Sleek MakeUp Face Form Contouring & Blush Palette 'Light' Review

Hi Everyone!

Hope you all are well :)

Recently I was up in the Dundrum Shopping Centre having a little browse around and one of the places I stopped into was Boots. The Boots up in Dundrum stocks Sleek MakeUp so I was really excited about going in and having a look at the range. I usually buy my Sleek products online as there isn't a counter near me but I prefer to be able to swatch the products in a store before I buy. That way I can get a better idea of what products might work for me and what ones may not. 

There are always offers on in Boots and the day I ventured in there was a 2 for €14 sticker across all of the Sleek MakeUp range. Depending on what you picked up you could save yourself a good few euro. To give you an idea I could have picked up their 7 piece brush (€16.99) and this contour kit (€13.49) for €14 giving me a saving of....€16.48 pretty decent huh! 

In the end though I picked up the Sleek MakeUp iDivine Storm Eyeshadow palette along with the Face Form Kit, as one of my subscribers over on my YouTube channel wanted to see some more eye makeup looks using the Sleek range. 

If you have been a follower of my blog or YouTube channel for any length of time it probably comes as no surprise that I picked up a face product from the brand. My all time favourite contour kit is Sleek's Face Contour Kit in the shade 'Light'. I reviewed that a few years ago so if you missed that post you can read it here. I'm also a massive fan of their blushes, I've reviewed the ones I own here, so it only seemed fitting to pick up a product that combined my two loves.

The Sleek MakeUp Face Form Contouring & Blush Palette comes in four shades:

• Fair
• Light
• Medium
• Dark

Being that I pretty much already owned the light face form kit, I had intended on picking up the kit in the medium or dark shade. Unfortunately Boots didn't stock the dark shade in the Dundrum store and I changed my mind once I laid eyes on the medium kit. Not because I didn't like that particular kit, that wasn't the case at all it was more so to do with the products included in the kit.

What I mean by that is, in the 'fair' and 'light' kits there is a contour shade, a highlighter, and blush included. While in the 'medium' and 'dark' kits there is a contour shade, a highlighter, and a bronzer included. 

I knew I wouldn't get the full use out of the 'medium' kit because the only time I would wear a bronzer like the one in the kit is when I'm tanned and that is only on special occasions. I pondered for a few minutes over the 'fair' kit but decided in the end to go for 'light' shade. 

The contour and highlight shade are the same products that are in face contour kit 'light' and I'm almost certain the blush in this kit is sold as an individual blush called 'Rose Gold'. I own both of those products which is why I said I pretty much own this face form kit already but despite that I still bought it. I figured it was just handy to have all three products in one palette, perfect for on the go! Plus I would probably have been repurchasing my face contour kit in the next little while anyway so now I don't have to.

The contour shade in this palette is one of the only contour colours that I enjoy wearing on my skin. If you have pale skin it can be hard to find a contouring shade that isn't too warm toned, I find a lot of contour shades can appear quite grubby on paler skin tones. This product is a cool brown and works like a charm. If I want very sculpted cheeks which is usually the case, I take my Sigma Small Contour F05 and apply the product whereas if I wanted to just add a bit of colour to the face I would use it on a larger, less dense brush such as the Sigma Large Angled Contour F40. I've a full video on my favourite face brushes and their uses if you're curious! You can find that here.

The highlight shade is also very flattering on the skin, when the light hits the points where you have applied the product it gives off such a gorgeous glow. It isn't overly glittery it just gives a nice subtle sheen to the skin.

The blush in the palette will suit all skin tones but I think the blush will be the deciding factor for people of whether to buy or not. The blush is a pink/rose shade and has golden shimmery flecks running throughout. If you are not a fan of shimmery blushes then this may be a little off putting. If this is the case I would suggest to only apply the contour shade and the blush, the blush has enough shimmer in it to double up nicely as a highlighter on the cheeks too if you sweep it from the apples of your cheeks back towards your hairline. The blush is very pigmented so pick up a little product, tap off the excess and begin to apply to the cheeks. Keep adding product little by little until you are pleased with the level of intensity.

As you can see from the swatches below each of the three products in the palette are highly pigmented. They are also smooth in texture making them very easy to work with. 

