Models Own Supernatural Palette, Ten Pan Eyeshadow Palette - Cruelty Free Makeup

Just after Christmas I was in the Buchanan Galleries killing some time when I stumbled upon (quite literally, I'm not exactly a graceful human being) the Models Own stand.  You know the ones shaped like a spilling bottle of nail polish?  Well they had a huge sale on, and as I've only ever tried their nail polish, I thought I'd take advantage of it. I picked up a set of brushes, a set of liners and this palette.

So I'm going to talk about this like I didn't get it on special offer as it currently isn't reduced so that's what will apply to if you're considering buying this palette now, Currently on the Models Own website this palette retails for £14.99 and you get 7 grams of product across ten pans of eyeshadow (0.7 grams per pan, or £2.14 per gram of eyeshadow ), which isn't a huge amount of product. To give a comparison the Sleek Eyeshadow Palettes, which I feel are the closest comparable products quality wise, on average contain 14.4g of product across 12 pans and retail for £8.99 (1.1 grams per pan, or £0.62 per gram of eyeshadow). So not what I would really call value for money.

So the palette is made of white plastic, with the palettes name either stuck or painted on the front. The holographic lettering is actually really pretty, however the rest of the palette just feels cheap and kind of nasty. This might be personal thing, I just don't like makeup that comes in white packaging. It gets dirty easily and the rounded out corners make my think of kiddie makeup. It kind of fits with Models Own aesthetic though, with their rainbow glitter nail polish and neon lip tars.  

Top row: Paranormal, Mystery, Celestial, Spiritual and Mythical

So inside the palette the pans look really small, if they were pushed up another pan at least could have been fitted in each row. Oh, and it also came with a brush (which I though I had binned but it turns out it was just in the dirty brush jar when I photographed this). 

Bottom Row: Mystic, Eternal, Phantom, Curse and Phenomenon

So you get three matte shades, mythical, mystic and phantom, and they're all pretty disappointing to be honest. They're finely milled, but there's not much colour pay off and they apply patchy.  

Finger and brush swatches of  Paranormal, Celestial and Eternal

The other seven are metallic and finger swatch amazingly, however if you use sweeping motions with a brush (as seen above) they lose that beautiful metallic sheen and high colour content. For best results I recommend using a good quality sticky primer (cough*Too Faced Glitter Insurance*cough) and either use your finger or a flat brush to pat them on. 

Overall thoughts, this palettes a little disappointing. The mattes aren't great and you don't get a lot of product in the metallic shades however they are pretty. 

Would I recommend it?  

Probably not. For just over half the price, you could have Sleek palette with more shades, more product and more variety. 

I'm probably going to play Pan the Palette with this later on in the year, as I only used each metallic shade a couple of times and I can already see dips forming in them. 

xoxo Scruffy

Other eyeshadow reviews

Technic Colour Max Palettes

Sleek Onto the Horizon Palette

Urban Decay Naked Ultimate Basics Palette

Natural Collection Single Pan Eyeshadows

Sleek Onto The Horizon Ltd Edition Palette Review with Arm Swatches - Cruelty Free Drugstore Makeup

Earlier this year Sleek released some limited edition palettes: Onto the Horizon, Nordic Skies and Goodnight Sweetheart. All of them are still available and over the past month I've somehow acquired all three. I've spent a bit of time forming an opinion on them and now I plan on reviewing them all whilst they're still available on Sleek website.

The first one I got was On The Horizon palette, and I believe it was a Superdrug exclusive in the UK. Sleek have a habit of splitting collections down the middle in the UK and making half of it Boots and half Superdrug. They've done it more recently with the Rockstars Collection and you can find my review of the Hidden Gems palette from that here.

This is also one of the products I thought I'd lost all the photos for when my laptop died. Luckily I managed to find some on my backup hard drive, and I've chosen to use them as I've already binned the box and can't re-photograph it.

They all have gorgeous outer packaging that is themed around the colour selection. On the Horizon is a mix of forest greens,burnt oranges and brown tones. I've been wearing a lot of nudes recently but on Saturday I cracked into Lightyear from the Moondust palette I bought on Black Friday and I'm in love with greens again.

So the actual palette is just standard Sleek packaging. It comes with the usual sponge applicator and sheet with the names printed on it. I now have a stack of these in my palette drawer just from Sleek and Makeup Revolution, and I have no idea which one goes with what palette.

Here's a better photo of the shades themselves, you get 9 shimmery metallic shades and 3 mattes. The shimmer shades are where Sleek always excel so its a really good breakdown.

So here's the top row of the palette, as you can see the first shade and last three are gorgeous but two and three (Sugar Maple and Beech) didn't swatch very well.  It's a shame because Sugar Maple is such a pretty rose gold colour and looks really nice when its blended.  Beech on the other hand is just mehh.. and blends away to nothing.

