Make Me Over

I have a confession to make- I’m a bit of a make up snob. I bow at the altar of MAC, Bobby Brown and Urban Decay and turn my nose up at Collection 2000, Rimmel and any other cheapo brand. Not because I have money burning a hole in my pocket but out of habit as once upon a time they had very little for me. As a teen the cheaper ranges rarely carried products that suited black skin and when they did everyone wore it- ie Black Cherry lipstick from Rimmel that I’m quite certain was worn at some stage by every black girl in my year at school. I could get lipstick from Sleek and Island Beauty but anything else was a struggle. Years later I discovered MAC and everything changed. I no longer had to scour every make up counter in Boots looking for just the right shade of eyeshadow, I could just make one stop at MAC to get everything I could possibly need and that has pretty much been the routine until last week.

While browsing the internets I found several great reviews about a range of mineral based eyeshadow palettes by Sleek (available at Superdrug) and thought I would go back to my make up- from- the- chemist roots and give them a whirl as at £4.49 it’s hardly breaking the bank if they all look terrible. The good thing is- they don’t.

There are three palettes in the i-Divine collection- Chaos which is quite brightly coloured matt shades, Storm which is a range of neutrals and Original which is what I bought.

My first impression was good. The palette looks stylish with its matt black case, is very slim and is around 14cm long. The mirror is a great size that is actually useable (so often with make up you get some titchy little thing that only allows you to see one eye at a time) and the colour intensity of the product is good. I doubt I would use all of them as I’m not so keen on the pinker tones but the others are all workable and I can already see this becoming my “go to” palette for evenings out. I say I would only use it for evenings out because the neutral shades are more sparkly than I would wear during the day, but I might try out the Storm palette for daytime looks. They go on smoothly and evenly and are not as super fine in texture as MAC, but at £4.49 for 12 colours against £10 per single colour at MAC I’m really not complaining, just making a comparison.

I tried out this palette at my posh do last week and surprisingly enough they lasted really well. I don’t use primers but the colour didn’t disappear into the creases halfway through the night. Really though, that event was a rather modest affair with no wild dancing til dawn so the test conditions weren’t as hot as they could have been. I will have to see how they perform on a more raucous night out where I’m getting jostled like a pinball, having lager splashed all over my clothes and getting my feet stepped on as though they’re part of the flooring.

Party like a rock star.