Battle Of The Sleek Highlighter Palettes

One of this year's surprise cult beauty buys has been the Sleek Solstice highlighter palette (above, right). It's a cute quad with one cream, and three powder highlighters that's been all over beauty blogs and YouTube. Sleek are a drugstore range, with friendly price points, and quality that can be described as "not bad at all, I'll take two." Don't overlook Solstice's more sophisticated sister Precious Metals though, four more-wearable shades that come pressed in three creams and one powder (above, left). Both are packaged in lightweight tins, Solstice is shiny gold, Precious Metals is deep grey. Let's be honest, they're both enticingly pretty. 

Let's take a closer look. Obviously, as I'm paler than the moon the highlighters swatch very lightly on me, but I think you'll be about to get an inkling as to which ones would look better on darker skin tones. I actually think both palettes are great for pale types, nothing is too dark, as there has been in the Anastasia Beverly Hills highlighter palettes, although Antique Bronze is going to work better as eyeshadow. All in all, I have to rate Precious Metals as my winner. I prefer cream formulas, maybe because my skin is a little older and not so smooth, I think they work better for me - some powder highlighters can be a bit unforgiving. I really love the Ecliptic cream in the Solstice palette though, and it's definitely been one of the shades making this palette a big seller. 

At £9.99 a palette, and with a solid 7 out of 10 for blendability and staying power, these are two very good value palettes, with some great options for mixing up custom shades. There's also a third palette called Midas Touch, weirdly named because there's no gold in that one at all, and I was not in any way drawn to the blue and grey shades - though they're definitely unique highlighter colours. If you're looking for a great highlighter palette, I'd say get Precious Metals, but if you can get two, both of these are definitely must-haves.

Sleek is available online, and at Boots and Superdrug.