Sleek Blush By 3 in Lace #367

Sleek is one of those brands that I think always looks fantastic (like Bourjois).  I'm sure that my curiosity is driven mostly by the fact that Sleek isn't readily available in the US.  I've been lucky enough to have a couple of swaps with lovely ladies from the UK, so I do have several Sleek eyeshadow palettes (which I LOVE) and a pressed powder (also LOVE).

I hesitate to say that I have a problem with blush.  Because I feel like that implies that I do think it's actually a problem (it's not!) or that I plan to stop or cut back or restrain myself in some way (I do NOT).  I love blush.  I love everything about blush.  I love cream blush and powder blush and liquid blush.

I. Love.  Blush.

So when I saw the Sleek Blush By 3s in several YouTube tutorials from my favorite UK beauty gurus, I was green with envy.  They looked awesome and affordable.

I finally sucked it up and decided to place an online order with Sleek.  I picked up several things, but the first of which was the Sleek Blush By 3 in #367, Lace.

(L-R Crochet, Guipure, Chantilly)

Crochet is a light orange with a matte finish.  It was very soft and blendable with excellent color payoff.

Guipure is a neutral pink satin base with gold glitter.  Sheered out, you lose most of the pink and end up with mostly glitter.  It's not peachy enough to be a dupe for NARS Orgasm, but it's very much in that vein.

Chantilly is an orange/red with a matte finish.  Like Crochet, it was very soft and blendable with excellent color payoff.  I don't have NARS Taj Mahal, but the online swatches look pretty similar.

The Sleek Blush By 3 palette contains a whopping 20 grams of product and retails for $12.49 from Sleek.com

Overall: 10/10

Sleek Pout Polish in Powder Pink and Peach Perfection

A couple of weeks ago, I placed a big order on the Sleek MakeUp site.  Sleek is one of those brands that I've been lucky enough to receive in swaps with UK friends, but it's not available readily in the US.  

As a side note here, the prices are great and the shipping was super cheap - like $8 cheap for international shipping!  (Though it did take about two weeks to arrive.)

Anyway, I've been lucky enough to try a lot of the Sleek powder products, but I've never tried any of their lip products.  So ... I picked up two of the Sleek Pout Polishes in Powder Pink and Peach Perfection.  The Pout Polishes are basically like tinted lip balms.  They come in 9 colors.

They are very sheer.  You get just a hint of color.  They aren't the most fantastic lip balms ever, but they're decent.  The texture was okay.  I didn't find them to be sticky and I didn't find the scent to be particularly noteworthy (good or bad), but I'm not particularly sensitive to either of those.

You do get a ton of product, but since they come in jars, you have to apply them with your fingers.  This isn't a deal breaker for me, but I know it would be for a lot of people.

The packaging is cute.  They come in a range of colors (most of which will offer only the barest hint of color on the lips).  They are pretty much a take it or leave it product for me.  They're okay, but I don't think I would purchase them again, even at this (very good!) price point.

Sleek Pout Polish contains 10 grams of product and retails for $5.99 each.

Overall: 6/10

Review: Sleek Ultra Mattes v2 Dark

I was lucky enough to receive the Sleek Ultra Mattes v2 Darks Palette from the lovely Diana when I did my swap with Tam a few weeks ago.  I had been lusting after this palette since I saw it on English blogs, but since my access to Sleek is very limited, I figured I'd never get a chance to see it in person.

First off, I love the packaging.  I'm not sure if it's new for all Sleek palettes or just for the matte palettes, but I love it.  And the shadows ... OMG, the shadows.  I think it is a well known fact that I love me some matte shadows.  Seriously, I have a matte shadow problem.  And these mattes are beautiful.  Most of them are buttery soft and have incredible pigmentation as you can see from the swatches.

There are a lovely range of colors here, enough to create a multitude of looks.  I think this is an incredibly versatile palette and I use it often.

The Sleek ultra mattes palette contains 12.1 grams of product and retails for $10.99 plus s/h at SleekMakeup.com

Overall:  10/10

Review: Sleek blush in Pomegranate

Yet another of the awesome items I received from Katie, here is the Sleek blush in Pomegranate.

Pomegranate can look a little scary in the pan.  It definitely leans purple, but just check out the swatches on the skin:

As you can see, it is definitely wearable.  It's a blue based pink not with a bit of a sheen, but no glitter.  The pigmentation on the blush is fantastic, but it also sheers out easily.  I easily got 6 hours of wear out of this blush before it started to fade.

I don't know if you can buy the individual blushes from Sleek anymore.  Their website only lists the Blush by 3 line.

The Sleek individual blushes contain 8grams of product.

Overall:  9/10

Review: Sleek Bad Girl Eyeshadow Palette

In April in was lucky enough to get some awesome goodies from Katie.  It's take me a while, but I'm finally getting around to swatching everything she sent.  (Holy procrastination, Batman.  I've been loving everything she sent, I just haven't been good about taking pictures.)

So first up is the Sleek Bad Girl Eyeshadow Palette

The labels are so reflective that it was hard to photograph, but here goes:

So as you could have guessed from the name, the shadows in the Bad Girl palette tend to be darker, vampy even and then a couple of highlight shades.  

First off, I have to say that I was so thrilled to get this palette.  I'd seen several YouTube videos from people in the UK using this palette and it just completely bums me out that it is such a pain to try and get Sleek items in the US.  I'd pretty much given up on ever getting anything from Sleek and then lo and behold, this beauty arrived.  :D

As you can tell from the pictures, some of the colors are very similar, but the textures are quite different.  Some of the shades are pearlescent and the others are matte.

And now, on to the swatches.  All colors are swatched dry with no primer.

First, is the top row of the palette, which overall had a consistency that was okay, but not fantastic, especially on the lighter shades.

The bottom row, in contrast, had phenomenal color payoff and texture.

The Bad Girl palette contains 12 shadows which contain 1.1grams each for a total of 13.1 grams.

Overall: 9/10