Smashbox Eye Wish Palette

When I saw the Smashbox Eye WISH Palette at Duty Free around three weeks ago I was like, holy! It’s in the Philippines! As far as I know this palette wasn’t available at local Smashbox counters until last week when I spotted it at the Beauty Bar The Podium branch.

The palette features 12 eyeshadows, 4 gel eye liners and a small tube of the Smashbox Photo Finish Lid Primer. It’s part of Smashbox’s holiday collection.

The pink faux leather case is love!  

What I like about this palette:

• I love the color selection! It’s good for day and night with more emphasis on smoky eyes, which is just my kind of thing. I love how Smashbox kept the boring browns to a minimum and instead put emphasis on flirty fun colors. Also, the color selection works well with darker Asian skintones like mine.
• The nifty look book is very helpful. I’ve been applying my own eye makeup for some time now but it’s great to know that there are other more creative but still wearable ways to use my eyeshadows. There are different looks for all occasions in the look book!
• The packaging is pretty, unique, and functional. You can check the look book easily while you’re doing your eyes.

What I don’t like about this palette:

• The eyeshadows are not pigmented by themselves. The texture is soft and silky but they’re pretty useless on their own. However if you use a lid primer or foil them, they will show up vibrantly. Especially number 11, which is a lovely purplish fuchsia! Be careful about foiling the shadows though, #11, #6 and #8 get “muddy” like the water melts them. You’ll have a hard time removing the water stain since it seeps down the eyeshadow pan. Check out the second photo in the post, you can see the very obvious water stain on 11!
• If you want intense eye liners in one swipe, these aren’t the ones to use. You need to layer them to show up nicely. Also, they don’t harden like MAC eyeliners - more like, they just set. If you wipe them off even after hours of wear they will be wiped off. They also smudge.
• The eye primer is like a concealer. It’s not fluid which makes it hard to spread. It’s also difficult to scoop out the product with the doe foot applicator. It dries pretty fast so I tend to rub my eyes in order to cover my lid! Horrible! Also, if you layer this on, it will cake. It’s like dry skin that you can peel. Ugh. 
• Given the quality of the product, the price $42 or P2,250 at Beauty Bar (if I remember correctly) is too expensive.

With the Photo Finish Lid Primer underneath: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

13, 14, 15, 16

I rarely give bad reviews of products I feature here at Project Vanity. I always try to look for the positive side of any product I use and try to maximize it. This palette is something I can definitely work with - I won’t throw or stow this away, I actually use it everyday. However if I knew beforehand that this palette wasn’t good, I would have just spent my money somewhere else. 

Will I buy this again? No. It’s just too much extra effort to make it work. Should you buy this? If you want your eye makeup not too louds or obvious, then yes this is for you. If not, just get a palette from Mac or Urban Decay for the same price.