Monday 12 August 2013

Sleek Ultra Matte V1 Brights - Review and EOTD


I've stared longingly at Sleek palette reviews for too long, so I caved and grabbed the first one that caught my eye. However, I bought this last summer, and I've not touched it since I remembered to review it now. Shameful, right? Hear me out here, I have an excuse.

Sleek packaging is a gorgeous luxury compared with my usual holy grail MUA palettes. The ironically 'sleek' black casing feels a lot more professional in my collection, although its matte coating is very prone to scratches. 
What's more important is what's in the palette - the eyeshadows. I'll admit the colours are insanely bright and pigmented in the pans, which is what attracted me to the Ultra Matte V1 Brights in the first place, but when swatched both on the hand and the eyelid, they just don't transfer that way. Imagine the opacity of the colour in the pans, then halve it.

Sleek name each shade in their palettes, which is a step further than most high street brands, but I lost the plastic sheet with the names printed on, so I'll just go by shade numbers instead.
The first time I used this, I decided to put shade 8, Bolt, all over my lids with the intention of creating a blue-purple look, and it appeared totally different to how it looks in the palette, instead more of a kingfisher blue-green, which I definitely wasn't expecting. Bearing in mind this was on top of my trusted eyelid primer and a cream eyeshadow, so it wasn't a lack of preparation that's the problem. The pans are deceptive, these eyeshadows won't appear that way on your lid, no matter what you do.

The other problem I discovered is that these colours just don't blend. With other brands of shadows, you can pack on a darker colour if you've changed your mind, and the colour underneath will either disappear completely or at least fade significantly. However, none of these colours are pigmented enough to allow that. You could brush another colour on top forever and you'd never get rid of the colour beneath, the formula just isn't strong enough to compete once a previous colour has set in. Perhaps it's their matte consistency, or even just the formulation of the bright pigments that fails. It seems this palette has just tried too hard to be perfectly opaque, matte and vivid, all at the same time - perhaps it can't be done?

On top of all that, it gets worse. Removal. Despite the double strength priming I just mentioned, these shadows take a good scrubbing to get off, and even then, some of the shades, the purple and pinks, leave a distinctly pink stain on my lids. None of us want to scratch our lids sore just to remove colour, right?


The one shade I fell in love with from the word 'go' was shade 3 Sugarlite, this gorgeous purple that I've blended with an MUA black in this eye look. I packed the purple all over my lid and attempted to blend the black on top, but as you can see, it's just transformed the black into a deeper purple. If a girl can't blend her colours, then the girl gets angry. You can see how the purple has lost all of its pizazz from the pan to the lid though, it's no longer a vibrant purple, more of a demure plum - the formula just isn't strong enough for my liking.

Everything about these shadows just didn't work for me. Hopefully the same doesn't apply for all Sleek palettes because I've heard so many good things from other bloggers! It's a shame, at £7.99 I feel like this palette was far too overpriced for the quality.

What's your favourite Sleek palette?

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3 comments:

  1. The quality of these palettes definitely varies. The ones with the patterned shadows (sleek bad girl palette) are pretty pigmented. The only way to get the most out of these shadows is with a white base. I use NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk, it's still pretty mediocre with just a generic primer. :)

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  2. I wasnt keen on a lot of colours in this one too, but the other ones are better! xox

    www.thestylekhaleesi.com

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  3. This is such a gorgeous look! I have the sleek Storm palette and it's pretty much the only one I use, love it!! :) x

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