A review - Smashbox Full Exposure Pallet

For those who follow a lot of make up blogs you would have read a fair bit about the pallet from Smashbox.  I thought I should add my pennies worth to those who have already reviewed.

I like Smashbox as a brand, their formulas blend nicely and their setting powder is one of the best I have ever used.  When my other make up supplies run low I will look to restock from Smashbox and test more of their range.

With my animal testing post in mind I thought before sharing my thoughts on the pallet I would share with you the Smashbox stance is on animal testing.  Their web site http://www.smashbox.com/ (accessed 22 February 2014) state that "Smashbox is committed to the elimination of animal testing. We are equally committed to consumer health and safety, and bringing to market products that comply with applicable regulations in every country in which our products are sold.
We do not conduct animal testing on our products or ingredients, nor ask others to test on our behalf, except when required by law. We evaluate our finished products in clinical tests on volunteer panels.
Smashbox fully supports the development and global acceptance of non-animal testing alternatives. To this end, the Company works extensively with the industry at large and the global scientific community to research and fund these alternatives."

Anyway onto the pallet.













One of the first things I liked upon opening the pallet was the "eye guide", a leaflet showing you how to identify your eye shape and steps on how to achieve three different looks (day, night and defined).
Brilliant for the beginner but also good for those who have been wearing eye make up for as long as they can remember.  There is also a website you can access with more looks (found on the back of the pallet).

The pallet has a matte black case with "Smashbox Full Exposure" written in silver rainbow font.  Inside sit 14 neutral shadows, 7 shimmer shades on the top row and 7 matte shades on the bottom row with the double ended brush under the mattes.  The shimmer and mattes are paired up nicely to make it easier to know what shades to pick together for a look.  Although with that in mind I would say all the colours both matte and shimmer would go with each other.
The shimmer shades are not scary, they have a small amount of shimmer but are blend-able and not too glittery on the eye, making the shades suitable for any age.  The shadows have incredible staying power, although this could be down to my eye primer but even so, the colours stay on the lid with no fall out and are there at the end of the day.
The range of shades mean that you could achieve a natural daytime look or a smokey eye nighttime look and everything in between.

I am impressed with the brush that comes with this pallet, normally I would throw the brush that comes with shadows away, preferring to use my full length eye make up brushes.  However, I am not throwing this baby away!  It is a dual ended brush. one end for matte shades the other for shimmer, the shimmer end is halved with white bristles on one side and black on the other meaning you can use the black side for the dark shades and the white side for the lighter shades (this really suits my OCD).

There is a huge mirror in the lid of the pallet, again so useful and user friendly.  Smashbox have really thought about what appeals to users and made sure their pallet tick boxes.

Overall I am impressed with this pallet, the quality and the feel of the product is brilliant and the shades are so wearable.  I think the £36 cost is reasonable for the 14 decent sized shadows (plus brush).  I would certainly take this pallet with me when I travel and I would purchase for others.

This pallet also came with a sample of Full Exposure Mascara.  I have yet to try this mascara but I have heard amazing things about it and it is the next mascara to try once my MAC has finished.

The pallet can be purchased here

A review - Inglot freedom pallet

A few weeks ago you would have seen that I decided to try the Inglot Freedom Pallet (see here).  I have heard many good things about the eye shadows in particular and I wanted to check them out myself.
I decided to go for the freedom pallet that holds 4 square pans (shadow or other) and if I liked the formula then there was no reason not to purchase more.  Pricing side by side to MAC shows that the refills from Inglot are more favourably priced, getting more bang for your buck.

I went for 4 shades, the pairs of shades that could blend with each other, greens and blues.
471 - An olive green shade
333 - A beautiful dark green
338 - A dark cornflower blue
387 - A muted grey with a hint of purple.

Top row| 338|387
Bottom row| 333|471

Swatched

There is a huge ranges of colours and finishes to choose from and the colours that you see on the screen are a fair representation of what you actually get.  This is much better than the MAC website, where I am always trying to second guess the colour swatches I see on the screen (maybe that's just me thought).

Firstly I would like to talk about the pallet.  The lid is translucent frosted white with the Inglot name stamped across in black, you can make out the shades through the lid which is useful if you have a number of shadows you wish to find.  The lid is held on by 4 very strong magnets which could make removing the lid hard, but if you slide the lid off the magnets instead of pulling the lid off there really isn't a problem.  These magnets will ensure that the shadows are not going anywhere when travelling, you wont have crumbled up shadows in the bottom of your make up bag.  The pallet and lid are of a sturdy plastic that does not feel or look cheap.  The pans slot into the base of the pallet easily and are easy to remove, the numbers of the shades are on a label on the back of the pan so you can lift the shadow up and check what the shade number is.  The pallet is a mattblack and compliments the writing on the lid.

