Ulta exclusive, $49

WHEW! This palette was a chore to swatch and photograph. It’s really hard to shoot a picture of a mirror without capturing your own reflection. Have you ever caught your own face in a reflective surface before you had to time to prepare yourself? Yuck, right? It’s like that, but instead of being a passing glance, it’s there on your camera roll so you can really look at how squishy your chin looks.

Photography problems aside, I’ve been having so much fun with this palette! It’s been sitting in front of my mirror since I brought it home, and I’ve used it almost every time I’ve done my makeup since then. It’s the first non-Naked palette I’ve bought in a long time, and with 30 shadows, 3 blushes, and a bronzer, I think it’s a good buy.

This post is going to be long on photos, maybe short on words. We’ll see. I never set out to write most of the stuff I end up posting.

This palette contains a wide array of colors and finishes, and they’re all coordinated to make putting together looks easier. I tried to swatch all the colors on my arm, but, they didn’t show up like I’d hoped. This is the first time I’ve swatched a whole palette! Bear with me!

Most of the colors were very easy to work with, the exception being some of the matte, light colored shadows. A couple of them took a few more swipes of the brush to get them to show up bright, but that’s ok. They were still manageable, and I didn’t go, “Eww. No.” Which I’ll totally do! It wasn’t even close to a deal breaker for me. I’ll take a buildable color over a garish mess any day. Those couple of semi-sheer shadows were nothing when you put them with the rest of the shadows in this palette. The satin, and shimmery shadows were absolutely gorgeous. They blended nicely and the color payoff was great. The silver, in particular, was soooo pretty.

I know a lot of people are intimidated by palettes. I’ve heard from two people just in the last week that they don’t know where to start with palettes, they aren’t sure how to use them, so they just don’t buy them. I understand that. That makes me sad though because palettes can be a really great buy. They’re particularly great if you want to expand your makeup collection without spending a lot of money. This Smashbox palette has 30 shadows in it for $49. Their eyeshadow trios contain colors that are just a touch bigger than the shadows in this palette, and those are $28. I think this palette would be great for beginners, or anyone who gets overwhelmed by their choices because Smashbox has made this palette very easy to use. Besides the coordinated colors, it comes with four clear plastic cards that show you how to combine colors to achieve a more in depth look. They’re really cool because you just place them over the colors you want to wear, and you can see exactly which colors you should be using where.

Isn’t that rad?! I used the cards myself a few times to check them out, and the directions were clear and easy to handle. It’s a good way to learn a little more about how to apply shadows. Once you get the hang of it using the cards, you’ll probably feel more confident on your own with other shadows!

These are a couple looks I’ve done with this palette since I’ve had it. I don’t always take pictures in front of my lights and backdrop every time I do my makeup, we’d never get out of the house if I did. But, I did grab a couple. The first one is primarily silver, and the second one uses the rust colored shadows show above.

Sorry about the lighting in the last photo. I didn’t intend to use this picture here, I was just looking at my own face. You know how in Clueless, when Cher is picking out outfits, she says she always takes polaroids because she doesn’t trust mirrors? It’s the same thing as that. I catch things that need to blended or touched up all the time like this. Plus, I like  any opportunity to look at a good picture of myself!

The blushes are nice, they’re also buildable, so that’s good. I think a lot of people prefer that in a blush. The bronzer is GREAT. It isn’t shimmery, so it’s good for contouring. I’ve been using it to bring up my cheekbones, and I love it. I predict I’ll hit the pan on the bronzer, actually.

This palette is a good buy financially and artistically. It has colors that can take you to a lot of different places with a lot of different looks. It makes application easy to understand, and easy to do. It would be really good for traveling. Wait. Do other people travel like I do? Does this seem like a lot to bring with you? I don’t think it does. You could slip this in between a couple of shirts, no problem. Then, you’d have neutrals and bright colors for whatever you wanted to do! It’s so easy!

Buy the Smashbox Wonder Vision Mega Palette exclusively at Ulta HERE.