Smashbox Try It Kit: Best Sellers

Smashbox is a brand that I think is a bit understated. With its practical, non-flashy packaging and makeup designed to be professional level, I'm not sure who exactly the target demographic is. I love the brand's photo op eyeshadow trios a ton and so was so excited to get my hands on the Smashbox Try It kit filled with the brand's bestsellers in miniature travel sizes:

The kit comes with a photo finish foundation primer, a full exposure mascara, a 24 hour photo finish foundation primer, and a photo op eyeshadow trio. 

The eyeshadow trio is in the color 'Filter,' which is the most neutral of Smashbox's trio selection.  It comes with 3 matte shadows in an ivory, a soft brown, and a deep brown. The packaging on this little trio is pretty neat with a swing out disc, but these shadows are REALLY TINY.

Here is the mini trio compared with one of Smashbox's full sized trios for size comparison. Despite the tiny size, the pan size is large enough to dip a brush into easily and the colors are enough for a complete eye look. 

L to R: Vanilla, Sable, Sumatra

Smashbox's eyeshadows are buttery smooth and blend easily to create seamless eye looks.  I really enjoyed the eyeshadow primer under the shadows and felt it was just as good as UD Primer Potion or Too Faced Shadow Insurance. It has some slip to it which was the only thing I noticed as setting the Smashbox primer apart from other brands, but I didn't feel like it effected the way my shadows applied.

Using only eyeshados from the 'Filter' Trio

The mascara is concerning only because it isn't waterproof and my eyes get VERY watery through out the day leading to raccoon eyes up the wazoo. I've tried the foundation primer before and I do like it enough to use up the tube, however it doesn't change the way my foundation applies enough to warrant buying a full size tube of the product.

I like this product as a way to try out some hot items from a popular and, in my opinion, underrated makeup brand. It also was a way to get my hands on a travel size eyeshadow trio for a decent price. This kit costs $18 for $36 worth of product and is quite the steal in my opinion! 

Take a look at this product on Ulta's website Here!

I've reviewed some Smashbox products before!

My review of the photo op trio in 'Cover Shoot'

My review of the photo op trio in 'Headshot'

My review of the photo op trio in 'Multi-Flash'

xxSJ

Worth the Hype? Wet n' Wild Eyeshadow Trio in 'Walking on Eggshells'

Wet n' Wild eyeshadows are kind of a hot commodity in the beauty world right now, the reason being that this brand used to be known as a cheap, throwaway brand to buy for young ladies as their first makeup purchases.  In recent years, Wet n' Wild reformulated much of their makeup products and the most amazing of the new products are, apparently, the eyeshadows.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to find out if these products truly are worth all the hype. I purchased the eyeshadow trio in 'Walking on Eggshells:'

This palette is one of the most gushed about palettes so I thought this neutral trio would be a good indicator of the eyeshadows as a whole.

Each shade doesn't have a color, but rather the place you're supposed to place the color is stamped into the shadow.  The packaging itself is quite cheap and flimsy, but for only a couple dollars, you're not exactly paying for glamorous or luxurious packaging!

While preparing to swatch these colors I noticed immediately that all these shadows are SO buttery to the touch, particularly the brown crease shade. Not chalky at all!!

The colors are super pigmented when swatched on the skin and show up true to color in the pan.  These colors are VERY shimmery and show up as such on the lid. I was pretty pleased with the blendability of these colors when I applied them, however since they are so shimmery, the reflective sheen kind of washed out the color and made the colors quite flat.

By the end of the day after many hours of wear at work, when I looked in the mirror I noticed that there was no creasing! Yay, that's fantastic! BUT, the flatness of the colors increased and my whole eye kind of looked like a shiny champagne gradient washed over my lid. I would recommend not actually wearing all these colors at once because its too much shimmer! Maybe placing the lid color all over the lid with Soft brown on the crease to create a really muted pretty look would be nice or using the crease color paired with a matte pink or nude lid color would be the way to go.

I tried to dupe these colors in my own collection and I failed miserably! Observe:

From left to right in this photo: Wet n Wild Lid color, Smashbox Crisp, Urban Decay Burnout, Urban Decay Freelove, Urban Decay X, Stila Kitten, Urban Decay Blaze, Too-Faced Silk Teddy.
As you can see I really didn't find a spot on dupe for this color, so that's kind of neat!

From left to right: Wet n Wild Crease color, MAC Woodwinked, Urban Decay Snakebite, Urban Decay Smog, Too Faced Honey Pot, Urban Decay Half Baked, MAC Mulch, Bare Minerals Ritzy, Covergirl Shimmering Sands Shadow Trio.

Again with the crease color, I had a hard time perfectly duplicating this color! I'm actually not a huge fan of this color since it is quite orange and warm, but its nice to have a color like this in my collection if I wanted to go for a certain look or do someone else's makeup.

All in all, I understand the hype around this product given its $3 price tag. I think this would be a good set to have in your makeup arsenal, however, I wouldn't recommend wearing all these shimmery colors at once for a complete look.

xxSJ