Studio Gear has come out with a Smokey Eye Palette for the Holidays! (Beauty Review)

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Today I’m really excited to bring you this product review for Studio Gear’s Holiday Smokey Eye Palette. let’s dive right in!

PLEASE NOTE: This product is currently available for the special introductory price of $25 at the Studio Gear website only! And to make that even sweeter, Studio Gear gave me a coupon code to share with my readers for 10% off of your purchase. Use code: SGHOLIDAY at checkout

(*hint hint* This palette would make a great gift this Christmas season! 😉

The Product…

This is what the cover of the palette looks like after you slide it out of the protective casing

First Impression…
The packaging is really nice – very compact and visually appealing. (Another reason this palette would make a great gift for someone. 😉 The palette has a strong magnetic close to it, so once you let it fall closed you don’t have to worry about it accidentally opening. The step-by-step instructions that they include inside is really handy, especially if you are a beginner with eyeshadow or you are gifting this palette to someone who is a beginner.

The selection of colors for this palette was very “holiday appropriate” with the gold, silver and sparkles. I could totally see someone using this palette to make a beautiful, sparkling smokey eye for a Christmas Eve event. The blush was totally matte, but it did have some very tiny, subtle shimmer in it. As I said above, very appropriate for this holiday season. 

Without Eyeshadow Primer

The Application…
Okay, so I first swatched these colors on my arm without eye primer and wasn’t too impressed, honestly. The colors did show up, but not very pigmented at all. And the glitter shadows (Frost and Glimmer) showed up more as just glitter than eye shadow. However, with that said, I did go back and swatch these on top of a primer (picture below) and was very pleased with how well the colors showed up that time. The glitter shadows had a lot more color in them. They show up really well when applied with a brush on the eyes, but I prefer using my fingers to apply it as I feel I get a more pigmented, richer application. 

The colors lasted very well on my eyelids. Let me say, though, that I tend to have very oily eyelids and any eyeshadow that I put on without a primer will crease, no matter what. But with a primer, these shadows lasted as long as I’d expect them to and about how long my other eyeshadows last (that are from LORAC, Wet n Wild, Physicians Formula). 

Please Note: These eyeshadows were swatched on my arm. I have a light/medium olive skintone, so these eyeshadows would definitely show up (especially the gold) if you have a lighter skinetone than I do. 🙂

With Eyeshadow Primer

Major Likes…
Out of all the eye colors in this palette, I found that I really liked Platinum the best. It was a beautiful silver that matched a lot of my outfits. And when I used that along with the Coal shade, I was able to get a great smokey eye. I personally prefer the darker eye looks, so this palette is right up my alley. 

As for the blush, I’ll be honest and say that I initially thought I wouldn’t like it — it had a glittery/shimmer finish and since I have pretty oily skin, I usually stay away from shimmer as it makes my oiliness look worse. I use a very light hand when I apply this, but I was really surprised and pleased with the results. It gave my cheeks a very nice, natural glow to them. And since this palette is meant for the holidays and to use with a smokey eye, I can imagine having a blush with some shimmer would be really good for an evening event — to help keep the glow in your face, even in dim lighting.

Swatch of the blush. Very pretty! No primer of any kind.

Major Dislikes…
I stated this before, but I’ll mention it again — I’m not a fan of glitter. I enjoy some shimmer in my eyeshadows on occasion, but don’t like the chunky-looking glitter that I see in some shadows. So, as you may guess, I wasn’t as big a fan of the Frost and Glimmer shadows as someone who liked glitter might be. I noticed that out of all the shadows, the glittery shades would start to loose the pigmentation first, leaving the lids with just a glittery mess. This is not something I enjoy – at all – and so I find that I tend to leave these two colors alone, for the most part. 

That’s really all that I have to say for dislikes. The colors weren’t super vivid/pigmented, but with a primer I was very pleased with the color payoff. 

Final Thoughts…
All in all, the Holiday Smokey Eye Palette is a very nice palette to give to someone this season. And with the special introductory price of $25, I’d say this palette is very well worth it! Especially if you (or whoever you might gift this to) is more into glitter than I am. With that said, the regular retail price ($40) seems kind of high for a palette with 4 shadows and a blush — especially when the pigmentation isn’t totally out-of-this-world. So, make sure that if you want to buy this palette, buy it NOW while it is on sale! I have no idea how long the introductory sale will last…but don’t miss it!

And don’t forget — use the coupon code SGHOLIDAY when you checkout to get 10% off your online order!

Also Note: I just saw that this palette is given as a free deluxe gift with all orders made over $50 on Studio Gear for the month of November. So now is REALLY the time! 😀

READERS: What do you think? Is this something you’d give as a gift? Or get for yourself to use this holiday season? 

I received these product from StudioGear for free in order to review. It was not required that I give a positive review, but solely to express my own thoughts and opinions of this product, which I have done. I only recommend products and/or services that I have personally used or experienced and that I believe will be good for my readers. This post is sponsored by BrandBacker.

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