Sleek Makeup. No more a stranger to most of us, with their i-Divine eyeshadow palettes taking top billing in the budget eyeshadow palette category. They do seriously take the cake for pigmented shadows and at US$9.99 / £7.99 (approx RM30-40 depending on exchange rate) for 12 shadows, one can hardly complain.
Occasionally, Sleek Makeup comes up with limited edition palettes sold alongside their permanent line and this was the case towards the end of 2012.
We were presented with the limited edition Sparkle 2 i-Divine eyeshadow palette. A palette of 12 sparkly eyeshadows for the party season. I especially liked the box for this one. It looked suitably festive and I like how Sleek prints the names of the palette on the cover of the case now. It makes it easier to spot the one you want amongst the rest of your i-Divine palettes :) Its still available on the website actually, so you can still get it while stocks last and as I will show you below, it isn’t all as sparkly as the name implies.
In this handy little compact then, is a selection of shimmer shadows and glitter eyeshadows. Personally, I felt this palette was a bit hit and miss. I’ll show you why.
In terms of colour, this is one of the more vibrantly coloured eyeshadow palettes I’ve seen at this sort of price and, as the box implies, is a suitably festive eyeshadow palette. If you want to play about with colours and experiment without breaking the bank, you could do worse than pick up an i-Divine palette. Work out the colours that work with your skin and when you feel ready, you can graduate to something else. Or perhaps you could just continue using your Sleek palettes. They aren’t the best, but they aren’t bad either.
You can see that the shadows were primarily glittery or shimmery and this is true throughout the palette. The difference between this and some of the Japanese brand eyeshadow palettes is that I find the shimmer and glitter in this Sparkle 2 palette a little over the top. They also don’t translate as well to skin as you will see below.
The stars, as is true in ALL Sleek i-Divine palettes are the shimmer shadows. That is their strength. I’ve tried a few Sleek Makeup palettes and they don’t do matte colours well – the colours are hard and patchy and colour is dull. I have to say that the same is true of the Sparkle 2 palette.
Some of the colours in there looked lovely and bright and glittery in pan but when swatched, the glitter failed to adhere to the skin and what was left was just a matte shade that wasn’t very nice to start. Bit of a disappointment there. Let me just quickly take you through them.
(1) Chocolate Penny (Shimmer Bronze) (2) Blue Spruce (Matte Turquoise with silver glitter) (3) Mulled Wine (Satin Cranberry with golden glitter) (4) Truffle (Shimmer Brown) (5) Mistletoe (Satin Dark Green with Silver Glitter) (6) Illusion (Satin Purple with Silver Glitter) (7) Festive (Satin Red-Purple with Silver Glitter) (8) Gold Ribbon (Shimmer Gold) (9) Glitz & Glamour (Matte Dark Grey with Silver Glitter) (10) Tinsel (Shimmer silver) (11) Twinkle ( Satin Navy Blue with Silver Glitter) (12) Starry Night (Satin Black with Silver Glitter)
The swatches at the bottom correspond directly to the colours in the pan at the top.
You will notice that (1) Chocolate Penny, (4) Truffle (8) Gold Ribbon and (10) Tinsel look quite lovely and smooth and shimmery. These are indicative of Sleek Makeup’s strengths in their i-Divine eyeshadow palettes. The quality of their shimmer shadows are impressive at that sort of price point.
(3) Mulled Wine (5) Mistletoe (6) Illusion (7) Festive (11) Twinkle and (12) Starry Night have a matte base but are very strongly pigmented. The glitter that you see in the pan fail to translate onto skin so it just sits on the skin as chunks of glitter. In fact, because they don’t adhere, they fall off. If you blend, they fall off. I’m fine with that. All it means is that you get a more wearable colour. In fact, once you rub away at the colour in the pan, the glitter all but goes away after a while. I wish there was no glitter, and they were all shimmery instead.
The most disappointing colours were (2) Blue Spruce and (9) Glitz and Glamour. I held a lot of hope for Blue Spruce because it looks a beautiful turquoise in the pan. But when I swatched, hardly any colour came off and it applied looking dull. Ditto Glitz and Glamour which is nothing like the name implies, sadly. Mistletoe was another disappointment. I liked the vibrant looking deep green in the pan, but on skin, it looked just blah. I wasn’t impressed.
Here’s an example of a very simple, not very festive eye I did using a few of the colours – Truffle (dark brown shimmer) as a base, layered with Mistletoe (green) over and Gold Ribbon (gold shimmer) at the top.
