Smashbox Cover Shot Palette Collection – Review, Swatches, & Eye Looks

I know I am SO late to sharing my thoughts on the Smashbox Cover Shot palette collaboration with Shay Mitchell…but better late than never, right? 🙂 If you’ve still been debating if you should get it or not…I hope my review helps!

I initially thought I wouldn’t do a review on these palettes. I’ve been backed up with products to review and historically I haven’t been the biggest fan of Smashbox’s eyeshadow formula. But since there are so many different types of palettes and I haven’t seen very many in-depth reviews on each of them…I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and share my thoughts on each palette. Because while I wouldn’t say the whole collection is a hit, there are some good palettes!

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Smashbox Cover Shot Eyeshadow Palettes

Retail: $29 for Each Palette

The packaging

There is no denying that the way this palette “comes to life” when you move it is so cool! It was really innovative of Smashbox, in my opinion — I don’t own anything else like it. This does give the cover a very grooved texture, which is to be expected, but it’s very easy to wipe down and keep clean.

I do NOT like the hinge of this palette, though. I hope you are able to tell in the pictures, because I find it really hard to describe! The hinge is very unique, no other palette I own has this. They don’t stay open by itself, if you open it and set it somewhere it will slowly start to close by itself. That’s not the biggest issue, but I feel like the hinge won’t last long. It’s some type of plastic and I think after opening and closing them after a while, they’ll start to split right at that hinge and then detach. 🙁

Smashbox Cover Shot: Soft Light Eye Palette | Click for Ingredient List

Not going to lie, this was the least-interesting out of all the palettes. I am not into the ‘soft’ looks when it comes to my eyes — if you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you know I love going all out on my eyes. But I did give this palette a fair try — I used two of the eyeshadows and took a matte shade into my crease and called it a very natural day.

The palette swatched fine, no issues there. It’s hard to see some colors but that’s because all the shades are “soft” and the colors are close to my skintone. 🙂 I used a brush to apply one of the shades, and my finger for the other — both worked just fine. If you like a very natural eye look with a subtle shimmer, this is a nice palette. There aren’t any mattes, so this isn’t a all-in-one palette for me — and some people might see that as a deal breaker.

Do I Recommend? If you like the colors in this palette, and like those more “wash of color” eye looks for the eyes, the quality is fine. But for me…no. I don’t think I will get much use out of it.

Smashbox Cover Shot: Smoky Eye Palette | Click for Ingredient List

I love a good smokey eye! And I love using green on my eyes! So I was very intrigued about this palette! The top two shadows on the top are a matte browbone and matte crease, which is perfect! I created two looks using this palette and didn’t have to reach into any other palettes. Brownie points!

The shades all swatched very nicely, once again I have no complaints. The pigmentation definitely is there. Nothing crazy like LORAC PRO shadows, but a nice pigmentation. All of the shadows were pretty easy to use…except for that matte gray. It was a pain in the butt to blend out. Which is a bummer because it’s the only deep matte shade to darken up the outer crease. :-/

This eye look I created using only the Smoky palette, and I think it turned out really nice. Like I said, it took a lot of pampering to get the gray shad e to blend out, but it did finally cooperate. I did hear one review on this palette that said the shimmer shades muddied together when blending — it might be because I use my finger to pack on the shimmer, but I didn’t experience any issues.

Watch the Instagram Tutorial for this Smoky Look

Do I Recommend? It’s an okay palette. So…if this palette were to go on sale, say in a few months when they are clearing out their inventory…I would say sure, grab it. The silver and green shimmers are pretty!

Smashbox Cover Shot: Ablaze Eye Palette | Click for Ingredient List

I don’t think I am alone in saying this palette immediately caught my eye – I think it caught a lot of peoples attention. I don’t do very warm looks often, but I do enjoy them on occasion. 🙂 If you haven’t snagged the Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance because of the price or too many shade options…this might be a really good alternative for you!

I really like the array of shades that are offered in this palette. You can get several different types of looks without having to move into another palette. There are three matte shades – the top browbone shade on the left and the two deepest colors. This makes the transition shade a bit difficult, but still workable using the matte orange-ish shade. All the shimmer shades are winners in my book!

The red is a unique finish — it behaves pretty much like a matte on your eyes, but you can catch a very subtle sparkle sometimes. I know the look above is showing up very vibrant, but in actuality it’s more of a deep red. Like in my arm swatch. I think the open window I was in front of was washing the color out. 🙁

Watch the Instagram Tutorial for this Ablaze Look

Do I Recommend? Yes! I didn’t experience any blending issues with the mattes, the shimmers were beautiful. If you like the looks of this palette, I think the quality is there.

