This concealer is very, very, very thick. That was the very first thing I noticed about it.



Also, go easy on the clicks. I clicked about fifty times just to get it started, and nothing happened for ages before it all spewed out at once. Gross.



It dries too quickly to ensure adequate blending and it's really quite dry considering where it is meant to be used (the delicate under eye area). You need a wetter product to be able to blend it well so you can avoid the reverse racoon look, and this doesn't cut it. I like to add a spot of moisturiser to it when I'm using it, just to give me that time that I need to blend and to soften the reflectiveness a little, but I shouldn't really have to do that.

Spread out:


Just for the product consistency, and the price (it's not cheap at about £7) I won't be repurchasing.

At blogging. At life. At tweeting and replying to comments.

Especially as it's the month of my blogaversary. Forgive me? I'll attempt to make it up to you in a giveaway format...:)

This was meant to be a three word entry which would look very cool and 'indie' hipster but I suck at coolness too.

fml.

I'm sure regular readers know exactly how I feel about the revamped Sleek lipstick range (hint - if you don't, follow the link) but since my last lipstick post got such a good response (and I haven't even technically reviewed that one yet. Lol) I thought it was high time I properly sampled the new range for myself.


I'm sure you'll recognise 'Mystic' from my 'Prom Face' post - that's the colour I wore to my afterprom. Me, a lipstick virgin, wearing bright purple to afterprom...good times. The origin of 'Barely There' is a little more convoluted to explain...


I've been reading the lovely Shamini's blog for a while, and during my hunt for Sleek lippies on a slight discount, I read a post in which she'd won a Sleek competition and was happy to send the two colours she wasn't keen on to blog readers. But I misunderstood (typical) and was like, 'Blog sale? How much do you want for them?' She then explained in terms my simple mind could understand, and I was happy to pay postage but then she refused, posted it, and skipped the country (on holiday, lol. But still) This lovely woman paid postage for the lipstick all the way from Norway <3 an act that firmly placed her on my 'Things I love about Norway' list which was started in 2009 and currently consists of:
Alexander Rybak (ETERNAL crush on that man...stole my heart at Eurovision 2009)
Shamini

Subsequent amazing hosting of Eurovision 2010
Being so much classier when it comes to pretty much everything 

General Awesome
One of my Uncles lives there and his wife is Norwegian and she's really pretty and nice.



I digress. Back to the lipstick, lol. When I requested it, I didn't actually realise how light it was! Perhaps I was mentally still thinking of the old Sleek Lipstick range, in which I could have worn pretty much ANY shade and have it fit my skin tone. I like that this range has plenty of nudes and 'my lips but better' shades for those with lighter skin (which, I'll be fair here, the old range lacked that) but really dislike the fact that it has NONE for those that aren't, well, Caucasian.



The range only needed a little tweaking to be inclusive rather than exclusive which is what they've done - they've moved from what is essentially one extreme to the other, alienating those that propped them up for so many years (namely the Afro Hair and Beauty shops who have stocked Sleek since forever.) Would it have killed Sleek to leave the two brown shades in, while adding all the new ones? I still sound really angry about this. Read the post, it's kind of a masterpiece. *modest*

Even though a Sleek rep assured me that they'd be coming out with two brown ones later in the year, so far I've seen zilch and it really seems to me like it was just said to appease the angry blogger (me).


'Barely There' is part of their 'Sheen' finish range, which when these came out a few months ago, bloggers left right and centre (a suspicious amount of whom seemed to get the product free to review) were saying were really moisturising. I was hoping that they would be, because my lips really need the moisture...sadly, it wasn't to be. You'd think that I was applying a matte lipstick by how it looked on and how not-moisturising it was. Which was a bit of a bummer, as I personally didn't find the sheen lipsticks from their old range drying at all.



My lips weren't in the greatest condition when I applied it but I really needed to take it off, condition, exfoliate and reapply just as I would for a matte lipstick when I was taking these shots. Wasn't impressed.
Oh, no need to say that the colour is hideous on me. I dare the great Nicki Minaj to try and pull a lip colour THIS light off. Nope. Not possible.
It turns peach on me? Don't quite understand it, lol - it looks pink on everyone else and in the tube.

Luckily, I found a way (quite by accident) to make this work.



