Seven SHAYdes of Smashbox

In case you haven’t been in the loop about things, Shay Mitchell is my celebrity twin. I swear we’re almost the same person. The only differences between us is the fact she has legs and wild talent whereas I’m not as genetically blessed in those departments.

Introduction

Recently, my twin’s beautiful face emerged in Sephora stores and at Smashbox counters all over the world as she launched 7 eyeshadow palettes ($29) titled “Cover Shot Eye Palettes” with Smashbox Cosmetics. Personally, I have never fully immersed myself in a Smashbox experience. Unfortunately, my skin doesn’t agree well with their renowned Photo Finish foundation primer so I have not tried many of their other face products. However, I’ve dabbled a bit in stores with their color pigmented products (blush, eyeshadow, etc.). Smashbox was not as appealing to me as other brands since their color schemes across the board of all product lines are more everyday and natural shades. Even though I thrive with that color family daily, I’m an avid lover of bold pigmentation on the eyes and not afraid to experiment with unorthodox “daily looks” every now and then.

When I first came across Smashbox’s Cover Shot Eye Palettes collection, I was tiredly circling around the Sephora in The Shops at Columbus Circle in New York, New York. My body was craving Dylan’s Candy Bar about six avenues east when my eyes started feasting on the spread of Shay’s faces. For those of you who have not seen the palettes in stores yet, oh chérie… They come with 6 high-impact colors and 2 larger base shades so you won’t run out of them as you use them with the accent shades.

Here are the 7 beautifully deadly sins in the form of eyeshadow palettes:

The Palettes

Golden Hour

From Sephora: Golden Hour (creamy, lit-from-within shades): This palette’s finishes range from matte to sparkle, and the sultry, golden shades are rich and creamy so you can blend and build a custom smolder.

From Ulta.com: 

Shades:

• Dope (warm medium beige matte)
• Hero (soft light beige matte)
• Lights (golden yellow shimmer)
• Turned On (warm pink)
• Hotline (bronze w/ multicolor pearl)
• Psyched (red burgundy shimmer)
• Stare (deep warm brown shimmer)
• Rock Stars (plum w/ warm pearl shimmer)

Bold

From Sephora: Bold (transformative and electrifying): It includes electrifying colors and transformers to make eye shadows really pop with an array of highly-pigmented, myriad of saturated, standout shades.

From Ulta.com: 

Shades:

• Techno (iridescent white)
• Stormy (iridescent shimmer deep blue)
• Fling (red matte)
• Wait, What? (orange matte)
• Bolt (yellow matte)
• Sell Out (greeen matte)
• Poolside (blue matte)
• No Shame (purple matte)

Smoky

From Sephora: Smoky (effortless and modern): Perfect for creating a smoky eye, these mid-to-darker tones amp up intensity with a blend of matte, low-shimmers, and high-shimmer shades.

From Ulta.com: 

Shades:

• Instinct (yellow beige matte)
• Feature (gray brown matte)
• Rock me (pewter shimmer)
• Slayer (warm gray matte)
• Hell Ya (cool brown w/ warm/cool pearl shimmer)
• STFU (deep green w/ greenblue pearl shimmer)
• Headline (metallic burgundy)
• Big Night (black w/ multi-color pearl shimmer)

Softlight

From Sephora: Softlight (soft-focus, wearable shimmers): The ultra-flattering hues include champagne and rosé-inspired colors to highlight the eyes with low-level shimmer for a subtle shine that goes on smoothly for a glowing look.

From Ulta.com:

Shades:

• Spectacle (white w/ multi-color pearl)
• Keeper (yellow highlight)
• Aglow (muted cool purple)
• Cascade (midtone pink)
• Starlight (beige highlight)
• Fresh Take (muted coral)
• Well, Hello (cool multi-color brown)
• Beach House (bronze w/ gold/bronze pearl)

Metallic

From Sephora: Metallic (fierce foil finish): Featuring shades of gold, rose gold, bronze, copper, and pewter, it also contains an even layer of pearl that truly mimics metal.

From Ulta.com:

Shades:

• Inside Scoop (yellow gold shimmer)
• Straight Up (light pink shimmer)
• Party Time (warm brown shimmer)
• LIquid Fire (yellow/orange copper)
• Let’s Rage (metallic gold)
• Rock Candy (cool silver)
• Booty Call (cool metallic pink)
• Metal Work (deep charcoal gray)

Matte

From Sephora: Matte (high-coverage, velvety): It offers mattes that never fall flat, and it’s lush, soft, and velvety with ultra-high coverage—including shades in warm nudes, cool mauves, and a deep, dramatic black.

From Ulta.com:

Shades

• Preview (light beige)
• Assistant (soft pale pink)
• Angles (cool brown)
• Werk It (soft warm brown)
• Publisher (medium nude)
• Supermodel (cool pink)
• Editor (plum)
• Deadline (black)

Ablaze (ONLINE ONLY)

From Sephora: Ablaze (hot, desert-inspired shades): With shades in rich red clay and hot terra cotta, this palette captures the warmth of the desert in a range of sun-drenched shades—these dimensional pigments are perfect for adding depth and contouring.

