Sleek iDivine Ultra Matts v2 (Darks) Review

Seeing as how I purchased these some weeks ago, it's high time I got around to reviewing them!  This review is for the Dark palette...

Sleek iDivine Ultra Matts v2 (Darks)

I love Sleek makeup and I think their eyeshadows are generally great quality.  The brand was originally aimed at darker skinned ladies, as I believe, hence the uber-pigmentated super-saturated colours.  The eyeshadows are mineral-based.  Sleek is a UK brand with branches around the world and has been growing rapidly in the last number of years.

I have quite a few Sleek products, including seven of their eyeshadow palettes.  Mostly I love the palettes; what's not to love?  On the plus side

    + they are inexpensive (usually around €9 for 12 shades)
    + the colours are beautiful
    + they are reasonably long-lasting
    + they are very pigmented
    + work either dry or wet.

On the down-side

    - they're hard to source in Ireland (we don't have too many Superdrug stores in the Republic), so you're left purchasing directly from Sleek or from BeautyEmporium.ie (a great Irish website that stocks a lot of hard-to-get brands, shipping is inexpensive and fast)
    - they're very soft shadows so you usually see quite a bit of fall-out when working with them (no big deal, just clean up afterwards)
    - you frequently need some nude/mid-tone matte colours to blend their eyeshadows into
    - quite a lot of the shades (to-date) have been quite frosted, so not ideal for everyone.

So, it was time for Sleek to produce some matte palettes, and I recommend the offerings; both this one, which is the darker of the two palettes, and this one, which has brighter shades).

As with all other Sleek eyeshadow palettes that I have, this features twelve shadows, all (in this instance) matte.  All are very pigmented.  All work well over primer or on their own.  All work well dry and wet.  I was a bit disappointed in the formula as I felt that all of these matte shades are a little "chalky" and a little more difficult to blend than (a) shades from other Sleek palettes (b) other eyeshadows I have.

"Difficult" but not impossible, however!  To get around any eyeshadows that are not easy to blend, there's a simple trick; make sure that you use a good quality nude base shadow on the lid, and a good quality mid-tone shadow into the crease.  This will give your "difficult" shadows something to blend into.  Given the price, the pigmentation, and the "lastability" of these shades, I definitely recommend.

Sleek Ultra Mattes v2 (Darks) - Swatches

The shades are, left-right:

Top row: Orbit, Ink, Highness, Noir, Dune, Pillow Talk
Bottom row: Thunder, Maple, Flesh, Paper Bag, Villan, Fern

Orbit is a dark green-blue teal
Ink is a dark indigo-blue
Highness is a medium purple
Noir is a charcoal-black; note that I found the "Noir" from the mattes palette to be less pigmented then the Noir from any of the other palettes I have (weird, but there ya go)
Dune barely registers above, but it looks a bit like a very creamy banana shade in real life
Pillow Talk is a flat white that had the tiniest hint of a baby pink to it (not showing in the image above)
Thunder is a medium grey shade
Maple is a red-pink cranberry shade
Flesh is hard to describe; in real life it looks like a kind of beige-peach
Paper Bag is a warm rich chocolate brown
Villan is a medium-dark purple
Fern is a medium-dark forest green

In theory, you have your base shades (Pillow Talk, Dune) and your mid-tone shade (Flesh), a black (Noir) (can also be used wet as a liner) and then a bunch of colours for your accents.  In reality, as I have found, you need to use a better base and mid-tone shade, to help blending.  Otherwise, this is a great palette and well worth the spend.

This review is part I of II - click here to see the review of the Sleek Ultra Matts Brights palette, and click here to see these palettes on the Sleek website.