The photos are a bit crap, but work with me here.
By applying a layer of Miner's Lip Tint (cherry) beforehand (I really needed the moisture), the colour was altered into a far more flattering rose pink that is slightly darker than what you're seeing in the photo now.



I actually quite like it and wore it like this to drop off my application for a job as a lifeguard.

Anyone else tried this particular lipstick?

WTF? I thought I made it end on the 14th of June, but it actually goes on until the 20th...I'm a fail. Sorry!

Yuuuuuuuck.
What a waste of 99p, seriously. When I saw this in the packet, I thought it'd be a subtle hint of slightly golden shimmer, but nice and moisturising with it.
Lol, how wrong was I?
To all intents and purposes, this lip balm is white. Shimmery, pearly, white. It's not flattering, and even with an average application the white colour is very visible. Perhaps if you had rather pink, not too pigmented lips, this could work, but on my dark pigmented lips it certainly does not!
I'm not keen on the scent, either. I'd describe it as off, chemical sugar. Coupled with the fact that this has little to no moisturisation property and simply just sits on the lips in a thin, waxy, uncomfortable layer (and is subsequently impossible to wipe off effectively, typical) and this is going in the bin. I won't be trying any of Superdrug's other lip balms from this range, either.

It's not a good 'un.

 So this is the brush set, all rolled up and that. Looking pretty innocuous.
 Fifteen brushes in total. My mum bought this like last year to give to me for Christmas this year, as it was reduced at the time from like £10 to £7, or something like that. I'm not totally accurate on the prices as this was a gift. You can buy brush sets on eBay for like a fiver, some of which I've been interested in. I'm sure they'll do better than this set, let me tell you.

Still, it's not all negative. The fan brush was a lot thicker than expected, which means it is good for applying pigmented blushes with a light hand, or for brushing away fallout.

That was it.

Seriously.

These ferrules came away from the handle the moment I removed the brushes from the packet. I am not lying.
There is a slight backstory to my first opening of this set. I was soaking my feet in a bucket (lmao, awkward) and decided to inspect the brushes while I waited. In typical fashion, I managed to drop the entire set into the bucket...yes, really. So I rescued them from their impromptu dunking, which only lasted about a second. I dried them off and left them in the air for a day or so.

When I came back to fully road test them, removing them one by one from the roll, I discovered that the four brushes above...were as they were. I was furious, and promptly double checked the rest of the brushes by giving them a small tug of the sort that might be expected when washing it or something.
 Within the brushes there is plenty of fail, too. You see the green in that brush? What on earth is green doing in that brush? That's just weird.
On closer inspection, it looks like dried grass. It was relatively easy to remove by pulling it.
In my hand, it does indeed look like dried grass of some description. Wtf. What is dried grass doing in a make up brush?

I was all geared up for the gorgeous, flourescent coral that I saw in the bottle, but unfortunately it didn't translate that way on my nails.

 It just pulls really orange on my skin. Nothing wrong with that. I just thought I was getting a coral :P It's still traffic light flourescent, which is cool.
That's about all this polish has going for it. It has a pretty poor formula, mildly streaky and takes quite a while to dry. It began to chip the morning after I'd painted it. No thanks.
It's ignited a coral lust I didn't know I possesed, though. I want to check out the MUA coral polish, looks interesting. Probably will have a better formula, too.

Did I not mention that I'm practically a professional artist before? No? Oh, well I think it's something you should know. Seriously, I'm so good GCSE Art wouldn't have me. I'd show up the teacher, you see.

