Maybelline The Smokes Palette!

Hey Beauties! Maybelline has always been one of my absolute favorite brands from there foundations and concealer to there cream eyeshadows and now recently there lipsticks. After trying The Nudes Palette by Maybelline, I wasn't very impressed. The colors created a nice look but once they were applied to the eyes I find them to all be very close in color. When I saw people raving about finding this in there drugstores and seeing swatches and reading reviews I knew I wanted to pick up this palette and give it a try for myself. The price point of this palette ranges from $10-$14 dollars here in Canada and I believe this would be a little less expensive in the United States and other places. The shades in this palette range in shades from light creams to dark blues and purples and of course browns and blacks. There is also a mix of mattes, satins and metallic shadows in this palette which makes it great for creating a full eye look.

As you can see from the swatches above some of the colors are very pretty and very metallic, such as the bottom row third shadow. Many of these are really pretty and blend out really well. However there are some shades that just don't do anything for me, such as the pink shade in the bottom row.  I have also decided to test out some of the metallic shadows using a little bit of water or makeup setting spray and I do find these shadows perform a little bit better when applied this way. However just like The Nudes Palette, I find once the shades are applied on the eyes that they all look the same in color and they just don't blend out and create as pretty of a look as I would have liked it to. I paid $12 for this palette at my local drugstore and I have worn it about four times and each time I'm just really disappointed with the look that it gives me. I find for a smokey eyeshadow palette that this should give a more dramatic and dark look, rather than something that just looks like a one toned look and doesn't do much for a smokey effect. Since I do tend to wear smokey looks on an everyday basis, and I use some pretty intense grey and black shadows I just find that this palette doesn't really compare to anything else I've used.

I wanted to share two looks that I created with this palette using a variety of different colors. The first look (top) I used a shimmery cream shade mixed with a little bit of makeup setting spray, the metallic finish didn't come off as great in the image but this shade did work quite well. I then used the matte dark purple and taupe shade through the crease and above the crease and then I used the darker grey almost black shade in the outer v. As you can see the shades in my crease and outer v really do all look the same and the cream on the lid just doesn't look like its there. For the second look (bottom) I used the same cream shade only this time I used it dry. In the crease I used the warm brown shade from the bottom row and this shade I actually liked considering I don't usually like such warm shades. I also used a little bit of the dark blue shade and the grey almost black shade. Again I find many of the shades just blended together and all looked the same. And in looking at both the first and second look, they didn't really come out any different other than the obvious winged eyeliner and not winged eyeliner. But these are looks I could easily have created with any of the other palettes that I have that perform better than what I felt like this one did.   After testing the palette out I don't really feel like it's a complete waste of money. I think many of the shades would be used as crease colors and then combined with other palettes or single shadows to create some really easy and unique looks. I also think that some of the shades are quite pretty in this palette if they can be built up enough so they can be seen. I do also think the shade variety is great in this palette and it is easy to combine many of the shades to create all over looks. In the end, I will still be using this palette, but with other shadows along with it. I don't know that I will use this to create a full eye look anymore just because I feel like there are other products out there. I also am impressed to see that a drugstore brand has a large eyeshadow palette within there products. I also really like the price point on this as $10 really isn't that much to spend on a palette considering just how expensive they can be but I also feel like some people may be turned off by this and that money could be spent on other shadows in the drugstore!   Have you tried this palette? What are your thoughts?