Good morning and welcome to my blog in 2013! It feels so strange to be entering yet another year...

I focused a lot on lip products and brushes in 2012, but there was a product family that I was continually hitting pan on, repurchasing, and then just never blogging about. Yep, you guessed it: Eyeliners! Admittedly, the clue was in the title ;)


Maybelline 'Master Drama' Kohl Liner
I actually own this in black and brown. I bought the brown first on a whim, as during the Summer Maybelline released a load of new products and these were included in the line up. As I was going swimming later and was fully aware that a certain rugby player male type of eye-candy would be there, I decided to invest in some waterproof cosmetics. You know, just completely coincidentally.

Anyway, after a long discussion between myself and a friendly sales assistant in Boots who told me she owned this very pencil and used it on her eyebrows, I walked home with this. And it is incredible - so, so robust and waterproof. It lasted me two hours of swimming, which I was more than impressed with. On the hand, it persists for about a day with just casual handwashing.

I haven't actually tested out the black on the waterline yet, but I'm hoping it'll be more of the same story. Best part? This liner was about a fiver, and as Maybelline was 3 for 2, it worked out to be considerably cheaper.

The only downside for me is just how soft they are - it's easy to overapply if you're a little heavy handed (as I often am). I end up having to sharpen these fairly frequently, maybe every four or so uses. I'd still recommend them to anyone looking for a budget, waterproof kohl liner.


MUA Extreme Felt Eyeliner

This was my first felt liner (yes, I am always late to the game, and what?) so I have a little soft spot in my heart for it. It doesn't last too long, usage wise. Perhaps three weeks to a month of use before it dries out and the ink gets grey. But at only £2, it fits squarely into that "cheap and cheerful staple" category.


MUA swatch


Maybelline Swatch (closest brown to camera)


Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Liner - Black
This Maybelline offering is my second gel eyeliner (the first being Sleek's InkPot) and it has left a much better impression on me than my first.
It looks like the sort of thing that will stay moist for a long time - the lid is sturdy and seals tightly each time, and the frosted glass looks quite classy and evokes ideas of higher end brands such as Bobbi Brown. So I'm more than happy leaving the pot on my makeshift vanity.

For me, this is not a 24 hour liner, though. Out of all the liners I've posted, this gel liner actually survives the least amount of time before running; about six, seven hours. By the end of my college day, I end up with visible smudges by the corners of my eyes. It's quite disappointing. I've tried to remedy the problem by extending my eye primer over the parameters where it'd usually be, but it doesn't always stop the smudging. Boo.

 

I was really excited when the promo pictures for these came out. I like mattes. I like brights. I like darks. Triple crown, right?



Sort of. I like mattes, brights, and darks, but I'm not too keen on Sleek mattes. Historically, they've been incredibly hit and miss for me - even the standard black colour that's included with pretty much every palette ever varies in pigmentation from palette to palette (for example, the one included with my Acid palette is pretty pathetic, but the one in my Circus palette is blacker than your average collapsed megastar). The Bohemian palette is full of mattes with fantastic colour payoff, whereas the Chaos palette, an all matte one, won't give you payoff even if you take a chainsaw to it. This inconsistency is present in almost every palette I own by them, and countless reviews on this here blog of mine attest to that. So I was quite cautious when I decided to invest in these.




As you can see, they look absolutely stunning in the pan.


I'm enjoying the colour choices for the Dark palette. Most of the colours are thoroughly useable, and I have a thing for dark blue/teal/green eyeshadows of which there are plenty here.





Again, I appreciate the colour choices for the Brights palette, though I feel a red wouldn't have gone amiss somewhere here, and the pinks are slightly too similar for my liking. Still, a good effort.



The Darks colours are fine when swatched - less fallout than other Sleek shades I own (I'm handing that to the removal of the waffle thatched pattern from the Sleek eyeshadows, now they resemble the MUA ones) and on the whole, good pigmentation. A couple of shades disappointed me, the white and the grey, but as I wouldn't get a lot of use out of those anyway I'm not going to cry over it.



With flash:



The pigmentation of the greens and the lightish brown are especially good, and this transfers to an ease of use on the eyes, as well. Good job!

Unfortunately, it all comes apart here for the Brights palette. Booooo.


Why do I have one stupidly bright green and a collection of substandard other colours? All the lighter shades are pants, the yellow is about as visible as air, the purple is piss poor and the light blue resembles flour. Judging you, Sleek. Tempted to get a refund...the only colours worth using are the green, the turquoise colour, the orange and the slightly brighter pink. Waste of £7.

Conclusion: Darks = good and bang on trend. Brights = buy some chalk instead, it's x10 more effective.

I have far too many of these.


Electro Peach, Pink Cadiliac, Perfect Plum.




 
I think these, after the eyeshadow palettes (obviously) were some of the first things I'd ever tried from Sleek. Their sheerness meant they were school appropriate. Ah, memories.

That was then. This is now:
 
Starting from left: Sugar May (limited edition), Pink Cadilliac, Raspberry Rhapsody, Electro Peach, Chocolate Kiss, Powder Pink. Middle: Perfect Plum.

It's ludicrous that I have so many of these because I don't even like them that much. Petroleum based products in general don't help my lips, they simply maintain their dry condition until the skin up and peels of its own accord, so I don't really get the 'conditioning' effect that other people rave about with these, and many of them are as sheer as hell so I'm not even getting colour!
 
 
Mwahahaha! Cover your eyes, dirty used makeup in five, four, three, two, one...
 




 
I find a layer of Carmex or a Nivea balm prior to application of these means that I get both conditioning and colour when I wear them.They're ideal for a school day where I can't be bothered with maintaining a strong lip colour and have gone dramatic on the eyes, so lip colour overkill isn't necessary.



Left to Right: Powder Pink, Perfect Plum, Chocolate Kiss, Electro Peach, Sugar May, Raspberry Rhapsody, Pink Cadilliac.

Again, in slightly different light:


On the lips, Perfect Plum is by far the most pigmented (looks like a colour saturated lip gloss, to be honest) followed by Chocolate Kiss. Electro Peach, Pink Cadilliac and Powder Pink are all reasonably pigmented (and they're from the core line) and Raspberry Rhapsody and Sugar May being least pigmented, though somewhat layerable. I guess, as with any product, if you have less pigmented lips then these are more likely to be more visible on you.

Yes, I did purchase all five palettes. I was initially under the impression that these were limited edition, but they're only limited edition in Superdrug, apparantly, and will remain permanent on the Sleek website, so if you're upset that you've 'missed' their sale in stores, fear not.

First up are Pink Sprint and Flame.




Pink Sprint is the only entirely matte palette. I think I'll end up getting the least use out of this simply because all my other Sleek blush singles are also matte, so it's not like I'm short of matte blushes. Even so, it's really beautiful.






As with many Sleek blushes, it swatches a little chalky but has no problem once applied to the cheek. Pink Sprint, as a palette, screams 'summer' to me. It's asking to be paired with jet black eyeliner and some bright coral on the lips for a day in the city. The colour choices are also pigmented enough to work on any skintone. Sleek gets a thumbs up from me on this.

Flame is actually rather breathtaking.



I love all three of the colours in this. Actually, there isn't a colour in any of the palettes that I hate/don't use, but the bright red is reminscent of Scandalous (Valentine's Day, 2010) a colour I already own and get a lot of use from, and the two blushes have a small hint of shimmer in them which really bring light to the face. They look scary in the pan, but really are beautiful on.

Planning to have the remaining three as well as dupes/comparisons to other Sleek blushes in later posts!

 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.