Sleek True Colour Lipsticks, Old versus New

Posted by on Sunday, April 24, 2011

 Follow on from original post, here.

So I went to Superdrug armed with seven quid (some of which was later spent on bread, fml. Meant I had less to spend on cosmetics from my already pitiful amount) my camera, and my winning smile.

Monehz - to purchase and review.
Camera - to swatch.
Smile/undeniable good looks - to ward off any strange looks from passersby and/or sales assistants.

OK. So here's the stand, with the two lipsticks for six pounds offer that they've been running:
SAM_8103

And the swatches:
SAM_8102
I'll try my hardest to name these from the website. Might get a couple of similar shades mixed up, sorry :/
From left to right:
1. Stiletto
2. Bare All
3. Baby Doll
4. Mulberry
5. O.M.G
6.
7.
8. Fuschia
9. Naked
10. Heartbreaker
11. Cherry
12. Peaches and Cream
13. Mystic
14.
15. Pink Freeze?
16.
17. Peaches and Cream?
18.
19. Papaya Punch/Coral Reef
20.

It's late and I can't decipher the rest, any ideas would be appreciated :P

Old range:
SAM_8104SAM_8105
Again, left to right
1. Blaze
2. Cherry
3. Fuschia
4. Vixen
5. Cocoa
6. Majestic
7. Earth
8. Amethyst
9. Rose Petal

Any way. So quoted again for ease of reading. New range:
SAM_8102
And the old range (minus Mulberry, but that's in the new range anyway. It's a purple)
SAM_8105

Right away, the difference in colour families is pretty damn visible. The old line had three different browns (you can barely see Blaze because it is THAT close to my skin tone) a couple of brights, some neutrals, and some dark, vampy colours, as well as the staple red. All could have been easily worn by black women and there was still a fair bit left for lighter skinned beauties as well.
The new line has no browns comparable to the old line. It has two very dark lip colours. It's nudes are far lighter in tone than the old line and are clearly designed to be worn by people with lighter skin tones and it has a heavy focus on peach and light pink shades, which don't often work particularly well on people with dark skin.

I was lucky and they'd literally just put the testers out, so I could use them on my lips without the risk of herpes. Right away, on my skintone and most likely on people that have a similar skintone to myself, 2, 3, 7, possibly 8, 10, 13, and 18 are completely unworkable on me - I look stupid. People of African descent tend to have larger lips (You guys have seen my lip swatches, you KNOW how true that is for me, lol) so light colours tend to make these look bigger, not only drawing more overall attention to the lip colour (which is very far from the skin tone, because it is in a light lipstick colour) but also making the lips appear oversized. I'm sure there are ladies out there that can rock this with confidence. I can't, lol.

I don't understand why Sleek discontinued the old line? If it's for everyone, then why not merge the two, and then a wider range of people will be able to find something for them. The formulas are pretty much the same (i.e, pretty hit and miss) and they've got a similar balance of matte, sheen and shimmer finishes. The only reason I could think of would be that the old range was too offputting to lighter skinned shoppers with the browns and what not, so they eliminated it completely. Not that it actually was, but that was the way their marketing person may have percieved it. Like I said, I'm waiting to hear back from Sleek as to why they've made the decision, and I haven't heard anything yet. If I do then I'll update these.

7 Comments

  1. Such as shame :{ I much prefer the smaller old range, again despite my paleness, as they weren't bog-standard-buy-from-any-brand lippies! x

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  2. SO dying to try them out, man, these are insanely pigmented!!

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  3. They were really unique colours, Jenny :( It is a shame.

    @Anna - both the new and the old stained my hand a little, mostly the more red shades. So yeah, pretty pigmented.

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  4. I couldn't stop laughing when you said the herpes line! lol.

    I liked their old range! As you said, why couldn't they just combine the two? Sleek are always UN ON-POINT if thats even a word. First the discount codes.. Now this? What's going on.

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  5. I don't love a brown lipstick on me, but then again I don't love a washed out pale nude either. I'm somewhere in the middle. Seeing as Sleek make up was originally aimed for darker skinned ladies, you'd have thought they'd have kept at least a few of the best selling darker nude shades?!

    Anyway, I love your investigative posts, they have a very undercover feel, especially since you risked herpes. All in the line of duty ;D

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  6. Wow, Fuschia is INCREDIBLY pigmented and bright.

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  7. Lol! Glad I amused someone, Naomi K!
    I agree, I wouldn't have complained if they had combined the two.

    I know right, 25FLONDON. It's really annoying!
    Thank you for the compliment :P

    @Jo - The tester was melted and at the end of the tube. While I'm sure it is, the tester basically smushed itself on my arm - not a true representation! Sorry.

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