The shadows are highly pigmented and blend really well on the lid.  The staying power is fabulous and look good as the day progresses (I will have to say here that the staying power could be down to the Urban Decay primer I always use).  The formula is soft and glides smoothly onto the lid with no fall out and the colour on the lid is as true to what you see in the pan, they are not chalky they don't go on patchy.  The pan size is larger than MAC so great value for money and I would say that the quality of the shadows are as good as MAC.  Lets face it once on the eye who knows if you are wearing MAC or Inglot anyway.

Would I buy more?  the answer to this is yes I like their shadows and their formula works well for what I want.  I like the fact that they have a great range of colours and finishes.  I like how they state next the products that they are paraben free and not tested on animals (being an animal lover this is very important to me.

A review - Maybelline Big Eyes Waterproof Mascara

It seems like suddenly I am seeing dual ended mascara's everywhere.  Dual ended mascara's were popular a few years back and mainly consisted of a primer (base) which was normally white at one end and a black mascara the other end.

A few weeks ago I walked into Boots and thought I would check out the mascara's.  I prefer drug store mascara's as high end are very expensive and I do think you get the same result from a drug store mascara as you would from a high end brand.

The big thing again seems to be dual ended mascara as I looked around Boots.  I decided to go for Max Factor and Maybelline, my purchase post can be found here but I could have plumped for any of the drug store bands, the choice seemed endless.

Since my purchase I have been using it daily and I wanted to share my thoughts.

First the positives.

• Both brushes are a nice size, the brush for the lower lashes is small enough to catch all the lashes but not too small to make catching the lower lashes an issue.
• The colour is a decent black, with good coverage on the upper and lower lashes from the first swipe.
• The formula is waterproof, stays on all day with no flaking and lashes did not feel crispy.  Yes it is hard to remove at the end of the day but I personally want a mascara with brilliant staying power and it I have to use my cleansing balm twice to remove all of my mascara so be it.  If this is a problem there is also a washable formula I believe coming out.

Now the negatives.

• The formula that is in the tube dries out very quickly and this makes for more clumping on the upper lashes.  This is a quick drying mascara on the lashes so it is bound to be quick drying if you leave the mascara open to the air for a long time.
• The brushes are fiddly, this is a difficult thing to describe but the size of the brush handle makes it really difficult to get to the corner lashes on both top and bottom.
• This formula is meant to give volume to lashes, I didn't really notice any change in volume.

So now the question is would I repurchase?

The answer to that is no, the reason being that it did not have the X factor for me.  I found it was too drying on my lashes but the staying power was great.  It did not improve the volume of my lashes and the finished look was not glossy enough.

Glossybox February 2014 review

The postman dropped off my Glossy Box the day after valentines day.  I was not expecting to be thrilled with the contents after last month but I was blown away.

Firstly the box had a brilliant print on the lid of lipstick prints.  I will be using this box to store my lip balms, a fitting choice I thought.

The contents were very exciting.

Lindor treat bar| Nougat London sparkling body shimmer| Eldora false eyelashes| Maybelline color sensational stripped nudes lipstick| Ciaté London paint pot|  Giovanni Eco Chic cosmetics ultra sleek

Upon opening I was instantly impressed with the nail varnish, eyelashes and lipstick being instant winners.

I have used Eldora before and I have always been impressed with them, these look on the right side of natural and fluttery.

The Maybelline lipstick is a fantastic neutral shade called coffee craze, very wearable and feels soft and hydrating on the lips.

Ciate do amazing varnishes and this is no exception, the colour is a beautiful pink, bright but very wearable for work.

Lindor make gorgeous chocolate and this treat was as good as all their other chocolate, melt in the mouth niceness.

The body shimmer has a fabulous fragrance of cherry blossom,  my most favoured smell as it brings back memories

The only issue I had with this months box was the Giovanni sachets.  A sachet is not big enough for me to decide if I like a product or not.  I think a sachet is cop out and a cheap trick

Overall this months box has been a hit, they have made good product choices and may have redeemed themselves from last month.

If you subscribe to Glossy Box I would love to hear your views on this months box.