Natural Collection Eyeshadow Singles and Duo's Review and Swatches - Cruelty Free Cosmetics

Between the ages of 11 and 14 I probably owned more Natural Collection cosmetics than I should admit to. Their products were never good but even back then they were the cheapest on the market and when I started to make some money working after school, they got binned in favour of Rimmel (I wasn't cruelty free back then) and Barry M.

11 years on and I needed some makeup to create a day to day zombie look. I didnt want to spend any more than a tenner and wanted it all to be cruelty free. Makeup Revolution was my first choice but I couldn't find a palette that fitted my vision when I was buying them. I did actually end up using the Light and Shade palette (the "dupe" of Kat Von D Shade and Light one) for my makeup and not touching these. Make of that what you will. 

I held onto them though as I figured it would still be fun to see if things have improved since the last time I owned any Natural Collection. Then again, their foundation retails for £1.99 so maybe expecting anything is expecting to much. 

LtR: Snowstorm, Sky and Blackcurrant/Violet 

So lets start with packaging. Its cheap white and very plasticky plastic. I don't love the screw tops and personally I hate makeup coming in white plastic. I don't know why, I just don't. I do understand that all of this is done to keep costs down, Its just not to my taste. Also if you look at the duo below you'll see the pans aren't even set straight. I will say it's fully functional thought so I should really stop being snobby.

LtR: Snowstorm, Sky and Blackcurrant/Violet 

Formula and swatches. Have a look at that photo and tell me what you think? So the formula would actually be really nice, if there was any pigment to it. Its soft and blendable with very little fallout, there's just no colour. When they're applied to the skin they do give off a really nice sheen if you spread them over a larger area, however that highlights every little change in skin texture. I was thinking about maybe trying to use them as a subtle highligh but I don't think it would work for me as I have issues with spots and bumpy skin.

LtR: Snowstorm, Sky and Blackcurrant/Violet 

I tried a few times to use these and up until today it always ended in disaster. Today wasn't much above disaster though. I tried everything I could think of to make them work, Applying with a natural brush, synthetic brush, foam applicator and fingers, and trying different primers and bases, nothing really helped. 

Today I applied Barry M face primer to my eyelids (the one from my 17 by 2017 project) which left them kind of wet and sticky and then patted the shadow on top with a flat brush. I didn't get intense colour by any means but it was wearable enough for me to leave the house with it on face. 

I did discover something that annoyed me a little. The eyeshadow did not crease, it was been on my face for 12 hours at the time of typing and it has not creased at all. If it had creased I would have been less frustrated than I am right now, because now I'm like maybe some of them have pigment, should I try them all? Grrr.... No. I will be strong.

I'm going to get rid of these as I see no point in keeping them. I've also written off the eyeshadows from Natural Collection and wont be buying more to try any time soon. I would be interested in trying some of the concealer and face powder type products as they seem to get really good reviews and revisiting the eyeliner and mascara of my youth. I will be steering clear of any and all lip products for now though as it seems to be mostly gloss and I absolutely hate lipgloss with a passion.

Is there a Natural Collection product you love I should try? Or have you tried the eyeshadows and had a better experience than me? Let me know.

XOXO Scruffy

Enquiry? Message me ascruffyduck@gmail.com

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