Peking Opera with an ‘80s twist

It’s the Easter weekend – which means loads of bank holidays off work for us lucky office workers, hooray!
The weather here in London has been absolutely gorgeous so far this week which put me in the mood for wearing some really bright make-up colours today.  I had a friend staying over and didn’t want to spend too long doing my make-up and keeping my friend waiting so I came up with this super-easy fun look that I like to think is a bit ‘80s but that my friend also said made her think of Peking Opera.

Although it's quite bright I think it's still quite wearable as most of the bright colour is just concentrated on the outside of the eye and it's balanced by matte neutrals.


I’ve written posts about all the products I used for this look which I've linked to below.  Here’s a quick run-through of how I created it:

Sleek Paraguaya palette: I used Cameo as a base colour across the eyelid up to the crease and blended out just above, and Sandstone as a highlight under the brow.
Sleek Good Girl palette: the bright pink that I used was Pink Punch which is in the top row of the palette. I applied the bright pink in about 2 min, just dabbing it on in a triangular shape on the outside of my eyelids with a smallish shading brush and not bothering to blend it in too well which I think created an interesting shape that wasn’t too defined.
No. 7 Gel Eyeliner in Turquoise: I ran this along the outer 3/4 of my upper lash line for some bright, contrasting definition.

I don’t have anything on my lips in the photos above, they’re just naturally really pale.  I did put some lip gloss on just to add a bit of colour before I went out, but nothing too bright because I felt my eyes were bright enough already.
I didn’t bother with any foundation or mascara because it was so warm today I thought it would just smudge if I got too hot when I was walking about outside.  I used Urban Decay primer potion and my eye makeup was all in place after I got home after being out and about for about four hours including walking in the sun for about an hour.

Why I Prefer the Sleek Good Girl Palette

Sleek launched two eyeshadow palettes at the same time at the end of Oct '10 called Good Girl (limited edition) and Bad Girl (permanent). I know that there have been loads of reviews and pics all over blogging-land already so I'm a few months behind, but that has given me the advantage of having had some time to try the palettes out.

I've noticed that most people seem to prefer the Bad Girl palette, but I actually prefer Good Girl. I have very pale skin and very dark hair, so I have to be careful with dark eyeshadows as I can end up looking like a vampire, and like I have tiny eyes, which is not terribly flattering. I don't wear many pink clothes but I do love the way that pink make-up can really wake up my face.

First up here are some shots of the palette - sorry they're not great quality, but they do give a general idea of the palette and the colours:

right: with flash
left: without flash







You can click on the pic below for a close-up of the shades:










Here are the colours swatched onto my arm over a creamy primer:

The shadows are very pigmented and apply onto the skin as they appear in the palette. I left the colours on my arm for about three hours before washing them off, during which time they hadn't budged. They came off with warm soapy water and didn't stain my skin. I always wear these shadows over a primer and they can last all day so no complaints there.


As I mentioned I've had this palette for a few months and I have made noticeable dents in a few of the colours already even though I only use it some weekends. The palette contains just over 1g of each colour, which is a generous portion but I do feel that I do use a good whack of shadow with each application. The texture is very soft and and the shadows crumble at the touch of a brush so there is a lot of fall-out within the palette and potentially on the face when applying the product. The palette comes with a double-ended sponge applicator which I actually find quite useful for picking up the product and patting it onto the eyelid before blending it out with a brush. I find that it also helps to reduce fall-out and mess within the palette itself, as sometimes if I use a brush it can flick the colour about as the shadows are so soft. Also for this reason I wouldn't really recommend travelling with this product as it does feel a bit fragile.

The palette contains 12 different shades, but as you can see a lot of them are very similar, so even when I do run out of one particular shade it won't be a huge leap to switch to using another one - so that's kind of a disadvantage with an advantage tacked on.

I use this palette in two different ways - either as a block of colour across the lid (paired with a big flick of eyeliner if I want extra definition) or as a cloud of colour above the crease, which is the look I went for today.

I used the 2nd lightest shade across my lid and the intense pinks from the top-right of the palette, mixed with a tiny bit of Fishnet from my Urban Decay Deluxe Shadow Palette blended up from the crease and taken half-way across my lower lash line. I find that it's a great way to introduce a splash of colour into my look that's not overwhelming.