Sleek Makeup i-Divine Ultra Mattes VI Brights Palette and Eau La La Liners

New to Sleek Makeup are matte eyeshadow palettes and waterproof eyeliners. The brand recently sent me the colourful palette (there are only two; the other comprises dark hues) and a trio of the pencils to try. Below are my swatches of/thoughts on them.

The mineral-based Ultra Mattes VI Brights Palette contains the following shades:

• Chill – an aqua
  
• Pout – a fuchsia
  
• Sugarlite – a violet
  
• Dragon Fly – a greened-teal
  
• Picker – a deep rose pink
  
• Bamm! – a canary yellow
  
• Cricket – a grass green
  
• Bolt – an azure
  
• Strike – a blood orange
  
• Floss – a cotton candy pink
  
• Crete – a dove grey
  
• Pow! – an ivory

So vibrant are they that they’d make beautiful rainbow eye looks!

At £6.49, this palette is a steal. The colours are, for the most part, blendable and soft, more satin in texture than flat matte. They also seem to kick up slightly less powder than the regular Sleek shadows.

A caveat: While they do last, the deeper tones are wont to stain the skin. It’s best not to apply them directly on the skin – I would recommend a foundation/eyeshadow primer barrier for these.

A good complement to these colourful shadows are the Eau La La Liners which promise to be ‘pigment-popping’ and suitable for use on the eyes, lips, brows and body. The second claim caught my attention because the range comes in vivid hues that would be great for experimental looks and costume makeup.

Pictured here are:

• Red Sky Night – a medium matte pink
• Bullion – a shimmery 24k gold
• White Noise – a soft matte white

Priced at £3.99, the pencils are smooth and smudge-proof once set, making them great for the lash line and as shadow bases.

While they’re fairly budge-proof, the packaging of these Made-in-China liners leaves a lot to be desired. The typeface looks classy but the stickers cheapen the look. The coloured bases are a little rough too and don’t have a seamless finish. I supposed I’m used to the usual Made-in-Germany pencils that are of higher quality packaging-wise and which have the words printed directly on the pencil barrels, as well as have smooth bottoms (ha, I can’t believe I used this phrase on pencils!).

I may seem persnickety but I love pencil liners and have tried many, so these little flaws do bother me.

The cap is very tight, making its removal difficult.  To pull it off with force can cause nib nicks and breakage, which happened with my White Noise whose tip fell off (it looks intact in the bigger photo above as I’d smooshed the nib back into the barrel). I also read on Twitter that some customers have experienced pencil shrinkage and broken lead…quite disturbing. Both defects are apparent in my press samples, though the lead hasn’t loosened entirely in all three pencils.

The brand seems really nice about product exchanges, though, so you could take a chance on these multi-purpose pencils – they do have a good colour range and will be a lot of fun to play with.

The palette and liners are available at Superdrug in the UK, as well as on the Sleek website which ships internationally.

Image source: Sleek Makeup