 Sleek. We meet again.
 Is it me, or has there not been as much buzz around this palette as there have been over Sleek's previous releases? It's just that since the usual early release reviews, no one seems to have actually purchased one, bought it home and blogged about it. Maybe it's because the Bad Girl/Good Girl palettes are still fresh in people's minds.
 It only took Sleek 39319 years to catch on that naming your shadows is a good idea. I like the clear insert though, even though I totally threw it away after these photos were taken.
 Gorgeous shades. Sleek usually make shades that aren't too light and have nice pigmentation, which is one of the reasons that they're so popular. And these shades are *really* pigmented. Case in point:
 Above are my fingers after the first round of swatches. I'd wiped them off with a tissue as well. It took generous amounts of make up remover to restore my fingers to their natural state.
 This is the firs trow, swatched. Everything is intensely pigmented. While I'm still pissed with Sleek, I grudgingly gave credit where it was due. This palette has, so far, been blowing my mind. The glitter translates on the swatches, too, which I considered a sign that it wouldn't fall out all over my face.
If I'd stopped my review here, I would have been incredibly chuffed with Sleek. This is a case of, "Go and swatch this for yourself" because the sheer amount of pigment was just incredible. I could have barely touched my brush to the pans to have enough to cover like both eyelids. In fact, I'm convinced that all you need to do is hover your brush about three centimetres over the pans and eyeshadow just jumps like magic onto the brush. It's a theory I need to investigate more, but I'm pretty convinced in my hypothesis. And the last two shades applied like butter. The slip was just perfect. It was almost like applying silk to your eyelids.

My Pixie Epoxy came after I'd worn an eyeshadow from this palette for the first time. I was foolhardly, though, and thought all I'd need to wear this palette would be a slightly sticky base and so, armed my brush, the palette and a tissue for under my eyes, I set to work on Monday before school. I usually only spend about ten minutes (the last ten minutes before I absolutely have to leave the house, lol) on my makeup, so didn't feel the need to allocate any more time for it on that particular day.

The next series of ~incredibly high quality~ drawings illustrate my makeup application that day.

 "Check out my palette! It's a beast. I'm totally going to do a smoky eye today. To hell with the no makeup policy!"
 Narrator: Armed with brush, Lena set to work applying her chosen shades.
 "What is this."
 "NO SERIOUSLY WHAT IS THIS WHY IS THERE GLITTER ALL OVER MY FACE WHERE HAS THIS GLITTER COME FROM, SLEEK. INFORM ME. ENGLIGHTEN ME. WAI."
 "AN ENTIRE SHEET OF A4 PAPER IS NEED TO EXPRESS THE ANGER I CURRENTLY FEEL. NO MATTER HOW HARD I SCRUB, THIS GLITTER IS NOT VACATING MY FACE."
 "Realer tears have never been cried."
I had no more time to be faffing around with my face and went to school, highly light reflective. As the entire student population crowded around and mocked, I silently raised my fist to the heavens and cursed Sleek and their glitter (and base colour, just saying) fallout.

Naturally, the palette is now:
tl;dr version: Despite the tissue, silver glitter and base colour ended up all over my cheeks, and the glitter just would not go away no matter how much or what type of makeup remover I used. Then I put on a crap tonne of foundation, which I'd normally never wear to school, and you could still see it. It was ridic. As the day at school went on, glitter would periodically fall off my eyelids and onto my cheekbones.


So traumatising.

 This is part two because linked to this is part one.
Anyway. This first picture is a load of belated birthday/christmas presents from my friends (I had my party two weeks after my actual birthday, lol...) and apparantly they ordered the rest off the interwebs so they'll be coming soon. O_o

 I just thought this was really cool! If any of you remember my blue/orange leopard print manicure, when I went to take it off this happened with the remover...it amused me enough to take a picture of it.
 This product is a nice little bunch of nasty.
 I accidentally left this out of the "Products I've Disliked Using" callout. It's a very oily lipbalm. Too much and it makes you look as if your lips have been lacquered...I put this on without a mirror in an orchestra rehearsal and my music teacher full on stared at my lips for like a minute. Most uncomfortable rehearsal ever. *shudders*
This dries my lips out more than it moisturises and took forever to finish. But I've finished it now, so yey!
 But the rollerball thing is all kinds of cool. Perhaps another brand can put this innovation to good use? This was from Blistex, by the way.
 So futuristic. Pity the product doesn't actually deliver.
 Finished. 'Twas satisfactory. I still prefer spray deodorants, though.
 They see me Fauxnadin', they hatin'.
 This design is from the Bundle Monster Plates. This is ASOS Megan as the base colour, with Boots "Berrylicious" as the design colour.
 Same design, different colours. Miss Sporty Clubbing Colours in I don't know what, the silver one that I've reviewed here once before (Chrome? Liquid Metal? Plain old Silver? Did this even come with a name?) and the design is in ASOS Alexa.

And the rest was me pic whoring.

OK, vault cleared satisfactorily.