You may notice how smooth the shimmer shades are on skin. At these sort of prices, I’d say they are a joy to work with. Mistletoe (green) disappeared into the brown, but at least the chalkiness of it wasn’t as apparent since it was layered over a workable colour. You will notice there is no glitter, despite Mistletoe being a glitter colour – therein lies the conundrum. Where goes the glitter? Answer: It falls off when you blend.
And for completeness, here’s how it looked overall.
Also featuring: Sleek Makeup Be Beautiful BB Cream, Chanel Narcissus Joues Contraste blush, Antipodes Remarkably Red lipstick
Not exactly much of a party look is it? LOL! But this also means that if you can, you could just as easily wear this out for a normal day or evening. The shadows are long wearing, and stay on well. Again, at these prices I guess I don’t have much to complain about. But if I wanted to nitpick, yes some of the shadows weren’t quite up to par and others could do with a little more work. That said, its under RM50 and you get at least 9-10 workable colours. Its hard to quarrel with that sort of economic sense.
In a nutshell
The Sleek Makeup Sparkle 2 i-Divine eyeshadow palette is a limited edition eyeshadow palette released for the holiday season at the end of 2012. There are 12 eyeshadows in the palette containing a mixture of shimmer and glitter shadows. I found that the quality of the shimmer shadows were up to the mark as reflective of all Sleek Makeup shimmer shadows. However, the other colours were a bit of a hit or miss. The majority was pigmented, but some of the glitter failed to adhere to skin. I didn’t mind that because it means I can wear them on normal days. I think its a fun palette if you are on a budget and want to have a decent quality eyeshadow palette with a good mixture of colours to play around with, but it will ultimately be your preferences that rule the day in the end.
Pros: Most of the colours are strongly pigmented and adhere well to skin, The shimmer shades are lovely and soft and even on skin, Affordable
Cons: Most of the glitter does not adhere to skin so those who like glittery eyeshadow will be disappointed, Some of the colours are not very pigmented and come off a bit chalky and patchy
Who will like this: Anyone on a budget and who wants a fun eyeshadow palette with nice pigmented deeper colours
Have you tried any Sleek Makeup i-Divine eyeshadow palettes?
I think the best ones to get, if you are really keen on trying these affordable palettes, is Original and Storm. I was lucky to be gifted with Storm by a lovely reader and I quite enjoy using it still, every now and again. Its a nice well-rounded palette with light and dark shades, and importantly, contains none of the irritating matte shades so you get just the really nice quality shimmer shades at a nice low price! Yay! :D
Paris B
Sleek Makeup i-Divine Eyeshadow Palette in Sparkle 2 Price: US$9.99 / £7.99 Availability: SleekMakeup.com (ships internationally) or Superdrug stores Limited Edition: Yes, 2012
Sleek definitely sets the benchmark higher for other drugstore brands. I haven’t tried their eye shadow palettes before, but the blushes are also crazy pigmented! Even though there’s slight chalkiness and the glitter disappears (LOL!), I still think the colours show very well on your lids. I tried some other brands which just blend muddy and overall ‘bleh’. Love the green and gold combination :-)
Oh yes, I’m impressed with their quality especially their shimmer shadows. The matte ones take too much work and I should break out the blush I have. Its a bright pink! :D
I was soooo crazy over this before it was launched and I checked sleek website everyday to see if I could buy it yet. Anyway, was rather disappointed when I saw the real thing delivered by my mule. :(
The khaki green one is still OK I guess. Well do you think using any sort of product (like the make up forever gel… I don’t remember the name) will help hold the glitters together? It’s such a shame if they fall out as glitters are the only reason for this palette, really. :)
Sorry to hear you were disappointed, Ting. So was I really, by the time I had swatched it all. I honestly don’t know if anything can help the glitters stay on because I find that the glitter just “sits” on top of the skin and its not fine enough. I think I know the eye gel thing you mean (I can’t remember the name either!) but I’m not sure if it’ll help.
I found the name (from your blog, actually… hehe). It’s MUFE Eye Seal. I don’t have it as MUFE left Thailand last year… :( Can I still get it in KL?
Oooh Eye Seal! It should still be available. MUFE is now only available at Sephora but I have a little boycott going on because the SAs make me mad lol!
haiyaaah… bad SAs. When will they learn to gain customers instead of loosing them? T_T
It actually looks quite lovely on you. Will keep this in mind when looking for an affordable eye shadow palette. Thanks for the review!
Thank you Victoria :) Yes, they are worth checking out for a very affordable eyeshadow palette of 12 mostly useable colours and they have palettes to suit every preference too from the wild, to the subtle :)
I have Oh So Special and Storm in my wishlist :P and few of their blushes too! ;)
Teehee… I’m not so keen on Oh So Special but Storm is a nice choice! I have a pink blush – Flamingo I think. Maybe I’ll swatch that soon?
