Sleek ‘Storm’ i-Divine Palette Review

I bought the Storm eye palette a couple of weeks ago as a substitute for the amazing, but purse-crunching Urban Decay Naked 2 (currently £32.40 at Debenhams – as much as I love a shimmery neutral, that’s a bit too much of a commitment for me). The Sleek version retails at just £6.49, available atSuperdrug, for the same number of highly-pigmented, mineral-based shades.

For a lower-end high street beauty buy, I actually really like the packaging. It’s quite heavy, neat and the entire inner lid is a good-quality mirror, essential for a decent application. The foam applicator obviously isn’t the best, but it is usable and I found that the edge was quite effective for using the shadows as a liner.

The colours are incredibly pretty with a few bolder hues, which really suit their ‘Storm’ tag. Numbers 3, 11 and 12 are matte shades, which make great neutral bases for the rest of the shimmery shadows. There’s a nice mix of cool and warm shades, so there’s something to suit every skin type and mood; or you can blend them up to create your own colour.

The top row are just the prettiest highlighting shades. Numbers 2 and 4 are particularly lovely taken up to the brow bone, while number 6 is a little deeper and perfect for the crease of the eyelid.

The bottom row will allow you to add a bit more depth to your look, and are the perfect shades for a ‘stormy’ smoky eye. I especially liked number 9 – although it is a green and I’m green-eyed, there is a little grey shimmer in there which really compliments my eye colour. The blues (8 and 10) would be fantastic for brown and grey eyes, but any of them could be mixed with the more natural number 7 to make them easier to wear.

In terms of the application itself, the shadows are definitely highly pigmented, and you can achieve quite a professional finish with the right amount of blending. This is where the difficulty comes in: although the shadows go on densely, they are admittedly quite hard to blend. However, with a bit of perseverance it’s not impossible, and for £6.49 you can’t really go wrong!

See below for an example of the product in use…

I used number 3 as a base over the lid, with number 5 applied on top. I took number 2 up to the brown bone as a highlighter, with number 6 in the crease of the lid and at the outer corners. You could take this to a more intense finish with one of the bottom row colours as a liner – either classic black in number 12, or the earthier brown shimmer number 7 would be particularly pretty.