Au Naturel [DISCONTINUED]

This is one of my least favorite Sleek eyeshadow palettes. The pigmentation varies alot, the darker shades are the only shades that show up. Plus, the colors look very similar to each other. Overall, if you don't have much money but don't care about all these things, you can have a look at it. It was my first Sleek eyeshadow palette and thank God, I ordered some other of their eyeshadow palettes or else I would have said: Goodbye, Sleek.

This isn't the best selection of neutral and natural colours out there. Going by the picture, left to right: Top row - matte ivory, matte light grey, matte milk tea brown, matte light lemon, matte apricot, shimmer light rose gold Bottom row - shimmer dark mahogany, matte mid brown - leaning yellow, matte dark brown, matte olive brown, matte mahogany, matte black I do like the rose gold, shimmery mahogany, and matte apricot shades. Strangely, the shimmer shadows do go on more opaque than the matte ones. You'd think it would be the other way around. The matte shadows are quite chalky and dusty when applying but look a little better over primer. The shimmer shades are less chalky and contain fine pearl particles instead of glitter, so no stray glitter to annoy my eyes. Anyway as for the colours, the lemon yellow is hard to pull off and doesn't really go with the rest of the palette. Same for the grey. The brown shades on the bottom row all look similar to each other, and I would have liked it if there were less browns and more midtone neutral colours. And even though I like the apricot shade, that doesn't go well with the majority of the rest of the palette as they clashed too much. I feel that the warm tones in some of the colours next to other neutral ones make them look a little off. As for the packaging, it's a non-descript black oblong case with the brand logo on the front - nothing special at first glance. But inside, there is a mirror the size of the oblong case! It allows me to check my appearance/hair etc as it has a wider field of vision than small round compact mirrors. I can easily see my whole face in the mirror even close up - and I know you're probably laughing at me now. But I can't do that with smaller mirrors and so can't accurately gauge the overall look of my make-up - like whether the lip colour I picked doesn't look as good nextt to that eyeshadow that I first thought and so on. I recently dropped the case and the hinge broke, so now I just take the mirror around with me. One good thing though is that there was minimal crumbling of the shadows themselves even after dropping it. Gets points for resilience, I think!

I haven't gotten as much use out of this palette as I thought, even though I pretty much only use neutrals. The shades are either too light or too dark, no transition shades whatsoever. Also, the lights mostly don't show up at all, while the darks tend to look muddy on the lids. The only shades that are decent are the light taupe in the top row and the cool toned brown in the bottom one. To make matters even worse, the case broke very soon after I bought it. That was completely random, I didn't drop or misuse it at all. One day, I opened it and the hinges simply came off. That was the icing on the cake. I didn't spend much money on it but I would rather have spent even that on something else.

I had high hopes on this palette. I don't know if the old formula was better but I was disappointed by this palette. The price is great. You can get for few euros many different eyeshadows with which you can create different eyelooks but the colours just don't show up! I have had this palette for over a year now and I can't get any colour on my brush anymore..... Such a shame! I was looking forward to buy more Sleek palettes.

Asian, NC25, dry skin. I'm on my second palette right now. This has been a staple in my makeup arsenal and I actually finished more than a half of the colors in the palette. Texture : All matte colors are chalky and powdery. I can tolerate this because even high end brands have this problem too with their light/neutral matte shadows. Use lightly, and repeat 2-3 times if you want the color to be visible on your eyelid. The shimmer ones are nice enough to highlight/accentuate, nothing too fancy for everyday makeup, okay texture, not buttery. I'm still okay with this. Application : Been experimenting with application using these brushes : MAC 217, RealTech base brush & crease brush, Coastal Scent blending brush, and e.l.f blending brush. The best result comes with RealTech. I suspect it's because RT's brushes are not as dense as MAC's and the fiber type is just right to tackle the fall out. personally, I'd rather use my fingertip to get the smoothest result on my eyelid. Moving on. Blendability : It takes work, depends on what brush you use. This does not blend as easy or as smooth as the high end brands, but that's understandable. Must use primer if you want to blend this out. Pigmentation : It's okay as expected from drugstore brand, but I think Sleek is better than most drugstore brands pertaining matte/neutral color eyeshadows.. This palette was one among the first palettes I owned back then when I started to learn how to makeup. And since it is quite tricky to get a good makeup from cheap palette, I learned so much from it. I like it because it's good to carry around with, the packaging is nice even the applicator is useless and I never use it anyway so I dont give it much thought, it practically answers my need to everyday look-work safe eyeshadow and it doesnt cost me a fortune if it breaks or goes missing. An expendable, wearable, useful, and practical palette to have.

