U.K. Makeup Haul: Sleek and Barry M

Hi All!

I'm super excited because this little 'ol blog reached 200 followers since my last post!  WOOT!  Welcome to my new followers!! I hope you find something in here that tickles your fancy.  :)

Recently a friend of mine was on her annual trip to England and she offered to pick me up some stuff while she was over there and I could not resist getting...a "few" things!  I got the package in the mail yesterday and it was too dark to take good pictures, so I basically rushed home today from work in order to get my swatch-fest on.

Here is what I received:

A fun looking collection of stuff, am I right??

It sure was fun swatching it all!

(Without a flash on the top, with a flash on the bottom.)

To find out more about each product--keep on reading!

First up: Sleek Pout Polishes!  The lids both look like this:

It's great that they have a little SPF in them--especially because the sun is actually *shining* in Vancouver again!  The two colors I chose were Scandal and Electro Peach.  The bottoms of the jars list the name of the colour and the ingredients.

The colours themselves are pretty darn gorgeous.  My camera didn't do such a good job of showing how "red" red Scandal is and nor did it really pick up how coral Electro Peach is.  

The texture of these is pretty neat--and the scent of the product reminds me a bit of play-dough...in a good way?  These are described as "tinted lip conditioners" and although I have only swatched them on my arm so far, I can tell that they would feel really nice on the lips!  The colour pay off, as you can see, is sheer--but not *too*sheer.  I am quite liking these!!

 (Scandal on the left, Electro Peach on the right.)

Then on to the blush!  My lovely friend who picked these up for me picked out the two colours that she sent me.  I'm relatively new to blush, but I knew that Courtney wouldn't lead my astray!  She picked me up the two newest Barry M Blusher shades for summer: Peaches & Cream and Strawberry Whip.   The packaging is pretty typical and I am planning to just toss this little brush that came with it (I have so many other awesome brushes to use, after all!).

This is Peaches and Cream close up.  It's a lovely peachy coral color.  The texture of these blushes is quite amazing--they're very very silky and have some kind of lotion-type feel to them that enhances the silky texture.

The second blush, Strawberry Whip, sadly arrived to me all broken.  It's all good though!  I'll salvage it by putting it into some other kind of container and treating it is a loose blush.  For now it will stay closed though--I keep ending up with pink powder on my table whenever I move it!

And here they are swatched.  Strawberry Whip has a nice golden glitter to it that is pretty subtle.  Both of these I applied pretty heavily to my arm so that the swatch would show up, but when applied to the cheeks they would be much more sheer.  I am really really liking the look of Peaches and Cream on my skin tone (or at least the skin tone of my arm!).

Next up,  Barry M Lip Lacquers!  I chose Cherry Red (pictured on top) and Party Pink.  These are like a lipstick crayon, I suppose.  I think there are lots of products like these out on the market, but these are the first lip crayons I've ever had.  And boy oh boy are they ever AWESOME!

(Party Pink on the left, Cherry Red on the right.) 

These glide on to the skin super easily and the colour pay-off is INTENSE.  They are both very very sparkly and I could see that causing a bit of a problem once the product starts to wear off, but holy smokes are the colours themselves every beautiful.  Party Pink has blue duochromey-ness to it and Cherry Red is definitemy more of a blue based pink than a true red (although I'm sure it would be super pretty over a red lip liner--which I will have to try soon!).

(Again--Party Pink on the left and Cherry Red on the left.) 

Here is Party Pink applied over one of my new Barry M Lip Liners, Dark Pink:

(Without a flash on the top, with a flash on the bottom.) 

To help out with all of the lip products I've been collecting lately, I also picked out two new Barry M Lip Liners.  I go Russet (the brown) and Dark Pink (the pink...obviously...heh!).  I'm still not sure why I chose to get brown...I figured if anything I could use it applied lightly to mimic my own natural lip shade.  In my head, this made more sense than it did when I finally got the colour and saw it.  I'm sure I'll come up with a reason to use it though!

These pencils "warm" up against the skin quite nicely and I find that that they apply very smoothly.  I am a fan for sure.

Lastly--Barry M Kohl Pencils.  I have, up until now, only had white and black eyeliner pencils.  I wanted to expand my horizons, so I picked out some greens, blues and a purple.  I think these are going to be so fun to play with this summer!

Once these warm up a bit against your skin they do apply very smoothly.  I think my immediate favorites were the greens and the pale blue.  Although I'm sure the darker blue and purple will grow on my pretty quick!!

 (Left to right: Kiwi Green, Lime Green, Electric Blue, Pastel Turquoise and Bright Metallic Purple.)

And oh yeah!  I almost forgot about the mascara!  I also got the Barry M Lash Modelling mascara.  The package claims that it "volumises, lengthens & separates lashes".  I tested it out this morning before running out the door to work and I did really like how it applied (I forgot to take before and after pictures of my eye lashes--but don't worry, that will follow eventually, I'm sure.  I should actually do a mascara comparison post, that might be fun!).  I like these plastic bristle applicators--I find that they don't deposit too much product at once (because it can't hold much on the brush in the first place--and that works out just fine for me!

That's all for this U.K. makeup haul post!!  One of the things that I really appreciate about both Sleek and Barry M (and especially Barry M) is that they make it very easy to know which products they offer are vegan and which aren't.  I wish more cosmetic companies would take their lead!

Do you have any Sleek or Barry M products?  What are your favorites??