I’ve made a major error & I need to apologize. I’m so sorry I’ve fallen in love with a palette that has already sold out online except for Amazon. I tend to try & review items for longer than most apparently & not I’ve waited too long for this rave review. Trust me when I say you need to get your hands on this palette.
The Smashbox Master Class 3 Palette is limited edition & the first in the series I’ve picked up. The other palettes were pretty but just not what I was looking for. They weren’t as pretty as this one from what I can remember & something about the packaging just wasn’t right. They weren’t as travel-friendly which is important to me for when I actually travel. This palette contains 32 eyeshadows & 6 face products…& they’re gorgeous! Keep reading to check them out!
So what makes this packaging better? Well it closes quite securely for one! It fits together like a book then has a handy strap that goes over top to secure it all together. Inside you have 2 sides- one more neutral & one more colorful. You can see they each have a plastic flap which I adore- less mess & not a flimsy flap like in most palettes. Notice the names are also printed below the shades as well! Each side completely comes out of the booklet- perfect to work on clients or use separately. I’ve found this to be really handy as I tend to have an absolute mess on my makeup table.
The neutral side contains 16 eyeshadows in varying finishes, a matte contour powder, a matte bronzer, & a barely satin highlighting powder.
These swatches over primer from left to right are Naked, Drizzle, Topaz, Royal.
Row 2 is Nectar, Ambient, Sienna, & Blackout.
These swatches over primer from left to right are Flirt, Pebble, Cinder, & Smoke.
Row 2 is Vanilla, Golden Orchid, Nude, & Sumatra.
For the more neutral side I have to really give this snaps. The shade variation, textures, & composition is so perfect. The tones here are rich & the texture across the board is so smooth & easy to blend. Naked, Nectar, Vanilla, Drizzle, Pebble, Nude, Royal, Blackout, Smoke, & Sumatra are all matte- that’s more than half! This really helps compensate for the lack of mattes on the more colorful side. Some of my favorites are Drizzle & Royal which I tend to combine with Pebble for a gorgeous, matte, purple eye. Some other shades I use on their own are Cinder, Topaz, & Golden Orchid which is a soft pink with golden sheen. Nectar is an awesome blending color & so is Nude.
The colorful side contains 16 eyeshadows in varying finishes, shimmering pink blush, matte neutral blush, & rose blush with shimmer.
These swatches over primer from left to right are Oyster, Zoom, Ivy, & Serpent.
Row 2 is Sky, Steel, Cerulean, & Nocturnal.
These swatches over primer from left to right are Lavender, Lilac, Violet, & Blacktop.
Row 2 is Snow, Rose Petal, Papaya, & Peony.
The more colorful side is definitely a mixed bag. The green row is extremely impressive- Zoom, Ivy, & Serpent are gorgeous but also quite different. Nice green variety. Steel is as close as you will get to a silver in this palette which is an interesting change- I’m used to silvers & golds being in almost every palette these days. Nocturnal is an amazing blackened navy while Cerulean is a beautiful vibrant pop. The purples are gorgeous & Violet is mostly matte- along with Snow they’re the only mattes on this side. The pink rose is a nice surprise- Papaya is something really special I can see myself reaching for this spring & summer.
The blushes are lovely- Rosey is a soft rose with fine silver shimmer that doesn’t show up much on the skin, Flush is a matte neutral shade that goes with everything, & Carnation is your usual light pink with lots of gold shimmer. The Highlight is a bit yellow for me but looks quite natural on the skin. Bronze is a warmer bronzer than Contour & I’ve actually used it as an eyeshadow as well. The Contour shade is pretty perfect- even on my super fair skin it will blend out beautifully.
I wanted to share my go-to neutral look lately- it is easy to pull off anytime. It has a smokiness that I can amp up or tone down. It is neutral enough that I can pull out my bold blushes or lip colors out but flashy enough that I can go neutral.
For this look I primed my eyelid then used Cinder as my base across my lid. I add Royal to my outter crease to darken it up & add some drama. Naked is what I use to blend out. Naked is below my browbone very lightly & Flirt is added into my inner corner for the shine & lightness.