From Ulta.com:

Shades:

• Relaxed (matte pinky beige)
• Moccasin (warm gold shimmer)
• Siesta (warm pink shimmer)
• Delirious (deep bronze shimmer)
• Torch (warm orange shimmer)
• Throwback (matte red clay)
• Dark Horse (deep earth brown)
• Nirvana (red rock shimmer)

I don’t know about you, but I’m having eyegasms over here. I always try to keep non-Panorama posts on Bouge & Rouge as calm and classy as possible, but I am LOSING(*claps*) MY(*claps*) SHIT(*claps*) OVER(*claps*) HERE(*claps*)!!!!! Channel the tone of voice of EJ Johnson and the rapid spitfire speed of Morgan Stewart’s (Boobs & Loubs) speech. Then, apply it to this entire post to get the gist of my absolute extra emotions about this collection.

My Review

The Price & Packaging

Let me start this off by addressing the only thing more stunning than the shadows themselves: the packaging. Each palette not only has a personality but the cover of it is a lenticular image of a powdery explosion of color.

Yes. So much yes.

The only critique I have about the lenticular covers is that it a few of the colors of powder do not necessarily match the personality/name of the palette or shadows inside. So, when you put the palettes together and close the top lids, they don’t look as beautiful or exciting as the actual gems inside. Slightly confused about the artistic intention behind the covers, but what do I know? I’m not the design expert of an Estée Lauder company. Other than the cover, the packaging is very easy to open and very secure when closed, making it travel friendly. I believe the packaging has a magnetic rim or bar at the bottom, as there is only a small thumb-tip sized indent for you to open the palette and it immediately shuts when you lightly tap the cover downwards.

Now onto the pricing breakdown and analysis. Each palette is pocket sized and contains 0.27oz or 7.65g of makeup and costs $29. If we compared to the well-known Naked Palette of Urban Decay which has 12 x 0.05oz (0.6oz) of makeup or 16.92g of makeup priced at $54, this palette contains about 45% of the amount of makeup for about 53.7% of the price. But if we do some more math, $54 divided by 12 shades is $4.50 per shade in the Naked Palette and $29 divided by 8 shades is about $3.63 per shade in a Cover Shot Eye Palette. Granted you get about .016oz of more eyeshadow per shade in the Naked Palette, it boils down to 1 cent per ounce of Naked eye shadow and .008 of a cent for an ounce of the Smashbox shadow. Furthermore, you usually only use at most 50%-75% of the Naked Palette. Each of the shades in this Smashbox collection, especially the bigger base shades each Cover Shot Eye Palette provides, is highly usable. Plus, you buy the palette with the full intention of using most if not all the shades because there are less choices in each palette than in any of the coveted Naked Palettes. And lastly, the packaging is smaller and cleaner than that any of the Naked Palettes. Therefore, you can travel with it easily without any worries of broken shadow or the cover opening unexpectedly.

TLDR; it’s worth it.

The Formula

If there is anything I can say about Smashbox Cosmetics, it is the quality of their formulas. Even though my skin physically doesn’t always agree with some of their products, I’ve always loved the silky and smooth feels of every one of their products. The Cover Shot collection is no exception. I know you hear the term “buttery smooth and soooooo pigmented” from every YouTuber out there, and I know they describe nearly everything like that, but I will have to say they are not wrong with this collection. The biggest three points for me are:

1. The formula isn’t overly silky and creamy, so the shadows are not so fragile that they crumble upon contact and leave flakes all over the palette (and your face) upon and after application.
2. The color combination in each palette compliments each other in shade, tone, and finish very well. They can match almost all skin tones and undertones. None of them overshadow (ba-dum-tsssss) each other but compliment each other in every eye look you try.
3. The shadows blend very lightly and easily, last all day, and do not crease with the exception of the Matte palette, especially Deadline (black).

In addition to the swatches above from Ulta.com, I tried to swatch all seven palettes for you on my arm at my local Sephora. Ironically, the lighting was so awful! Thankfully, my girl Tati already uploaded a video with the swatches (both finger AND brush) done even more beautifully than I did. I’ve embedded her video below. Feel free to fast forward through to see the swatches or even watch all of it to hear her opinion!

 

Conclusion

If you do not have a higher end eyeshadow palette and you are looking for one for the workplace, I recommend Softlight and Golden Hour for work-related events. For costume make-up or bold nights out, I recommend Bold and Smoky. For the glamorous girl, your go-to palettes would be Ablaze and Metallic. If you want an all-matte palette, I recommend the original Urban Decay Naked Basics palette for $27. That one is much better unless you are either VERY warm-toned or VERY cool-toned. Then, I would recommend the Matte palette for you or the Naked Basics 2 palette, respectively.

Overall, I don’t know if you need all 7 palettes. I narrowed it down to Ablaze. But, I highly recommend finding one that you would use often and purchasing it if you’re on the hunt for a new palette. I give this collection a 4.5/5 stars.

Shoutout to Shay-Bae for an incredible collaboration. I hope you all enjoy raiding Sephora! Bonne chance, mes chéries.

 

-E.