Oh sleek. How I adore thee. One of my favourite drugstore brands without a doubt, they never fail to deliver when it comes to the cheeks. I purchased this blush palette a while ago, but I’ve only got around to playing with it recently as I’ve not been the biggest cream blush fan –too much pigment and always too thick//too runny in my experience... That is until now!
The CALIFORN.I.A palette is the singular blush by 3 that contains only cream blushers. They cost £9.99 (superdrug) which is a bargain considering you get 3 blushers and it works out at costing you £3.33 each! wow. The total weight is 13g so you have around 4g of each blush, again making it very very reasonable! The formula is wonderfully soft and creamy without being too squishy or too liquidish which was always something that put me off about cream blush before this. It is a happy medium, so well done Sleek - formula is on point.
The finish is what both surprised and pleased me, as it looks very natural and effortless but without being over the top dewy/shiny. It dries down to a stain like finish which not only enhances the longevity but also contributes to the blush looking au natural. I love how easy it is to apply with your fingers! As you might be able to see I did try and apply it with an ebay stippling brush and the amount of pigment it picked up scared me off totally. However with the fingers, if you dab a little onto the cheeks you have total control over the amount of colour being distributed – which is so important when it comes to blush!
You can use these as a light wash of colour, or build it up a little more for a pop. Also cream blush works wonderfully for dry skin tones as it doesn't accentuate dry patches, nor does it look powdery.
The packaging is the standard black sleek and sturdy rectangle, with a handy full sized mirror on the inside lid. This size packaging is really handy for travelling as you can clearly see your whole face within the mirror and it’s light enough to hold up while you do your eyes, cheeks etc. I ALWAYS have a blush palette or the face form kit with me when I’m staying away anywhere. The shade names are written on the back clearly.
L-R: OC, The Surf and Newport Peach
As the name might suggest, this is most definitely a summer palette. The shades are as follows:
OC: The pinkest toned coral I own. This shade looks absolutely stunning on anyone who is around NC30 plus, or with olive skintones/a tan because boy oh boy does it compliment us well! I think pinks can be tricky when you have a warmer skintone as sometimes they clash quite drastically with the amount of warmth in our skintone - and it can be enough to put people off pinks. But this one is different – as long as you start off gently and add more if you feel necessary. The balance between cool and warmth in the pink, and also the ability to sheer it would is just wonderful.
The Surf: A light peach shade with golden shimmer. On my skintone this doesn’t show up the greatest and is my least used shade. However I do like layering this up with Newport Peach because they compliment each other beautiful and the slight shimmer gives a bronzy/summer makeup look that extra pizazz. This would look gorgeous on lighter skintones, and it would make a stunning, yet subtle, cream highlighter for deeper skintones.
Newport Peach: My favourite shade of the trio, this is a failproof true coral which leans ever so slightly more on the orange side. Again a shade that would be flattering for all skintones, I love how this looks applied just over the contour line, it gives a stunning sculpting effect whilst still adding colour to the cheeks (a different way of applying blush if you’re bored of your usual swirling on the apples of the cheeks!)
Final Verdict:
Product rating: 9
Pros: It’s the perfect summer cheek palette and great for beginners with cream blush too! The formula is perfect, they’re easy to apply with fingers and you can layer them up without fuss, you can get a very natural looking flush of colour that lasts a decent amount of time!
Cons: The Surf isn’t the most versatile colour for medium skintones.
Repurchase? When I finally do finish it off I probably will because the shades,formula and price of this palette are so on point!
Related post: Review of the Sleek blush by 3 in Pumpkin can be found here.
Related post: Review of the Sleek blush by 3 in Pumpkin can be found here.
Thanks for reading!
