Ever wanted to have... MOST of the beauty products that you need in one palette? Do you wish to have an amazing array of quality products in a not so bulky, but yet complete ensemble? Well today, I have your solution! Today, I'm going to talk about a new makeup palette that I have received as an early Christmas present, the Master Class Palette III from Smashbox Cosmetics (Thank you Luc <3).
This imposing palette is complete with 32 eye shadows, 3 blushes, the three piece Smashbox contour kit (contour, bronzer and highlight), 4 "get the look" cards and blank face charts to have fun creating various looks.
After having had the palette for a few weeks now, I must say that I am incredibly impressed. I read a tremendous amount of reviews and hesitated for quite a while before deciding between this one and the new Vice 3 palette from Urban Decay. Many reviews seemed to say that the colour pay off wasn't too great and that the shadows were often chalky and produced a lot of fallout. Others even said that the close proximity between the shadows and the contours or blushes made it difficult to use without unwillingly mixing them together. In the end, I decided to go to Sephora and ask one of the workers if he could help me make a decision. This guy was amazingly helpful and told me that the Smashbox shadows had great blendability and that, for the small amount of pigmentation that I was sacrificing (in comparison to UD shadows), was made up for in quality of application. I thanked the worker having convinced me to make a decision. 
I must admit that some of the colours don't show up as well on my lids, considering the fact that I have dark and olive toned skin. Nevertheless, I still enjoy using them underneath eyeliner as I rarely go a day without shadow, be it visible or not as I feel that it makes the eyeliner application smoother. Many of the colours are absolutely gorgeous and, seeing as I do enjoy using more intense colours such as the greens, the pinks, the purples and the blues, I have come to use every single colour. Having heard so many bad things about the pigmentation of the shadows, I was quite impressed with their pay off, specially when put on top of a lid primer. 
The palette's case is very heavy duty and could, for certain people, be too heavy for travel, BUT HAVE NO FEAR, the two individual pieces do pop out of the case. Sadly, these individual pieces only have a hard plastic flap over them and don't actually close with a latch, so if you do travel with them, it would be a good idea to place them inside a padded cosmetics pouch.
The two different sides of the palette are very distinctive as one side is filled with neutrals and the other is filled with more intense bright colours. The colours are arranged in vertical quads that I often use to create complete looks. For the neutrals, the first quad leans towards mauve tones, the second, browns, the third, greys and the fourth, beige-y-browns.
As for the brighter, more daring colours, as you can see, there are also four quads including ensembles of greens, blues, purples and pinks. The pigmentation of these shadows was a very pleasant surprise. Many of the negative reviews mentioned that the swatches looked much better than the actual pay off that was given once on the eye. I call BULL CRAP! These eye shadows are so so fab and go on lovely. I must mention that all of these swatches are done without primer. Adding primer under them would only mage them brighter, more pigmented and also more opaque.
As for the blushes, I find all three of them gorgeous. The middle one, "Flush", is unlike anything else that I already own as it truly does give you a natural and muted cheek that permits you to play up your eyes or your lips without looking outrageous. All of these blushes also have very good wear.
The contour palette is also so so so great as it is light enough to look good on just about any skin tone. The colours blend in very easily and would work nicely for beginners who haven't yet experimented with contouring.
This palette would surely make a great Christmas gift. It is $72 at Sephora and is said to be $360 value. Considering that the Smashbox Step-By-Step Contour Kit is $52 on its own, for an extra $20, you're getting so much product. I hope that this review was helpful and that it can help people like me who just couldn't figure out if they should buy this palette or not. I say, GO FORTH MY CHILD and indulge, specially if you're a person like me who lives and breathes for eye shadow palettes and good deals.
Have a great week!
Love,
Amélie
xoxox
Ooh pretty colours! Is there a fancy secret way of wearing pink shadow without it looking like you're sick?
ReplyDeleteWearing it as a base is a good idea. We might just do a valentines day pink inspired look just for you! Baby pinks are easy to pull off and darker pinks go well in the crease if not over done. Pinks look good paired with neutrals. Often I'll wear pink with a gold or champagne tinted shadow.
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