Smashbox On The Rocks Palette

Hello again readers!

It's just the year of palettes I suppose, where I keep buying new eyeshadow palettes, even though I'm confident that I can't even dream of finishing them in my lifetime. There have been some good hits, especially around the holidays, I was surprised with how many I really wanted to own.

The Smashbox On the Rocks palette just looks really sleek and luxe on the outside. Sleek, black packaging with holographic decals of precious gems just glowing. It definitely catches attention, and it just draws you in (it sucked me in for sure).

The palette contains 12 shadows, with a plastic gem in the center. I get the goal they're trying to meet, making this palette look glamorous, but it just doesn't do anything for me. I feel like the plastic gem gives it the appearance of play makeup, like you'd give to a child, rather than something meant for the wear of a makeup aficionado.

The shadows themselves are pretty consistent around the palette - smooth, easy to pick up pigment, and opaque. Unfortunately, not all of them meet this mark, as a general consensus shimmers generally have greater pigment payoff than mattes, but the shadows feel good to the touch.

I found these (especially the shimmers) to be easily blendable, making the bold looks, look put together instead of muddy. The mattes I felt lacked this ability to be easily blended, but I didn't have to much of an issue to make them work, and just had to put a little extra effort.

Left to Right: Blacktop, Coronation, Nutmeg, Opus, Vanilla, Chianti

Blacktop:
Black with glitter. This shadow was disappointing, and I found it to be chalky. It needed a few passes to get the color payoff I wanted, and the glitter didn't transfer like it was expected to, based on the look of the pan.

Coronation:
Going with royalty being represented by the color purple, this shadow is named appropriately. A dark violet with glitter, that has a similar glitter issue as Blacktop, but I found to be much more pigmented.

Nutmeg:
A warm, coppery-gold shimmer. Incredibly pigmented, and gets great color payoff quickly.

Opus:

A matte cream shade, that is almost useless to me. Unless I use it on my eyelids (that happen to be darker than my face) to brighten it up, it doesn't serve any other purpose for me. This color is better suited to those with tans, or darker complexions.

Vanilla:

Classic yellow-cream shade. This one shows up far better on me than Opus, and has great payoff for being such a light shadow.

Chianti:

Now this is what I'm talking about - a dark, burgundy brown shade with glitter - done right! This sort of set the precedence for how the other failure shades would be, where they gave the appearance that they'd have glitter spread throughout, they just didn't deliver. Chianti did, however, do what was expected, and I took a liking to it. It does however need some build-up to be fully opaque.

Left to Right: Sapphires, Confectionette, Mist, Bourbon, Midnight Emerald, Obsidian

 Sapphires:

A shimmering navy shadow. This is one of those shades that even though I have many that are similar, I just can't get enough of it. It looks great on the lid, or on the waterline, or smoked out for a sultry look, and this looks good on pretty much everyone.

Confectionette:

A gold eyeshadow. I'm glad that there was a gold included, because the gem has the whole theme of precious gems and rich metals. Gold is a shade that I don't have very many of, but I'm glad to add this to my collection.

Mist:

A champagne shimmer. I didn't know how else to explain this, because it's not necessarily a cream shimmer, nor is it a taupe. It's champagne, yellow with a bit of pink, and incredibly flattering to wear.

Bourbon:

Dark brown with gold glitter. This shadow is fantastic. It's deep, warm, and just gives off the air of elegance. There is always a place in my heart, and my collection, for shadows that can pull of being pigmented with glitter, without being shimmers.

Midnight Emerald:
Another Emerald green, that seems to be put in palettes quite often, but it's always welcome. It's bright, gleaming, and looks fantastic blended out with a neutral eyeshadow in the crease. It's another color that comes out often, like Sapphires, but it's welcome.

Obsidian:
Pretty self-explanatory, at being an obsidian shadow with shimmer. It's not quite grey, not quite black, and it packs a punch. This shadow sort of redeems, Blacktop, because it darkens up a look without bringing the look down with the lack of pigment and the sparse glitter.

This is a palette that is sort of all over the place. It has two mattes, which I feel is better suited for brow-bone highlights and not necessarily for the eye looks. The rest of them are shimmers, and I sort of wish the two mattes were replaced with another two shimmer products, or maybe with more impressive matte shades.