Now I know most neutral palettes don't really bode well with medium to deep skin tones, and the same can be said to this palette. Since I have hooded eyes I don't really complain about the texture as much, I usually only use two colors in every look since I have no deep crease or anything. Price: Very cheap. If you are a teenager or a person who is starting out in make-up and you want to practice, you can start with this one. Though not perfect, it's still better than the palettes from maybelline and loreal by a huge margin. Pros: Packaging is beautiful and its matte and dare I say SLEEK (get it?). The wide mirror is also a plus, gives you a nice view of what you're working with. The bottom row of this palette in terms of colors is great and what I use the most. Now I don't normally pack a lot of colors on my lids at all but it does appear quite sheer (especially the shimmers) and it wouldn't be bad if you want a light touch of color. The palette smells nice too, not too strong but very pleasant. You need a good eye primer to get it to stick to your lids and give the best color pay-off tough. Cons: The top row! I don't know about how light skinned people use it but for my tanned complexion I really cant. The greys and light yellows don't show up on my lids and the textures are ridiculously chalky. And I kid you not I use the sponge applicator that comes with the kit when I need to push some of the colors into my lids. Overall its a mixed bag for me. I certainly don't regret buying this and I owe a lot of my love for make-up with products by sleek. They're affordable and some of their products are definitely amazing. But This certain palette is just a bit disappointing. I suggest other palettes by sleek like vintage romance, oh so special, and storm.

Awful palette!!! I did not like it all. Fortunately, I did not waste much money! I had very high expectations, having seen pros like Charlotte Tilbury and Pixiwoos use exactly that palette in their tutorials. But it did not work for me. I really wanted to like this, I gave this palette so many tries and it always disappointed me!! *Color selection - great, you can create multiple looks because the colours are very natural and wearable and you get some dark and shimmery shades to dial things up. *Texture - the matte shades are horrible! Patchy, chalky, powdery, they almost do not show up when swatched and are hard to blend. To get them on the lid, I had to apply tons of product. I tried to fix the bad texture by using Mac Fix plus and regular rose water...but nothing helped!! The shimmery shades have an OK texture. They are definitely more opaque and creamy. When used wet, they are the same. * Longevity - neither the matter/light shades, nor the dark/shimmery shades lasted long. I made the awful mistake of using that palette for my uni graduation ceremony!!! After two hours everything had faded/mixed together on my lid, although I used a primer underneath....I basically had no eye make up... *Blendability - very hard to blend! Even my Mac 217 could not do the trick....but this is due to the awful texture of the shadows.... The only good thing about this palette is that it is inexpensive. But don't waste your pennies on it. Better buy individual shadows from KIKO or L'oreal and create your own palette!

I have mixed feelings about this palette. The first few shades are so sheer, it's basically like putting a translucent powder on your lids. The bottom row is really nice though, so at least half the palette is good. The packaging is fantastic for a high street product, I love that it comes with such a big mirror. When I swatched it in Superdrug, the quality was really nice, so I'm wondering if I just need to use this more and maybe the pigmentation improves? Does anyone else feel this way? Haha. I love Sleeks blushers, but I don't know if I would buy an eyeshadow palette from them again. I much prefer my MUA palettes and although the packaging is worse, I'd rather a higher quality palette with bad packaging. It's also cheaper!

So..... About this eyeshadow palette. I have to first off say, I have always loved sleek eyeshadow palettes I've got about 2 of them already and they are all pigmented.. But someone how this one let me down :/ The first 5 shades are basically close to nothing. They aren't pigmented at all. The next 7 shades are amazingly pigmented.. So its a half n half. Would I repurchase this again? Probably not because they have similar shades with better pigmentation in their other palettes. :) Update.. 12 Aug 2015. I think the more I use this palette the more I love it.. Its just the most natural palette ever. I have started using the lighter shades to just blend out colours.. so overall making use of all the colors except the gray one. But I actually must say I am enjoying this paletter more n more each day :)

The Sleek palettes reminded me of NYX palettes: a bit hit and miss. Some of the colours are great and pigmented, but others aren't, and some have quite a lot of fall-down when you're trying to apply them.