Sleek Makeup is a UK drugstore cosmetics brand that, while available to purchase online with international shipping, has not yet arrived in stores in Canada. I've been intrigued by the brand for a while, so when I saw the opportunity to buy some of their products in person at IMATS last November, I selected several blushes, one of which is the Blush By 3 palette in Pumpkin. The Blush By 3 "is the ultimate blush palette offering three times the impact in one compact. With intense pigment, you can use these complementary shades individually or blend together for a unique shade. Layer for further intensity." Each Blush By 3 palette is packaged in a slim rectangular black mirrored compact, comes with a total of 20 grams of product, and retails for $14.99 USD.
Lantern is a medium-dark warm vibrant orange-red with a soft shimmer-sheen. It has a soft, silky texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is similar though more shimmery than MAC Devil (PRO), warmer and more orange than MAC Frankly Scarlet, slightly more muted and more shimmery than NARS Exhibit A, lighter and redder than NARS Liberté, darker and redder than Make Up For Ever S742 Tomato, and softer and less metallic than Make Up For Ever ME744 Poppy.
Squash is a medium cool vibrant bubblegum pink with a soft satin sheen. It has a soft, silky texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is darker and brighter than MAC Peony Petal, cooler than MAC Whole Lotta Love, darker than NARS Desire, brighter than NARS Angelika, slightly warmer than NYX Pinky, and warmer than TheBalm Lace.
Pumpkin Pie is a medium vibrant tangerine orange with a matte finish. It has a soft, silky texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is more yellow and more matte than MAC Modern Mandarin, brighter and more yellow than Illamasqua Excite, darker and less yellow than Make Up For Ever S732 Orange, less red and much more matte than NARS Taj Mahal, and darker and brighter than NYX Cinnamon.
I doubt you'd find a blush palette anywhere for a better value than Sleek's Blush By 3. And I don't just mean value in terms of quantity vs. price (seriously, though, you get a whopping 20 grams of product). I mean in terms of quality, too. All three of these shades are super-smooth and finely-milled, producing even application with full colour pay-off that is easy to layer and easy to blend out. They are richly pigmented and you can get true-to-pan colour effortlessly, but they're soft and silky so that they're not hard or daunting to use. The vibrancy and depth of the shades work extremely well on dark skintones, but they also blend out well to leave just a soft flush of colour, which bodes well for those who are fairer and don't want to rock the clown-cheek look. Bonus: the slim compact makes it fantastic for travel. It's really a damn shame that Sleek isn't available in stores here, because I really, truly believe that they can out-perform a lot of other drugstore or "high street" brands. But for now, we can order online for a reasonable shipping cost. After being so impressed with Pumpkin, you can be sure that, as a true blush fiend and hoarder, I will be looking into the other palette offerings.
Ah, I meant to explore these guys some day but it looks like clown cheek phase is finally leaving me. It's like I have trouble finding my cheek bones lately and end up with blush EVERYWHERE if I'm not careful. So odd.
ReplyDeleteLOL!!! I've never heard of that happening; maybe you get too excited with applying blush, lol. But you need to come back to the land of clown cheeks!!! WE MISS YOU HERE!!!! :(
Delete