Let’s ignore the fact that I am super late in posting these Sleek Curacao palette (£6.49) swatches. But to make up for my tardiness, I suffered a an irritated skin to bring you swatches of these Sleek shadows on my eyelid (closed and open)! I must confess that I was trying to stay away from the onslaught of the Sleek i-Divine palettes in the last couple of months. The Oh So Special palette looked lovely, but not a must-have, especially since I own Urban Decay’s now iconic Naked palette. The last must-have palette I thought Sleek released was the Paraguaya palette from the Avoir la Peche collection. I still coo over it.

The Curacao palette is part of Sleek’s Caribbean collection, and as a Jamaican and lover of colour I was instantly drawn in by the bright summery colours. Sleek continues its new convention of including both matte and shimmer finishes in its eye shadow palettes.  The shadows are all named after fun, flirty cocktails:

All the colours are visually appealing, but what’s the quality like? It varies, depending on the shadow. All of the shimmer shadows swatched and applied very evenly. The only exception was “Tequila Sunrise”, which is a bit grainy in texture but applies very well. Funnily enough, I discovered that “Tequila Sunrise” is an exact dupe of the gorgeous orange shadow from Sleek’s Sunset palette that I am so in love with. Check it:

Correction: "Tequila Sunrise". Don't mix drinks, kids.

As for the matte colours, I had a mixed experience. The yellow colour (“screwdriver”) was the worst of the bunch. I tried my hardest (you’ll see in an upcoming FOTD), but this shadow does not want to cooperate with me. Me and that shadow might have to agree to disagree and call it a day. On the flip side, the Make Up For Ever #92 look-alike (“Purple Haze”) applied smoothly and fairly evenly on my lid and arm.  On to the eyelid swatches. All of these were applied with a natural bristle shader brush on naked lids (no primer, no base), and in natural light. You should be able to see how much fall-out there was from each shadow as well as any patchiness:

The standout shades for me are “Green Iguana” (really, that’s a cocktail?), “Purple Haze”, “Tequila Sunrise” and “Singapore Sling” and “Green Martini” for its uniqueness. Here are traditional swatches of the Curacao palette on my arm. These were swatched with my fingers:

Overall, I think Sleek’s Curacao palette is well worth the money and a trip to Superdrug (or at least a few clicks of your mouse). Th patchiness of some of the matte shades can be rescued by an eye shadow base, while the frosted shades need no application help at all. I just wish Sleek could rectify the difference in formulation between these to finishes.

Do you own this palette? What are you stand-out shades? And did you have better luck with “Screwdriver”?