Reunited with my Urban Decay NAKED Palette after Lent and finding my Sleek Storm Palette

Hey loves!

I hope you're all having a great day, whether you're at work, school, college or whatever! :-) isn't the weather SO miserable! Where's spring gone?!

OK so other than giving up carbs for Lent, you may remember that back in February (wow that feels long ago now!) I blogged about giving up my Urban Decay NAKED Palette for Lent, too. I was basically stuck in a rut, using the same shades from the NAKED palette every day (Naked, Buck, Smog FYI) and leaving all my other eye shadows unattended. The point of giving up my Urban Decay NAKED palette for Lent was to force me to utilise the other eye shadows in my make-up collection.

So, I said goodbye to my NAKED palette for 40 days...

and embarked on a mission!

So... did it work?

To an extent, yes.

I didn't succumb and use my NAKED palette at any point... However I found I relied heavily on my Sleek Storm palette instead.

Giving up my NAKED palette taught me a few things...

• I can live without my NAKED palette, and in fact the shades I was using aren't exactly suited for me anyway, I was just using them out of habit
• I really really want the NAKED2 palette! I think the shades and formulations in the NAKED2 palette would be more suited to my skin tone and complexion ie. more matte shades and less shimmer
• I rely very heavily on eyeshadow palettes. Whether it's the NAKED palette or the Storm palette, it's just so easy to use the colours that are right in front of you and not have to reach out and find different brands/shades instead

So, as I mentioned, I definitely became re-acquainted with my old love, the Sleek Storm Palette.

I got this a number of years ago after reading one of my fave bloggers, Anna Saccone, say she used it. I used it religiously, pretty much up until I got the NAKED palette!

It contains 12 shades, mostly matte but there's a few shimmery ones too. It also features a double ended doe foot applicator brush, and a handy mirror for touching up on the go. It retails for just £6.49 on the Sleek website, or you can pick it up from Superdrug.

Over the 40 days I was banned from using my NAKED palette, I found myself reaching for 2 specific shades in the Sleek Storm palette each day.

The first one was this matte taupe shade (3rd from left, top row):

and the second was this matte medium brown shade (2nd from right, bottom row):

It was so quick and easy - I simply loaded my Cosmopolitan Base Brush with the taupe shade and covered my lid with it, before using the matte brown shade in my eye crease and outer edge to create a smokey eye look.

Here's a couple of swatches of the 2 shades mentioned (taupe - top, brown - bottom):

(left - without flash, right - with flash)

Are you stuck in a make-up rut? Have you quit certain make-up products in order to utilise others more? What's your favourite palette?

Let me know in the comments below!

Love,

Sophia

xo