Here's the bottom row. Again not all of them swatched very well. The first shade, Chestnut is a really beautiful brown with a blue/purple sheen. Willow (third from the right) swatched really intensely but isn't as vivid and vibrant when blended out and the two shades to the right of it Dew Drop and Pine Cone are really nice shimmer shades that just need building a little. The only shade in this palette that I would say is bad is Fawn (the yellow shade third from the left). It's far chunkier than any other Sleek eyeshadow I've ever seen and just skips and highlights skin texture. 

The one thing I really like about the outside of this palette is that it has the name of the palette stamped on the front on clear lettering. My biggest criticism of these palettes has always been that I can't tell them apart from the front and need to flip them all over or open them to see which is which. I like that they all come in a hard plastic shell and have a large mirror, it helps make all their products feel like they're extra good value for money.

I've also been using this palette for a week straight now and I do love the shadows but I was limited by the colour selection and had to mix it in the Naked Ultimate Basics palette as the week wore on. I liked mixing the shiny green and brown colours together but found I didn't use the orange even though I thought I would. I also didn't find a use for the lovely navy blue and feel sad I couldn't be more creative in the mornings. 

XOXO Scruffy

Other Sleek reviews

Matte Me Liquid Lipsticks

i-Lust Hidden Gems Palette

Smoke and Mirrors Gift-set

Enquiry? Message me ascruffyduck@gmail.com

(Just a wee note. I live in Scotland and we're currently in Winter. Right now we're getting less than eight hours daylight a day and I spend that in work, so sorry about the badly lit photos).

Sleek i-Lust Hidden Gems Palette - First impressions and swatches

(Firstly let me apologise for the quality of the photos. My laptop is broken so I'm going between phone and small tablet, it's not fun but you gotta do what you gotta do.)

I didn't go into Superdrug today planning on buying make-up, all I wanted was some facial wipes and maybe a white eyeliner (which I didn't end up buying). However the facial wipes are opposite the make-up, go figure on that one, and when I saw this I had to have it. It's so pretty.

After doing a bit if research online, I found out this palette was only released today, and is part of the limited edition Rockstars collection by Sleek. I was a bit surprised about it only just being released as the display was almost completely wiped of stock. I know their eyeshadow palettes are great quality and the liquid lipsticks are good (full review of them here), but I didn't think they had a big enough following to pick a display clean in a couple of hours. 

So full details. The palette is £7.49 and you get six 1g eyeshadows. The palette is long and skinny, rather than the short rectangle design Sleek usually use. The pans are also larger and square rather than the small round ones in the i-Divine palettes. Although these square ones look bigger they are actually smaller, their regular palettes retail for £8.99 and contain twelve 1.1g pans. 

Sorry about the bad lighting in this photo.

So here's a shot of the inside of the palette. Its cute but nothing special. None of the cute geometric design from the front makes its way inside which is a shame, but the I prefer square to round pans and the colour selection looks good.

Colours L-R. Emerald City, Amethyst Sky, Amber City, Sapphire Blues, Ruby Tuesday, Diamond Dust

How do they swatch? Very well. Sleek's eyeshadows are some of my favourites and I find their sparkly metallic ones far better than the mattes so I expected them to be good.  So pretty. The silver and gold shades are a bit chunky and flakes but still blendable and have a very high colour pay off.

Here's a more close-up image of the swatches. I did another single fingers worth of eyeshadow over Emerald City, Amethyst Sky and Sapphire Blues to make the colour more intense. Emerald City is an almost duo-chrome green and brown shade.  Amethyst Sky is a metallic purple, but it has a lot of very fine multicoloured glitter in it that doesn't really show in the photos. Ruby Tuesday is my favourite though. I love a metallic red, as I might have told you, multiple times now.

Diamond Dust vs Urban Decays Frenzy

Diamond Dust on the left and Frenzy from the Electric palette on the right.

L-R, Diamond Dust brush swatch, Diamond Dust finger swatch, Frenzy finger swatch

This was more a test I did to satisfy my own curiosity than anything else. The Urban Decay Electric palette has an amazing silver in it, so I thought I'd compare them. 

Diamond Dust is a bit more chunky and has a darker, more gunmetal undertone and Frenzy is a very fine and smooth pigment with a very white silver colour. If you're looking for a crazy silver colour both are great. 

Overall final thoughts...

This palette is great quality and value. Its not something that you can build complete eye looks out of, but if you have a great collection of nudes and crease colours and just need something for a pop of colour, then this is your palette. 

XOXO Scruffy

Enquiry? Message me ascruffyduck@gmail.com 

Other Sleek reviews...

Sleek Matte Me Lipstick Reviews

Sleek Smoke & Mirrors Gift Set

Makeup Revolution Haul June 2016

I buy quite a lot of make up (no more till after my hollibobs in September though) and if I can trust the company I will do it online, because places like Boots and Superdrug (and if I'm feeling sassy and rich Debenhams) are not fun at lunchtimes. Big crowds stress me out and waiting in line is annoying. Also if I get there and they have several of what I want but they're all funked up as people have chosen to open them rather than use a designated tester. No, just no. Why do that? It's just gross and unnecessary.