Smashbox Cover Shot Eye Palette Metallic | Click for Ingredient List

This was another palette that, when they launched, I was really interested in. I like a good metallic eye look! When I had this palette in my hand…I was a little less impressed. I don’t know why…but it just didn’t look that impressive in person.

Swatching them further disappointed me. They weren’t terrible swatches — they definitely show up —  but just looking at my arm the only shades that stood out as being that impressive metallic was the bright copper and steel gray. Also, during my wear test I noticed that the sparkle in the shimmer shades spread all over my eyelid by the end of the day. I used my holy grail primer, so it wasn’t at fault as to why my matte shades in my crease and outer corner turned to shimmer. :-/ I would recommend using a glitter glue primer if you have oily lids like I do!

Do I Recommend? Honestly…not really. I was hoping for them all to be that amazing LORAC PRO type of metallic formula…and instead too many of these just looked like sheer shimmers. 🙁 If you like the shades in this palette and like shimmers, you might love this palette. Keep in mind that you need to have a second palette on hand, to use for the matte shades. 🙂

Smashbox Cover Shot: Matte Eye Palette | Click for Ingredient List

This will come as no surprise to many of you, but this all-matte palette grabbed my attention right from the get go! I love a good matte palette! The palette looked to have a great mix of colors to create a cool-toned eye look. They do give you a warmer all browbone, but that’s about it. And as much as my initial thought was the two top shades were kinda redundant for a small palette…I can see how this will help it appeal to a wider audience.

They all swatched decently. Not the most pigmented I own, but definitely not bad in my opinion. I think I’ve created four or five eye looks with this palette so I’ve been able to at least try every shade out once, if not multiple times. The one dud in this palette would be the black — Smashbox seems to have a hard time with gray/blacks in this collection). Like the gray in the Smoky palette, it was difficult to blend. And it wasn’t very intense in color — granted, I am used to LORAC PRO’s blacks.

Over all, this is still my favorite palette out of the collection. I like that it’s so small and compact — when I travel I can just take this and one or two of the L’Oreal Infallibles and I’ll be set. It reminds me of the Naked Basics palette — and you get two extra shadows for the same price!

Watch the Instagram Tutorial for this Matte Look

Do I Recommend? Yes! If you don’t own the Naked Basics and have been wanting a small all-matte palette to use either for travel or with your singles shimmers and glitters – I think this is a great palette.

Smashbox Cover Shot: Golden Hour Eye Palette | Click for Ingredient List

This palette didn’t stand out to me, but it is very pretty. The only matte shadows are the two on the top, which is a bummer for people like me who like to use matte shades in my outer corner to deepen up a look. Not that this ruins the palette for me – it just means I have to reach into a different palette for more mattes.

The matte shades swatched very nicely. The shimmers were a bit toned down, but not necessarily because they aren’t a good quality. They’re just a softer shade. As with all the shimmers in this collection, they feel very smooth and buttery soft. I like Smashbox’s shimmer formula!

In the eye look above I only used shadows from the Golden Hour palette, so it is possible to get a variety of looks using only this palette — they’re more “every day” looks, in my book, since there is nothing to deepen things up.

Watch the Instagram Tutorial for this Golden Hour Look

Do I Recommend? Sure. I didn’t have any issues working with any of the shades. It isn’t my favorite because of the lack of mattes and the shade selection is very neutral, but if you like the colors go for it. It’s a good palette!

Smashbox Cover Shot: Bold Eye Palette | Click for Ingredient List

Okay, let’s talk about this stunner — it’s got some bright colors, doesn’t it?! The two shades on the top both have iridescent shimmer in them. Very pretty, and perfect for transforming any of the 6 matte shades.

All of the shadows swatched very nicely. The mattes feel very nice, except for the red and purple — they felt a little chalky. But still work well, as you can see in the eyeshadow look below. I tried to use as many colors from the palette in this eye look as a could. How do you think I did? 😛

I didn’t use any white eye pencil to get these colors to show up so well. I put just a tiny bit of the white iridescent shimmer on my browbone and inner corner. All the shadows blended very easily into each other. Some of them took a little building up to get the color you see, but nothing to complain about.

Do I Recommend? Yes! If you’ve been wanting to have a little palette in your collection for when you feel creative, I say go for it. It’s cheaper than the other high end vibrant palettes that are out there, and it works just fine.

Whew! We made it!

That was a long post, but I hope you found it helpful! None of the Smashbox Cover Shot palettes are horrible, but they do have their pros and cons. 🙂

Did you pick up any of these palettes? Do you plan to buy any now? Which ones? Let me know!

Also, if you are looking for new beauty bloggers to follow, Fabulous and Fun Life has a beauty blogger link up every week! Check her out!

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