy. I tend to use this one as a finishing powder and brightener, it gives a very warm look to your skin, just brightens nicely and makes you look healthy. It can be built up more as a pale blush, but it is still very pale, so I only use it as a blush when I want just a hint of colour.



10: Now this is another firm favourite of mine. It is a highlighter and contour/bronzer powder duo, they work so well and have a subtle shimmer to them. This is the only powder where I do use the brush that comes with it. I sweep it down the centre, getting one colour per side, then sweep across my cheek, I then buff it with another brush to soften the line. It gives a great contour and highlight with little effort, love it! I especially love the highlight colour, I use that a lot. It can also be mixed to give a lighter shade of bronzer. A very versatile powder this one!


Thrrrob: A very light sugar pink blush, though this could also be used as an all over powder if used carefully. This is still very sheer and needs to be built on the cheeks, but gives a lovely sugary glow to the cheek, a nice and subtle flushed look and my favourite of the blushers, great for summer.


Coralista: a very traditional blusher this one, mush more pigmented than the previous ones and you need to be a bit lighter on the hand with this one. It is a lovely peachy/coral toned blush and I like to use this one over Autumn/Winter time, preferring pinker tones for Spring/Summer.



Dallas: a good strongly pigmented blusher with a more russet tone, you have to have a very light hand with this or you will end up looking so bad! It could potentially be used as a bronzer too I guess, though you would have to dust it very, very lightly....



Below you can see the powders swatched, none of them are built up, I only rubbed my finger over them twice to get the colour shown, you could build them more if you wanted. See how sheer they are? I personally like that they are sheer, I hate harsh looking powders and blushers and prefer to build them than have one go on too heavy, but then my skin is fair/medium. Darker skin tones may not be as happy with them.

1. Georgia, 2. Dandelion,
3. 10 highlight, 3a. 10 contour, 3b. 10 mixed
4. Thrrrob, 5. Coralista, 6. Dallas

Sleek Palette - Graphite

Here is another of my Sleek Palette swatches/reviews. This week we have the Graphite palette, one of the limited edition palettes.

Swatches of the previously reviewed palettes can be seen here: Bohemian, Safari.


This palette was a must buy for me as I love smokey eyes and I use loads of greys, so this was just perfect for me. Being a limited edition one also made it one I had to get my hands on fast. SO on release day I went off to Superdrug and picked one up, they were flying out so quick!

This palette is really all metallics with the exception of one matte shade. It is full of greys, black, navy, purple and a couple of highlight colours. A great mix for any smokey eyed look.


Colours inside:

1. White metallic
2. Cream metallic
3. Silver metallic
4. Light grey metallic
5. Light/mid grey metallic
6. Mid grey metallic
7. Mid/dark grey metallic
8. Dark grey metallic
9. Black matte
10. Slate blue metallic
11. Navy metallic
12. Purple metallic


A great palette for smokey-eyes. Okay, so it has a lot of the same shades, but then it is designed to be for darker looks, so it does what is sets out to do, and it does it well. One of my fav ones this one.

More Sleek palettes next week!

Sleek Palette - Safari

Here is another of my Sleek Palette swatches/reviews. This week we have the Safari palette, one of the limited edition palettes.

Swatches of the previously reviewed palettes can be seen here: Bohemian


This palette was love at first sight, I knew I had to have this one the moment I saw pics of it online. I love earthy colours, I feel safer using neutrals and dusky shades for everyday, they just work so well and always give a nice sophisticated look, so this palette was a must have for me.

This palette has a mix of matte and shimmery, though more shimmery shades this time, nine out of the twelve. It is full of rich, earthy tones, from browns and golds, to deep greens.


Colours inside:

1. Black matte
2. Bright yellow gold metallic
3. Khaki green metallic (gorgeous!)
4. Moss green metallic
5. Rich burnt orange metallic
6. Mid yellow gold metallic
7. Pale fawn matte
8. Buttermilk matte
9. Bright grass green matte
10. Dark green metallic
11. Gold metallic
12. Brown/bronze metallic


These are some fabulous colours, they really do suit the safari name and work so well together.

This has to be one of my favourite Sleek palettes, it just ticks all the boxes for me, love it!

More Sleek palettes soon!

Gosh Lipstick - Darling

I have read so much about this lipstick on many blogs now. I do like nude lipsticks, as I am fair in colouring and tend to emphasise my eyes most, I prefer my lips to be more natural looking.

I already have one great nude type lipstick that I adore, Urban Decay's Naked, a pale pink lipstick that just looks great with my skin. It is nice quality but doesn't really last more than a few hours, but I do love it anyway.


Having heard so much about Gosh Darling I thought it was time to hunt it out and give it a go. At £6 it is reasonably priced, compared to my Urban Decay Naked at £11. But would it be as nice?

The packaging is lovely, very classy. Just a nice plain black, slightly rubberised case, with a shiny metal band in black, bearing the Gosh name. The case has a good strong click to its closure too, meaning it shouldn't come loose in your bag!


Well it is a very nice lippy. The colour is more of a beige than UD Naked. It is a proper nude with a slightly peachy tone, not quite pink but not too far off. It is nice and slick, leaving my lips feeling supple. You have to be careful that your lips are smooth though, otherwise it will sit in cracks or on dry bits and look awful. Luckily mine are okay so it looked even and gave my lips a nice muted look. It turns my lips more beige and so more skin toned, as my lips are naturally very pink, so this is good for me as another option. It has little staying power though, less than UD Naked at only around an hour or so, so reapplication is a must with this one.