I fell in love with Makeup Revolution a while ago, however the bay in Superdrug is always heaving with people and out of what I want or they never even stocked it in the first place. So I was over the moon when I trial ordered off their website and it went well. Shipping can be a little (or in the case of my last order, a lot) slow however they are a small UK based company so I'll let them off.

I've now ordered from them four times, and never had any kind of problem except maybe some slow shipping. Everything arrives in a kind of magical bubble-wrap burrito and emerges item by item as you unwrap it. Its like an amazing, infuriating Christmas present that you've ordered yourself.

June's Haul

Top: I <3 Makeup Naked Chocolate Palette, Middle: Unicorns are Real and Mermaids vs Unicorns Palettes, Bottom: 1 Salvation Velvet Lacquer, 2 Ultra Velour Lip Creams and Two Matte Lipsticks

OK so June's haul maybe wasn't the biggest on record (not even close) and that's down to me owning most of what I want already and trying to save money. I set myself a strict budget and took so much out the shopping cart, its amazing how quickly an eyeshadow palette and a couple of £3 lipsticks becomes well over £40 and that was more than I had to play with.

Here's a breakdown of what I got.

I <3 Makeup - Naked Chocolate Palette

This palette is the reason I ended up on the website in the first place and had it been available when I placed my previous order (where I got the original I <3 Chocolate and Chocolate Vice palettes) , I probably wouldn't have even checked the website again. This palette is a glorious collection of nude shades. It is slightly on the satin/shimmery side of things however I find those shades are generally better than the the mattes so I'm totally fine with that.

I know own all the palettes in the I <3 Chocolate range and plan on doing a full post about them in the near future so if eyeshadow is your thing, look out for that.

Unicorns are Real and Mermaids Vs Unicorns Palettes

OK so I may have actually crept on to buy these anyway, even if I already had the Naked palette. A co-worker who I like to talk all things makeup with came in to work wearing one of the shades from Unicorns are Real and it looked so pretty I had to buy them.

 I've never tried the long thin pan type palettes from them before however, I love the salvation eyeshadow palettes which I have in Unicorns Unite and Dia de los Muertos (although the strange neon yellow matte in that one is beyond questionable). These only cost £4 each when I ordered, and I've paid more than that for an eyeshadow single in the past so even if only 3 colours are usable its still fine by me.

Salvation Velvet Lip Lacquer - Keep Lying For You

When it comes to liquid lipsticks I want something with the longevity of LA Splash and the feel of NYX Soft Matte lip cream. In other words I want a the unicorn of liquid lippy and that ain't happening any time soon. I've tried a couple of the velvet lip lacquers before though and honestly they're not bad. They do come off on cups and food and need reapplied more than a higher end brand would. That being said though, they don't dry my lips out anywhere near as much, and they don't seem to peel or flake the way some liquid to matte formulas do so they're a nice compromise.

Keep lying for you just looked like a really pretty muted rose colour. Its a little like Rose Garden by LA Splash (which is one of my favourite lipsticks of all time) however slightly brighter and with a hint of purple to it.

Ultra Velour Lip Cream - Their Eyes Can't Find Us and All I Think About is You

I've never tried the lip creams before but I was curious so I thought I'd try a couple. Inside the box the packaging definitely looks and feel a bit cheaper than the Velvet Lip Lacquers. The font is more basic and the tube just doesn't feel or look as nice. They are actually cheap though, and anyway the packaging isn't such a big deal in the long haul.

Their Eyes Can't Find Us is a nice light "honey nude" kind of shade. I feel some people might describe it as their lips only better, however mine are very rosy red and will probably shine right through. Will keep you posted on how this goes.

All I Think About is You is basically a more pink Keep Lying For You. I also have the Velvet Lacquer in Rebel and all three of them are very similar colours. Definitely don't think I need all three of them but oh well.

When I was swatching these I noticed they have a sweet, artificial, cupcakey (vanilla maybe?) kind of smell. Its not unpleasant but if you're sensitive of lip products with a scent these maybe aren't for you. From memory the Velvet Lacquers don't have a noticeable or at least noteworthy smell so these might be better.

Matte Lipsticks - Duel and Propaganda

A while ago I tried one of their matte lipsticks in the colour Liberty (for the record its bright purple, I love really intense lip colours) and I was so impressed I figured I would try a couple more.

Swatches, Propoganda on the top and Duel on the bottom

I got Propaganda and Duel, both are reds and look virtually the same in the packaging, but when swatched (which I conveniently photographed when I got them, sorry about my raggedy nails) Propaganda shows up as a gorgeous pinky red where as Duel is more of a true red. Also they smell so good, and not that nasty fake watermelon smell you get with some drug store products. I can't describe it but there's something really nice about it. Makes me kind of want to lick them, don't worry though, I haven't given in and tried that yet. Will keep you posted if I do though.

I also got sent the three Iconic Bronze, Blush and Brighten trio palettes they were promoting recently as I spent (pennies) over £25. I'm not sure what I think about these yet. I barely highlight and do not bronze however as they were free, I'll have a play with them and let you know my thoughts.

Tried any of the Makeup Revolution products I bought. Let me know what you think.

XOXO Scruffy