It seems like this palette was trying to do too may things, and it just didn't work in it's favor, however, if I ignore the matte shades, the rest of the palette is uniform with being shimmery. This palette may not be the favourite of the older members of the beauty community, or anyone that doesn't like flashy shadows, but if you like a bright pop of shimmery color, this may just find a great place for you in your collection.

Thanks for reading!

Smashbox Full Exposure Travel Palette

Hello again readers!

I think that places like Sephora and Ulta are really stepping up their game with their travel selections. Anything from mini-versions of their hair care/skin care/cosmetics/beauty tools/etc. are just getting better and better! A while ago, Smashbox added their Full Exposure mini to the mix, and well, I just couldn't resist.

I found it first at Sephora (but it's available at both retailers both online and in store) and I liked how it swatched on my fingers. It picked up pigment, but placing them on the back of my hand, I found that it was a bit more powdery than I expected, and it was easily brushed away. A primer is necessary for these, for sure.

The Mini-Full Exposure Palette retails for $22, and comes packaged in this sleek cardboard box. I really like the packaging for mid-range and high-end products, because even the packaging that you end up recycling just feels higher quality. It's not glossy, but smooth, almost like a rubberized finish on the cardboard. Not really entirely sure how to explain it, but touching it is a delight.

The travel Full Exposure Eyeshadow Palette from Smashbox is, dare I say it, adorable. It's slim, the size of a credit card (though thicker than one!), and packs a hell of a punch inside.

The black packaging collects fingerprints and oils like crazy though, and just touching it once will leave smudges and prints behind. It may not be as dirt attracting as say, my Naked Basics, but it's still a magnet for oils.

In the palette, you get 8 shades at .026 oz each! That's an amazing deal, because the full size palette gives you 14 shades at .035 oz each. You get a good pick of colors, more than half of the full-size, and it's less than half of the price of the full size (which retails for about $50).

You get four Shimmers, and four Mattes. They have the numbering system that matches up with the original Full Exposure Palette, and seeing them out of order is rather amusing. It goes S1, S3, S4, and S6, for the shimmers, and M1, M3, M4, and M6 for the mattes.

S1, S3, S4, S6

S1 - A chocolate brown shimmer

S3 - Gold Shimmer

S4 - Nude Shimmer

S6 - Gunmetal Shimmer

The shimmers I found to be a little dusty. If you just apply them with one swatch, you'll get some shimmer on the lid, but the pigment doesn't show up unless you either use a wet applicator, of you apply multiple layers.

On top of that, there are chunks of glitter. Not that it's a deal breaker, but if you're not fond of chunky glitter in your shimmers, these will be a turn off for you. 

M1, M3, M4, M6

M1 - Chocolate Brown Matte

M3 - Tan Matte

M4 - Nude Matte

M6 - Dark, Ashy Brown Matte

Swatching the mattes in store on my fingers made the final decision for me to get this palette, but the swatches are really disappointing. This is with multiple passes over my arm (no primer) and they just came out patchy, and uneven. The pigmentation didn't get built up like I wanted it to, and it was just a let down. Though the eyeshadows feel smooth, it's because of how powdery they are, and it kicks up fallout when dipping the applicator into the product.

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I bought this palette for the mattes, and ended up liking the shimmers more. Weird how that happens, right?

I should mention, that this palette is best used with a primer. I know, that seems like an obvious statement to say, and I know I mentioned it earlier, but I mean they really need a primer. If you want them as pigmented as you imagine, and you want the shadows to remain crease-free, then a primer is your best friend.

Another issue I have with this, is that it doesn't have a matte black, and the browns are just too light to really get the definition I desire. It's easily solved with packing a matte black single shadow, but then it kind of takes away from having a conveniently packaged travel palette.

I think, with honesty, that you can pass on this. If you're looking for shimmers, there are better options out there for you. If you're looking for mattes that you can keep with versatility, check out the Naked Basics palettes.

Though this palette is cute, it's just under the bar for me, and when I can say with honesty that I have drugstore shadows that out perform this, then it's sad.

Thanks for reading!