Today I am very excited to be doing a full review of one of the Sleek MakeUP i-Divine Mineral Eye Shadow Palettes! I normally mix and match between different palettes but I think it's only fair to review a palette individually to see how it stands up on its own. The palette I'm looking at today is the Au Naturel selection which as you've probably already guessed, is a mix of nudes and neutral tones for a soft natural eye look.

Top row L-R: Nougat, Nubuck, Cappucino, Honeycomb, Toast, Taupe Bottom row L-R: Conker, Moss, Bark, Mineral Earth, Regal, Noir

Sleek are a London based cosmetics company and their products are widely available in UK stores and online and they are very reasonably priced. This palette (and every other Sleek palette I've seen, but don't hold me to it) comes with 12 shadows, a good sized mirror and a double sided sponge applicator all stored in a matte black sturdy case. It's a very slim and compact palette so is great for travelling and mirror is definitely a usable size. In this Au Naturel palette you get eight matte shadows and four shimmer shadows; included within the matte shades is a matte black (a must, in my opinion) and two dark browns, one cool toned (Bark) and one warm toned (Regal), and the only highlight shade, a light greyish cream (Nougat). The names of each shade aren't printed on the palette but on an acetate overlay - not my favourite thing in the world but I can live with it for such a good price.



Overall, the pigmentation of each shade is a little hit and miss - the shimmer shades and the matte black by far have the most pigmented colour. The other shades can be built up to achieve a bigger colour impact but I'm afraid the highlight shade Nougat and the light grey Nubuck just don't show up well enough for me and can look a little patchy when trying to build up the colour.

There are some beautiful stand out shades though. The shimmer shades Taupe, Conker and Moss are all really buttery and vibrant without being too glittery; I would even say Moss (an olive green shade) is more of a satin finish and gives a really soft effect when used in the crease or outer-v. Noir, the matte black is also a great shadow and perfect to be used as a liner if you prefer a soft blended liner over a bold line. Cappuccino and Honeycomb are great transition/lid shades for my skin tone and eye colour, both working equally well with either of the matte browns in the crease.

Clockwise from top left: Taupe, Conker, Noir, Moss.

On the whole, these shadows blend really well and I have been able to create some nice eye looks using just this palette. All of the shades are very wearable but you do still have the option of the stronger shades like Taupe and Conker to add a little bit of drama (I'm a little bit in love with these colours, can you tell?).

Highlight - Nougat, Lid/Transition - Cappucino & Taupe, Crease - Bark, Outer-v - Conker, Liner - Noir

Highlight - Nougat, Lid/Transition - Honeycomb, Crease - Regal & Moss, Outer-v - Mineral Earth, Liner - Regal

I would definitely advise using an eyelid primer before using these shadows as I have noticed that after a full day of wear they are prone to creasing but definitely nothing a little bit of re-blending doesn't fix.

This is a palette that I use regularly in my daily make up routine, however, at the very least I always end up pulling in another highlight shade from a different palette as I'm afraid Nougat just isn't pulling its weight for me. I think for the price and for the quality of the more pigmented shadows this palette is definitely a good choice if you like the shade range and the yellow toned transition shades are so unusual and work beautifully with brown or hazel eyes.

As always you can have a look for yourselves at Sleek MakeUP

I hope you enjoyed reading - please comment if you would like to see more example eye looks!

NSB x