I’ve swatched another limited edition Wet n Wild palette for this week’s Swatch Sunday. This is Vegan Culture, another one from the Silverlake collection. This one has an interesting mix of shades – some fairly amazing pastel shades, but the silver is what really took my breath away. I’m not one to typically reach for a silver shadow, but this one has incredible pigmentation and depth – not something I was expecting at all!
My most convenient bright palettes has got to be the Sleek Ultra Mattes V1. As the title would suggest, the palette is comprised of 12 matte shades and they are gorgeous! If you’re looking to dabble into brights, this is an excellent buy for your money since it retails for about $12 CAD. The low price point speaks nothing of the quality – these are beautifully pigmented and they blend out well on the lids. I do opt to use a white base with shades like this just to bring out as much colour as I can, however all swatches in this post are done over bare skin.
It’s no secret that I’m desperately in love with Too Faced‘s Melted Liquified Lipstick formula. (In fact, I did this as a guest post on Lipstick & Lullabies last year when I only had four shades!) I picked up my first ones last September and never looked back. From their adorable brightly coloured squeeze tube packaging, to their fantastic range of shades where it seems like every single shade appeals to me, to their phenomenal wear time… well… my current ultimate goal is now to own every single shade. The scary part is that Too Faced keeps coming out with more and it’s starting to make my wallet hurt!
So what’s to love about these? Well, they fit quite nicely into the liquid lipstick fad that seems to have taken the beauty world by storm. They also come in a massive range of shades, although they do lean more towards vibrant shades than safe ones (although there are various nude/neutral shades as well).
They come in a squeeze tube with an applicator that looks is a fat doe-foot-like device. The product is squeezed out of the doe-foot which can then be directly applied to your lips. The applicator has enough precision to create straight lines, which is fantastic for me cuz I hate hauling around a lip brush. If you want super crisp lines, you could always use a lip brush, but I’ve never felt the need to use one myself. I also love the applicator because I have a nasty habit of breaking my lipstick bullets, and this saves me completely from that ritual massacre.
The wear holds up remarkably well. I don’t eat with lipstick on, so I can’t tell you if these last through meals, but on me they will survive an easy five hours (and by then, I’m eating something again so I’ll usually wipe my product off then). These go on the lips slightly glossy but dry down to a matte finish within two hours or so. Once you hit the matte stage these pretty solidly lock onto your lips. They’re not transfer-proof, but you could blot them down to get them to that stage – there’s so much pigment in them that they won’t suffer much from a good blot.
They are slightly drying over time on the lips, but that isn’t a pain point for me. I struggle with super slippy lipstick formulas (aka I end up smearing them all over my face) so I like having something that I know is going to stay put.
I don’t own all the shades (YET!) but I’m swatching out what I have so if you’re interested in any of the ones I own, you may be able to narrow down your choices. (Or do what I do and just try to amass them all!)
And on the face:
Melted Nude is a brown-peach shade that suits me better than I thought it would.
Melted Peony verges on a bubblegum pink on my skintone. This is the shade I wear the least because I just feel it’s so… girly (which I realize is a weird thing for a beauty blogger to say).
Melted Violet is what I would call a neon purple and it’s unlike anything I own. However, out of all the Melteds I own, this one has the weirdest consistency – it’s more melty than the others and seems to wear off my lips awkwardly. Maybe I got a bad one?
Melted Fuchsia can only be described as a medium pink transcribed into a neon format. This shade is electric!
Melted Fig is a deeper burgundy purple that tends to look more mauve when it dries down. It’s a fairly unique shade in my collection and I reach for it more often than I ever thought I would.
Melted Coral is not my definition of a coral, but it’s still lovely. This shade is a vibrant orange on my skin and it just blazes with colour. I’ve really liked this paired with some kind of bluey-green eyeliner.
Melted Strawberry is a strawberry red shade with a pink fade. The pink isn’t strong, but you will notice it on the edges if you look closely. It’s an easy summer red, I think.
Melted Ruby is the “Christmas” red (although I think perhaps Melted Velvet would better fit that description but, sadly, I don’t own it).
Melted Candy is my absolute favourite out of the bunch. I can pick this one out on someone else a mile away. It’s a pink fruit punch/cream soda type colour and I LOVE how it looks.
Melted Berry has become my more traditional fall/winter colour as I’ve moved slightly away from reds. I don’t think I own a piece of cold-weather clothing that this doesn’t match. Really, really gorgeous.
That’s my whole Too Faced Melted collection and I’m still keenly awaiting the opportunity to buy them all up. I’ve now been able to swatch them all! See my updated post with video where I swatch the entire Too Faced Melted lineup! Do you ever feel that way about a product line? That you have to Pokemon the shit out of them and catch ’em all?
Too Faced Melted lipsticks can be purchased for $25 CAD each on Sephora.ca or for $21 USD on Sephora.com.
The Too Faced Sugar Pop palette is a relatively new purchase for me. I couldn’t refuse the discount that the recent Sephora VIB sale offered so in to my cart this went. A Challenge Week for this palette will be up tomorrow!
Enjoy the swatches!
The Original Sleek palette. I can see why this company got off on such a good foot, and developed such an amazing reputation, if it all started out with this palette! As this was amongst the original palettes, none of the shades have names and I have the old waffle-cut version – I believe they now come pressed flat.
Take a look at the swatches, it’s really hard to not be impressed by them!
