My New Love: Bare Minerals Ready 4.0 Eye Shadow Palette 'The Soundtrack'

Available from Feel Unique for £24.65.

It was in a moment of weakness that I gave in to temptation and bought this eye shadow palette but since it arrived it has brought nothing but joy into my daily make-up routine. I absolutely love the shades and they're different enough from shades that I already own to get some good use. I'm normally very much into neutral and brown eye shadows, I find they do the most for my eyes, and certainly this palette has a gorgeous bronze shade ('Louder'), but it also has a lovely light cream ('Rhythm'), a fabulously shimmery gold ('Remix') and a beautiful deep green with flecks of gold in it ('Speakerbox'). 'Speakerbox' makes for the most beautiful liner and the 'Rhythm' and 'Remix' are both truly lovely in the corner of the eye or across the lid. They also all work fantastically together and are a dream to blend. 

Top: 'Rhythm' , 'Remix'.
Bottom: 'Louder' , 'Speakerbox'.

All the eye shadows are buttery soft, you can just feel the quality of them as you run your brush over them. The palette comes with an applicator which is what I used for the swatches, however, I wouldn't apply any of the shadows with the applicator normally except for the cream shade when I'm using it just in the corner of my eyes to brighten them. I've swatched them below, once was in bright day light and the other set of swatches was in darker 'indoor' daylight, I've included both so that you can get a true feel for the colours. I really think they are gorgeous when applied and it's worth noting that they last all day on my eye lids which is almost unheard of for me.

This was definitely a bit of a splurge as I wouldn't normally pay so much for a palette but I always swatch Bare Minerals eye shadows when I see them in department stores and I couldn't resist any longer! Initially I was going to buy the palette 'The Truth' as it has some gorgeous brown shades, but I was really drawn to the gold and green shades in this one. I think my choice paid off though because now have some really lovely new shades to play around with. I also love the packaging, it feels sturdy and the mirror is lovely and large and although I won't be keeping this in my handbag on a day to day basis when I do take this out I'm sure the mirror will come in handy.

Overall, I love it and I would highly recommend both the eye shadows and the palette itself. I bought mine from Feel Unique because it was about £5 cheaper than in department stores, but you can always check out these eye shadows at Bare Minerals' counters to get a feel of their quality.

Have you splurged on anything new lately? 


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REVIEW & SWATCHES: Sleek Sparkle 2 Palette

So today I'm reviewing Sleek's Sparkle 2 Palette and I have to say that these eye-shadows really did wow me. Sleek's palettes are always lovely but I really do love this one! (And the box is a lovely bonus, it's so pretty- I think it would make a lovely Christmas present or stocking filler.) I recieved this in my goody bag from the #Bbloggers Xmas Event and I'm really glad I did because as this is a limited edition product I might have missed out on it otherwise.

The palette itself comes in the standard matte black compact and is just as sturdy and high quality as usual. I think the packaging (like the box it comes in) looks sleek (excuse that pun...) and expensive. My dad's girlfriend who hadn't heard of Sleek before refused to believe that you can get your hands on this palette (and others like it) for as little as £7.99*, but it's true! Sleek's products are just amazing value!

Top row: Chocolate Penny, Blue Spruce, Mulled Wine, Truffle, Mistletoe and Illusion
Bottom row: Festive, Gold Ribbon, Glitz&Glamour, Tinsel, Twinkle and Starry Night

The eye-shadows are all named and I've included them in the images' captions. On first inspection they all look incredibly sparkly, perhaps too sparkly even. However, what you find as you swatch them is that the pigmentation is amazing and the glitter is quite chunky and set apart from the body of the eye-shadow. Notable exceptions to this are Chocolate Penny and Tinsel which are a lot more inherently sparkly than the other shades.

(left to right, top row:) Chocolate Penny, Blue Spruce, Mulled Wine, Truffle, Mistletoe and Illusion


Of the above shades Mistletoe is my favourite just for it's gorgeous formula, it really glides on incredibly well and it's pigmentation is amazing (these swatches are from one swipe of an eyeshadow brush). I also love the colour of Illusion and Truffle, however, all of these look very wearable even Mulled Wine which as a red I wouldn't normally pick up.



(left to right, bottom row:) Festive, Gold Ribbon, Glitz&Glamour, Tinsel, Twinkle and Starry Night

Some of the shades on the bottom row are slightly less pigmented (Festive and Tinsel in particular) but Starry Night is really pigmented and the colour of Twinkle is just gorgeous!

All in all I'm really happy with the quality of this palette and the shades are fantastic, they're all really wearable and the pigmentation is generally really fantastic. The colours look quite seasonal too but I have a feeling that a lot of these are going to be the staples for my evening eye looks in the upcoming months. I'll have to do a FOTD featuring some of these as I think they deserve some more attention!

This palette is available on Sleek's website for £7.99* and although it isn't on Superdrug's website I've seen it in Superdrug stores so it is definitely worth keeping your eyes peeled for it, especially as it's a limited edition palette!

Do you have a favourite Sleek eye-shadow palette?

Angelica