Aw that’s too bad about the glitter not adhering correctly–this palette could’ve really been a special one! I wonder if using a sticky base would help? Also disappointing about the lack of pigmentation on some of the shades, especially since they look so vibrant in the pan. Still, I really love the look you created with it. It’s really fun yet wearable and looks great on you, Paris!
Thank you Becca :) Its wearable for the most part which is pretty good, considering the small pricetag. I’m not sure about the base but it would most certainly help intensify the colours :)
I just did a Sleek Makeup review too! (so coincidental!) but on the Luminaire Highlighting Concealer, not the eyeshadow palettes ^_^ I like the look of ALL their eyeshadow palettes, especially the i-Divine Ultra Matte V1 so bright omg, and very impressed by the good reviews given their low price point! Would love to purchase the oh-so-special palette but I’m not very good with eyeshadows plus my oily lids are bleagh >_<
p/s: The mistletoe blend looks really good on you!
Hi Rhi, what a coincidence! Yay! :D I think Sleek does some pretty amazing eye makeup palettes – crazy bright colours, as you have mentioned! I don’t even know how to wear them (Have you seen the Acid palette? OMG! LOL!) I was never good with eyeshadow either (still learning) so the best way to get better is to experiment. Most oily lidded gals I know love eyelid primer so try that and see if it helps :)
Hiya Paris~ Yes the acid palette is crazy bright too (by our demure asian standards XD), it reminded me of my watercolour palette in primary sch! And yes, eyelid primer…it’s probably time I surrendered and got one >_<
TGIF, have a good weekend! ^_^
Hahaha yes! The Acid palette did remind me of school and art class too. Definitely not one for my tastes and as for eyelid primer, those I know who have oily lids swear by it! Good luck and happy experimenting!
I have Sleek Oh So Special palette and the colours are very lovely but I would put on them on before any base makeup because the fall out is quite a lot. Perhaps even too pigmented haha…you really have to be careful with the darker shades because I often ended up with smokey eyes when I had no such ntention!! Haha!
I know what you mean, the pigment is there, but the fall out is also there. At least they are pigmented, unlike some other affordable brands which have tremendous fall out and no pigment haha!
I own quite a few Sleek’s eyeshadow palette and I have to say I really like them.
I wasn’t particularly attracted to this one, I’m not a super glitter fan: having a couple of glittery eyeshadows is more then enough for me.
I love the look you’ve created with it though!
Thank you S :) This palette isn’t for everyone, that’s for sure. I think some of the permanent palettes are nicer and better in terms of quality too! Which ones do you have?
I love Sleek Makeup Palette, I have only 2 but both are worth the price and the pigmentation and colors are wonderful!!!
At those sort of prices, complaining about quality sometimes feels like I’m just nitpicking LOL! I’m willing to close one eye, but not if they were more expensive!
Ah! Great post Paris! I must have a look!
Superdrug, Tammy! You get the chance to feel them up in person before buying! ;)
I don’t wear much eye shadow anymore. It just seems to make my 53 year old face look older. These shades would be a little too sparkly for me. I do love them on your lids.
Aww I’m sure it doesn’t Marla :D I hope to be wearing shadow even till I’m 53 although I’d probably be gravitating more towards something less colourful or glittery :D
I love the look you made with this! Too bad about some shades but I keep in mind to stay away from their matte es :). The shimmery shades look impressive tho!
Thank you Teri :D Yes, to be honest, don’t bother about their matte shades. I have not found any to be impressive. Their shimmer shades will pass muster and at those prices, I wouldn’t complain!
Wow! The way you used it makes this palette looks like a dupe for one of those Dior greenish palette from last year! I think it was the post about your meeting with the Dior master, and got those tips.
Ooh now that you mention it, I did rather duplicate the Dior Smoky Khaki trio! :D It must be just me gravitating towards these safe neutral shades all the time :D
This is a great review, thanks! I especially like your detailed photos demonstrating then product. Very helpful :)
Thank you so much! I’m glad you find them helpful :D
Nice… I have been a little scared of going with glitter…this seems to be just enough for me to “dip my toe in” to see if I like it….Affordable too..
Thank you Paris!
Just dropping by to ask about the shipping fee. I just ordered the storm palette online and they charged me a mere $2.77 for shipping. Which is really weird as I didn’t expect it to be that cheap? How much is the shipping fee when you ordered yours? Thanks :)
International shipping used to be $13 flat but I think they have dropped it now. I did a test order and it was under $3 for 2 items so your shipping fee sounds about right! Thanks for letting me know. Now I can go check out more stuff lol!