I am very happy with this addition to my lipsticks. Sometimes I need a beige nude instead of a pink nude, so now I have both options with UD Naked and Gosh Darling. It will now sit in my most used cosmetics pile.

I will see if I can review Urban Decay Naked in a future post if you wanted to see it, just let me know :)

Rimmel Match Perfection Concealer review - my new HG?

I am always buying new concealers, it is a bit of an obsession with me, I just never seem to be able to find my Holy Grail concealer!


I saw this one in Superdrug and decided to try it out. It appears to be similar to YSL Touche Eclait, which I hate. I think it is a very over-rated product that does nothing for me personally and it is so expensive too. This one looks similar and costs only £5.99 rrp though Superdrug had it on offer at only £3.99! Much cheaper than YSL which cost me around £23 last time I bought it.

This claims to conceal and highlight in one, as well as blend to your skin tone, Mmmmm, I wasn't so sure about that claim!! I got the Ivory shade as I am fair to medium toned skin. There were two darker shades available too, though none were very dark, so maybe they should create more shades, three seems a bit sparse.

I do suffer with dark circles, lack of sleep really shows on me and I never seem to be able to cover them convincingly, improve them yes, cover no.

The concealer I normally use the most is Benefit Boing in Fair, though it is a bit too light for me. I find it does give okay coverage for under-eyes, but it is drying and can settle into fine lines after a few hours, not a great look. I always applied lightly with a brush then patted it into my skin. It was okay, better than most, but just not quite there for me. At £15.50 it is not cheap either.


So I gave this new Rimmel a try, very sceptical about its claims........well, it goes on very smooth. It has a built5 in brush and the concealer is squeezed through the brush (same as YSL), the concealer is a lightweight cream, not claggy at all. I used the brush to sweep a small amount over the dark area under my eye, then patted it into place. It covers very well and the colour matched my skin to perfection. I was very surprised about the colour match to be honest, most Ivory shades tend to be a tad too light for me, but this is perfect. Maybe the match perfection claim is true!?

My husband even said he could see a huge difference when I showed him, he was very impressed and thought it made my dark areas almost invisible. I too was very impressed, but how would it wear? After all it is very cheap......well, by the end of the day, a good eight hours later, it had not moved at all, it still gave the same coverage it had when I applied it, and even better, it had not settled into my fine lines!

before blending, not quite my shade, fairly obvious on my skin
(swatch done on my inner arm, so it is very light, my face is a little darker)

after blending, virtually invisible!
(swatch done on my inner arm, so it is very light, my face is a little darker,
but it still blends the same!)

I have to say, I am hugely impressed with this and I think I may have finally found my Holy Grail of concealers ! I love this stuff, cheap, easy to find and it actually works and stays put all day and leaves your fine lines alone.

Available from Boots, Superdrug and most UK supermarkets.

Sleek Palette - Bohemian

I have been collecting the Sleek palettes for a few months now, I don't have them all as I came to them quite late, but I have gotten all that I was interested in, with a total of six now.

Here is the latest one, the Bohemian palette, which I believe is the latest limited edition palette.


The Sleek palettes have become almost legendary on blogs and YouTube. They are so cheap but very pigmented and pretty good quality. How can you resist 12 colours for only £4.99 !?
They are very very soft in texture, they can damaged easily due to this, but so far all of mine have been fine, even survived a drop off the bed! The pigmentation on these is amazing, I usually use Urban Decay shadows and I adore them, they are high quality and pigmented but a bit pricey. Sleek shadows are pretty good too, rich deep colours and vibrant tones, you can't go wrong really, not at this price.

I wasn't sure if I wanted this one at first, some of the colours looked a bit scary and I wasn't sure I would use it very much. But I saw some swatches online and it looked far nicer than I thought. I was very drawn to the navy and green in this palette as well as the neutrals, so decided to go for it and get it while I still could.

This palette has a mix of matte and shimmery, though more mattes at nine out of the twelve. Makes a nice change to see more mattes in a Sleek palette. The colours go from neutral browns to rich blue and purple.

Can't say I'm a big fan of the new white palette though, I much preferred the black ones, just looked a bit classier somehow.....


Colours within the palette:

1. Antique Gold metallic shimmer
2. Rich Bronze metallic shimmer
3. Rich Burgundy matte
4. Bright Yellow matte
5. Buttermilk matte
6. Black matte
7. Peach matte
8. Deep red rust metallic
9. Mid green matte
10. Deep Navy matte
11. Rich purple matte
12. Dark Brown matte


Some lovely shades here, not as scary as it first appears. The matte ones are surprisingly pigmented, as much so as the metallics, which shocked me. I love the green and navy mattes, really nice useable shades. The metallic golds and bronzes are fab too, though a bit much for everyday LOL

I am very happy with this one. I am so pleased I finally bought it before it ran out, the colours are just stunning and I can't wait to start wearing it.

I will be swatching the other five Sleek Palettes that I have over the next few weeks. So you can look forward to swatches of the following palettes from Sleek: Storm, Original, Safari, Graphite and Sunset.