Up close + personal: Smashbox Cover Shot palettes in Matte and Softlight

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I feel like it’s kinda rare to come across a makeup collab that isn’t so in-your-face that it’s clearly a collaboration.  Case in point, Smashbox’s Cover Shot palettes, which came out earlier this year. In fact, if I hadn’t seen Shay Mitchell post about them on Instagram, I never would have known she worked with the brand on them.

Insta-famous and known for her role as Emily on Pretty Little Liars, Mitchell is the star of the campaign for these seven palettes that are inspired by trends seen in the studio. There’s a palette for every occasion, from metallics to shimmers to mattes. Each palette, which are purse-sized by the way, contain eight shades, with six high-impact accent colours and two bigger base colours so you can create a variety of different looks.  Each palette has a theme; there’s more neutral ones, there’s one with all mattes, one with all bold rainbow shades, and more.

Smashbox Cover Shot palettes in Soft Light and Matte Smashbox Cover Shot palettes in Soft Light and Matte

I received two of these palettes, Soft Light (pink-toned shimmers) and the Matte one (all matte, staple colours).  Each palette is housed in a small case with a super cool holographic lid that features powder exploding on the cover (this is the best way I thought of describing this haha). They may be small, but the amount of eyeshadow you get in each palette is good for the price (C$35 each). I found each shadow to give off highly pigmented colour and was easy to blend.

I totally thought I would like Soft Light more, but once I started to play around with Matte, I really enjoyed the versatility of this palette. Matte in general is such a trend right now, but these colours are staples that everyone should have in their collection.

I didn’t want to do a traditional swatch post, and instead I used the two palettes together to create a wearable daytime look. Although I totally thought I would be using Soft Light more, I ended up dipping my brushes more often into the Matte palette. The way I think of it is, Matte is a great palette to just have in your collection. The colours in here are treat for those transition colours and crease colours, whereas Soft Light is more of an everyday glow palette. It’s for those days where you want to wear minimal makeup just to highlight your features.

Smashbox Cover Shot palette in Matte Smashbox Cover Shot palette in Soft Light

Anyways, like I said, I came up with a wearable daytime look that I would totally rock to work, at a coffee date, for day-to-day errands, etc. I used a combination of the two palettes so it wasn’t too overly frosty or too matte.  I found that a light dip into the Matte palette was all I needed for colour and blending, whereas a few swipes from the Soft Light one was when I felt I got enough product on my brush to really pack on the colour. Soft Light would also work wonderfully with a brush sprayed with setting spray or water for that super shimmery look.

Smashbox Cover Shot palette Soft Light and Matte swatches and look Eye makeup tutorial using Smashbox Cover Shot palettes in Matte and Soft Light 1. Fill in your brows then lay down an eyeshadow primer. I used the Kat Von D Lock-It Color Correcting Eyeshadow Primer. With a fluffy crease brush and Werk It, the taupe nude from the Matte palette, lightly brush that into your crease.

2. With Aglow from the Soft Light palette, a shimmery lavender, brush that over the lid area.

3. Back to the Matte palette and a crease brush (MAC 217), apply Editor, the eggplant shade, in the crease lightly.

4. Lightly tapping the same brush into Deadline from the Matte palette (the matte black), add that your crease so it darkens the crease a touch.

5. For the brow highlight, use Spectacle, the cream with purple iridescent, from the Soft Light palette.

6. To finish up the eyes, I applied a liquid eyeliner (Kat Von D Tattoo Liner in Trooper) to the upper lash line, winging it out. After a couple coats of mascara (Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes) on the lashes, I applied Beach House to the lower lash line to finish the look (and a coat of mascara on the bottom lashes as well).

Smashbox Cover Shot palette Soft Light and Matte swatches and look

For C$35, I think this palette is good value, considering the fact that it’s Smashbox and you get a fair amount of eyeshadows. Don’t let the size the palette bring you down, as there is a fair amount of each shadow in here, but it’s also small enough to toss into your purse. Although I did mix and match colours from the two palettes, each product has more than one look that you can easily create. The hard part is choosing which one to buy ;).

Have you tried the Smashbox Cover Shot palettes? If so, which one did you get?

Please note, product provided by PR. All opinions are my own.

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