Smashbox Full Exposure - Review and Palette Parade Check-In

What's a palette parade? See this post.

Smashbox Full Exposure palette ($49 at Sephora, Ulta, Beauty.com, Nordstrom, and Smashbox.) 

For the past week, I've been using the Smashbox Full Exposure palette. You might have seen the black shadow from this palette in last week's black shadow round-up. 

The packaging is pretty good - I love the rainbow lettering on the front and the magnetic closure palette is pretty standard these days. Nothing over the top or special but it feels substantial enough to protect the shadows inside. Sorry to say, I neglected to take a photo of the palette open. Like so many others, this palette has a mirror inside but no way to prop the lid so that you can actually use it. I'd really like to meet the person that applies shadows from a 14-pan palette holding the palette or with it flat on a table somewhere. The included brush is decent quality, natural hair on one end, duo natural/synthetic on the other; I'd say more actually versatile and usable than the brushes that come with any other palette.

I swatched from left to right, top row and then second row. These shadows don't seem to have names, they're referred to by Smashbox as Shimmer 1 through 7 and Matte 1 through 7. 

Smashbox Full Exposure swatches

I'm sure you've already spotted the main problem with this palette. The shimmer shades suffer from major fallout and wash out to a very similar color in all but the darkest shades. The mattes, however, do not suffer from this problem. In fact, I think this palette is worth purchasing just for the mattes, if you're looking for matte neutrals. However, I have the Naked Basics palette along with Urban Decay's Buck, Laced, Tease, Secret Service - I'm well-served in the neutral matte department.

Even worse than that, though, was what happened when I applied these without the shimmer shades sticking around:

So similar. Still fighting with the eyebrows.

No matter what application method, tools, or look I used, they just kind of washed out to being the same. I don't have this trouble with Urban Decay's Naked Basics, which only has six shades. It's disappointing, at least to me, to spend between ten and twenty minutes standing in front of your mirror to walk away looking like you did the day you spent five minutes on a look.

Overall, I'd say this one is a pass unless you're really looking for basic mattes that will give you a consistent look day to day. Honestly, I think that may be part of the design, as the packaging describes Smashbox's process for choosing these colors - colors that can be used to create a "natural" look on a variety of skin tones for makeup pros. Certainly, you can choose the shades that work best for your skin and eye colors and have a standard look that's easy to pull together quickly - but don't expect versatility out of this one - but it seems an awful shame to buy fourteen pans of product to only use three or four.

This is why you didn't get full-face at all - my glasses were uncooperative this week.
F-Bomb is still awesome, though.

Coming up this week I have swatches from Urban Decay's Electric Palette (oh, come on, you knew I'd buy it) and a short review for the Paw Palette I recently purchased.

Black Shadow Showdown Redux

You might remember my disappointment that Sugarpill's Bulletproof didn't live up to the hype or Urban Decay's Blackout. A generous friend sent me Makeup Geek's Corrupt because she was pretty sure it could slay the competition.

Of course, between now and then, I've managed to obtain a few other black shadows. Who doesn't need more black shadow? Before I move on to the swatches, I wanted to say that I bought two pans of MAC's Carbon, certain that I had a defective one. Both pans swatch exactly the same and the MAC counter rep I spoke to told me that "you don't actually want a shadow that black, because it wouldn't blend well!" I disagree, clearly, and so do many other cosmetics companies, apparently.

On to the main event:

My ten black shadows, in natural light

1. Sephora Collection No 54 Black Lace 2. Kat Von D Lucifer from Sinner 3. Smashbox M7 from Full Exposure 4. Sugarpill Bulletproof 5. MAC Typographic 6. MAC Carbon 7. MakeupGeek Corrupt 8. Urban Decay Blackout 9. Urban Decay Crave from Naked Basics 10. NARS Pandora II

Do you see the lengths we have to go to in Washington state to get 'natural light' photos? I'm hanging my shadow-covered arm out of my kitchen window for this. I think the MAC shadows are the most disappointing here - Typographic (5) and Carbon (6) are practically the same color and neither are what I would call black - they're clearly gray shadows.  I was a little surprised by (3) Smashbox M7 from the Full Exposure palette. That palette has taken a beating on a lot of reviews I've seen as being poorly pigmented. I'm going to do a review for that palette next week but spoiler alert: buy it for the mattes.

The MakeupGeek Corrupt (7) and Blackout (8) seem to be going head-to-head. Blackout is smoother in texture and Corrupt seems to have a little glitter in it but they're both very dark, deep black shadows.

Let's look at these shadows inside, shall we?

1. Sephora Collection Black Lace 2. Kat Von D Lucifer 3. Smashbox M7 from Full Exposure 4. Sugarpill Bulletproof 5. MAC Typographic 6. MAC Carbon 7. MakeupGeek Corrupt 8. Urban Decay Blackout 9. Urban Decay Crave 10. NARS Pandora II

I feel like you can see which shadows lean brown or gray with indoor lighting a little better. I also think the difference between Typographic (5) and Carbon (6) is more clear here but I'm still not impressed.

If you're looking for a velvety-smooth true-matte black shadow, I still think Urban Decay's Blackout ($18 alone or available in the Naked 2 palette) is the best you can get - but at one-third the price, Makeup Geek's Corrupt ($6 in a naked pan, $8 in a single compact) is a serious contender, even with a little bit of shimmer.