I lightly applied the trio to my skin to give you an idea of how the products perform. I have the contour shade in the hollows of my cheeks, the blusher just off the apples of my cheeks and the highlighter along the tops of my cheekbones. 

Definitely one to pick up if you are in the market for an affordable contour kit, you really can't go wrong with this one!

Chat soon :)

Eimear x

Seventeen Define & Conquer Contour Kit 'Fair'

Hey Everyone!

Hope you all are well :)

Around this time last year Seventeen released their 'Define & Conquer Contour Kit'. I remember scrolling down Twitter and I spotted blogger after blogger talking about this product. Initially I wasn't pushed, I thought it looked nice but I was happy with the contour kit I was using at that time. Later on that day I was on Twitter and I saw yet another post about the contour kit but this time, I was sold. What sold me was this picture that Dee and Sinead from Viva Adonis shared.

In the picture you can see the Seventeen Contour Kit on the left sat next to a Nars product, I'm assuming it was a contour and highlighting kit too. The reason I don't know is because I'm not familiar with Nars products and that's purely because of their price point. Nars isn't a budget brand by any means so when I saw this side by side picture and the resemblance was striking....well I needed to go out and buy the budget alternative didn't I?

When I got to Boots I headed straight for the Seventeen stand, eyes peeled. This kit comes in two shades, fair and medium. I wanted to pick this up for everyday wear so I was looking out for the shade 'fair', which at first was nowhere to be seen. The row on display containing the fair kits was completely out of stock, much to my disappointment. 

After standing there aimlessly for a couple of minutes trying to figure out how not to make this a wasted journey....out of the corner of my eye, I spotted one. Some sneaky little person had hidden the last kit among the shimmer bricks on the stand. Delighted with myself off I skipped to the till, kit in hand. Success!

The packaging ticks all the boxes for me. Its black and white, instant love for me. The casing isn't too big and bulky so its ideal for traveling. It also contains a large mirror, again making it perfect for on the go!

I have been using the Sleek MakeUP Contour Kit in the shade 'Light' for a few years now. I absolutely adore that kit and use it religiously, I have a review up already if your interested which you can catch here. I couldn't wait to see how the Seventeen kit would perform next to the Sleek one as that costs less than a tenner also. Boy oh boy, I love a good budget buy.

If you are new to the world of contouring and highlighting this Seventeen kit is a good place to start. First of all its affordable, its priced at just €8.49 in Boots. The kit also comes with a handy step by step guide to shaping and sculpting the face again, making it good for beginners. Finally, the shades in the kit are matte so if contouring and highlighting doesn't work out for you, the products can be used for other purposes. For instance, if you didn't want to use the contour shade to define areas of the face you could use it to define the crease of the eye or as an eyeshadow all over the lid. The highlight shade in the kit could also be used to set foundation in place. Either way I think it's worth spending the money on, you'll get use out of the palette one way or another for sure!

The texture of the powders isn't bad, they are not really chalky or too powdery which is great. Another thing I noticed is that when you dip your brush into either of the two powders you don't get a lot of excess powder lying in the pan.

The above picture is from a tutorial that I posted on my YouTube channel almost exactly a year ago and in it I'm wearing the Seventeen contour and highlighter. I haven't worn the two shades together since. The reason being, personally I find the contour shade in the palette to be too warm toned for my colouring. 

If you want to see the product in action just click on the play button below! I start using the kit around 3.57, if you don't want to skip through the rest of the tutorial :)

On the other hand, I adore the highlight shade in the kit. I use it every single day as a face powder to set my foundation in place and I also use it beneath my contour to further define my cheekbones. If I have a little tan on I like to use the highlight shade to set the concealer underneath my eyes and that also highlights and brightens that area. 

I used the highlight shade for these purposes in one of my more recent video's so if you would like to see it in action you can skip to 4.23!

Hopefully between the two video's you'll get a good feel for how the product performs. Even though I don't enjoy the contour powder in the palette for its intended purpose, I do like to use it as an eyeshadow so it doesn't go to waste. I've repurchased this palette a couple of times now solely for the highlight shade, I just couldn't be without it!

Have you tried the contour kit?

If so, let me know what you thought of it!

Chat soon :)

Eimear x