Double Bright Contrast Eyeliner

Phew, what a name for a post! I think it’s quite apt for this look though. I wore this last week when there were still a few sunny days to remind me of the summer.

I used my Sleek Eau La La liner in Pumpkin to sketch out the shape of the orange flick first then patted an orange pigment/eyeshadow dust on top with a small flat brush. I then used a creamy turquoise gel eyeliner to draw in the lower flick along my lashline. The look was actually pretty easy to do and I was really pleased with how it turned out. I’m looking forward to experimenting with this eyeliner shape again in different colour combinations.

Let me know if you have any suggestions for colour combinations that you think would work well together!

On a side note, my eyebrows are completely grown out now. I haven’t touched them for as long as I can remember so I guess around a year now. Sure they look wispy at the edges but to be honest I don’t think they look that bad and I love how low maintenance they are so I don’t have any plans to change my eyebrow regime in the immediate future.

MAC in Extra Dimension Summer 2013

This collection came out in the UK last month and featured a ton of products in MAC’s special “Extra Dimension” finish, which is meant to be a hybrid cream/powder product. I’ve got a few Extra Dimension products from previous launches and I quite like them so I picked up just a few pieces from this collection.

I got eyeshadows (£16.50) in Zestful (light, shiny golden white green) and Smokey Mauve (metallic plum) and a blush (£19) in Flaming Cheek (fuschia).

I’m not sure how clear it is from the photo above but I hope that you can see that the blush developed a weird waxy “crust” the first few times I swatched the surface, and I basically had to jab it off with a slightly stiff blusher brush before I could get any decent colour pay off from the product. For £19, you can bet I wasn’t impressed! Once the crust was gone the colour payoff was fine.

The eyeshadows apply slightly differently to how they appear in the pan as they are slightly sheer – but I quite like this as I find it lends them an ethereal quality. Zestful looks great as an all over wash of colour or highlighter on the inner corner of the eye, and Smokey Mauve is just a nice, easy everyday metallic to wear all over the lid.

Flaming Cheek, despite looking a bit scarily bright in the pan, is actually very easy to wear as it goes on quite sheer but can be built up. However, check out how my product looked after just one week of use – it looks like I’ve used a massive amount of product already! I think I’ll stick to MAC’s normal powder blush formula from now on.

Sleek Candy Collection

Sleek Makeup have just released a limited edition summer collection called the Candy Collection which consists of a 12-shade eyeshadow palette (i-Candy, £7.99), pout paint (Lol-Lip-Pop, £4.99) and blush-by-three blush trio (Sweet Cheeks).

I did hesitate for a while over whether to buy the entire collection or not. The products aren’t exactly expensive, but they’re not really what you could call cheap either. What I would say though is that Sleek are a great value-for-money brand when you consider the price-to-quality ratio. In the end, I decided to buy them all instead of any other make-up this month.

The products come in cardboard packaging featuring a mouth-watering cupcake and sweets design. I wish they could print these designs onto the make-up packaging itself which is the same slick black packaging as normal.

I have to say that while the blushes and pout paint definitely remind me of candy floss and iced cakes, the eyeshadow shades don’t exactly scream “candy” to me. I think this might have been more suitable as the palette in the Aqua Collection while the Lagoon palette would have been more suitable as a candy palette. Here are the two side by side for a quick comparison (Lagoon palette on top):

First up, here are swatches of the blushes and Pout Paint.

From left to right: Cupcake (creme), Dolly Mix (matte), Candy Floss (satin); Lol-Lip-Pop pout paint.

I was super-excited about this blush-trio and originally this was the only product from the collection that I was going to buy. However, I wasn’t too impressed when the creme blush left staining on my arm when I removed it with my normal make-up remover so it does make me think that these might be just a bit too pigmented for blushes. I’m not too keen on the formula of these.

I have been enjoying the Pout Paint more than I thought that I would though. There’s a whole range of different Pout Paint shades available and they’re designed to be easy to mix up to allow you to create your own custom colours. This one is no different to the others in the range - it offers fantastic pigmentation and opacity, the texture is creamy and very comfortable on the lips, and the product lasts a respectable 3-4h on me. The main disadvantage for me is the packaging, which I find a bit difficult to work with. Pout Paints aren’t the easiest to top up on the go due to the fine nozzle and I always apply them with a lip brush to get a sharp line.

Below, the eyeshadows swatched.

Left to right: Strawberry Sherbet, Bon Bon, Parma Violet, Apple Sour, Pear Drop, Flump, Liquorice, Blue Fizzle, Aniseed, Bubble Gum, Mint Cream, Cream Soda

The quality of this palette is excellent. I think this is one of the best quality Sleek palettes that I own. The pigmentation of Parma Violet in particular is unbelievable – it’s definitely the most intense violet eyeshadow I own. While I think that the colour scheme is a bit incoherent, you can definitely mix-and-match up some fun bright looks with this palette.

To conclude, this collection is brilliant if you love bright colours, but definitely one to steer clear of if you prefer your neutrals. In the pic below I’m wearing Apple Sour, Pear Drop and Flump eyeshadows (along with some purple eyeliner and mascara too), a mixture of the two powder blushes and Lol-Lip-Pop pout paint.