Cover Shot Eyeshadow Palettes

10 Reviews

1. 

   boredTuna6

   Reply

   For the ablaze palette: Overall stunning palette. Colours are super creamy and pigmented. If you’re like me and you want to try the Anastasia palette but don’t want to fork over that much money for an entire palette with JUST warm tones, this is for you. It gives you a punch of warm colours with quality mattes and shimmers. Long lasting too.

2. 

   selfishTortoise3

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   When I first bought this palette in the Matte version (purple packaging), I enjoyed it. The packaging drew me in & I appreciated the fact that the palette was only $29. But the quality honestly didn’t blow me away, & now I rarely use it. I use Assistant (the lighter pink) & Supermodel (the darker pink) but that’s it. Sometimes I like using just a cream-colored shadow all over the lid, but when I do that with the shade Preview, it looks… cakey (which is an adjective I never thought I’d be using to describe an eyeshadow).

3. 

   thriftyOil7

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   At first, I was not sure of the choice of colour of the cover shot eye palette, as the tones are quite dark and my usual choice of eyeshadow colour is more neutral tones. However, after swatching the colours, I was drawn to the deep reddish tones, and drifting towards the shades Throwback and Nevada. When applying the eyeshadow colours I was in love with how pigmented and rich in colour they are. The eyeshadow comes off the brush with ease, as the colour of the eyeshadow is prominent.

   A

4. 

   contentSnail7

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   I bought the smashbox cover shot palette in golden hour last week, and I really love the way the colors go together. I kid you not I did my eye makeup with this palette sitting on the couch using my compact mirror, and when I got up to check out how it looked in my bathroom mirror I literally said out loud, “f*** that looks pretty.”. Sorry for the language, but that’s what happened!
   The shadow stays on all day for me, but I do use either too faced shadow insurance primer or urban decay primer potion with it, so not sure how it stands on its own.
   I really do love the cover shot shadows, I have the matte palette as well. The base tones in the matte palette are my favorite I’ve ever used.
   My biggest complaint with the cover shot palettes in general is that the lids won’t stay open while using, which is a pain in the rear. And with the golden hour shadows, there is quite a bit of fallout, but if you know how to deal with that it’s not a huge problem.

5. 

   zestyLapwing1

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   When I heard that Smashbox went cruelty-free, I immediately ran out and bought this palette to support them.

   After my purchase, I learned that Smashbox is owned by Estee Lauder. Some people buy cruelty-free products from brands owned by non cruelty-free parent companies but I don’t. There are different ways of looking at it. It’s up to each person to decide their stance, and then if they choose to go cruelty-free then to decide their stance on that (buying from brands owned by parent companies that test on animals, or not.)

   Anyways, the one that I chose is the Cover Shot Matte Eye Palette. I like it. All of the shades perform the same on my eyelids and I appreciate that kind of consistency… with some palettes it’s hit or miss: some of the shades are to die for while others don’t show up at all, or aren’t up to par quality-wise. All of the shadows in this palette are matte neutrals. They’re all pretty soft. A lot of product gets kicked up in the pan when you dip your brush in. I always use an eyeshadow primer with this palette and my eye looks turn out fine, but I feel like without primer the shadows could all blend together on the eyelid.

   Here are the shades:

   Preview – light yellowish cream color.
   Assistant – pale, light, warm pink.
   Werk It – warm, light peachy-brown.
   Publisher – medium-brown w/ yellow undertones.
   Angles – dark brown w/ reddish undertones.
   Supermodel – light-medium, warm peachy pink.
   Editor – dark, warm-toned muted purple.
   Deadline – neutral black.

   I think I paid around $25 for this, which is a good deal for 8 eyeshadows (you get a total of .27oz of product.)
   I really like the shade names and all of the colors.
   I LOVE the packaging.
   This is limited-edition and still available at the time of my review.
   I wouldn’t buy this again though (or any other Smashbox product) unless Estee Lauder were to go completely cruelty-free.

   * Note: If you’re looking at this under the “newest reviews” page, the palette you see as the picture is not the palette I got. That is the Ablaze Cover Shot palette. To see a picture of the one I’m referring to in this review, please click on the product page and check out the other picture (which I added when I added this review.)

6. 

   peskyTortoise2

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   I finally got my hands on the Ablaze palette here in the UK (I bought the last one the store had). As soon as I heard about this palette being released in America I wanted it because I had been hunting for a good palette with warm terracotta shades in it, and Smashbox is one of my favourite brands. This palette did not disappoint me. Firstly, I have to say the packaging feels a little flimsy for the money (I’m fairly sure the mirror distorts the reflection?) and I said I won’t repurchase because frankly I’ve never finished an eyeshadow palette.

   But the shadows, wow. There is the perfect mix of shimmery/metallic and matte shadows to create endless kinds of looks but my favourite is the terracotta burnt orange. The dark espresso shade is also great. I believe these shades to be universally flattering. I personally am very fair with a neutral/cool undertone and these warm shades are such a statement, but blended out right they can also just subtly emphasise my green/blue eyes. Being fair, the matte highlight shade in the top left is not quite light enough (but most highlight shades aren’t) so I use it as an all-over base. While these shadows are very pigmented and blend easily, they also kick-up in the palette, so that’s something to watch out for. All in all, I love this palette.

7. 

   relievedBasmati5

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   I really love smashbox as a brand and so I had to try these neat eyeshadows. Other eyeshadows at Sephora are way to expensive and this one was a decent price and a nice portable size. I also love how it has a mirror built in and a magnet to close. I don’t like the scratchy holographic lid. Although it is cool to see the animated explosion, I have long nails and the scratching feeling I get from the palette is horrible!

   As for the eyeshadow itself. The colours are nicely pigmented and blendable. They last a decent amount of time but do seem to wipe off or get quite muddy by the end of the day. I have fairly fair skin but some of the pigments unfortunately do not show up on my skin. I tried Golden Hour, which I liked but half the colours didn’t show up so I exchanged it for Smoky instead. I like smoky but I’m still on the fence about the colours. Luckily Ablaze just came in stock online so I’m gonna try that palette. It was the one I wanted originally.

   Will update review later for final judgement.

8. 

   puzzledLard0

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   I have been on the hunt for while for an all matte, natural everyday-palette that can go from day to night, and also is simple, straight forward and easy for travel. I travel a few times a year and love to pack light, and I actually bought this because it was so small and compact, but holds 8 shadows. Amazing!

   I’ve had this for a week and have tried all of the shadows, and they work like a charm. They are very pigmented, and it took a couple of tries to get used to the right technique, but with a light hand they blended perfectly. I love that I do not need a primer with these. I use them for work at an elderly caring center, and after a long day my shadow still look the same as they did when applied.

   All the colors really suit my warm, fair skin, and I do think this colorscheme can suit a lot of skintones.

   The two lightest shades are a good lid base, and the pale yellow also works good for setting my under eye concealer. The three brown shade on the left side makes a perfect everyday-look that make blue and green eyes pop! With some black in the crease you can go from day to night in a few seconds (and I have tried to smoke the look up 7 hours after putting on the first layer, and it still looks good!!).

   The peachy pink shade in the middle makes a nice warm glow to the eye and looks so flattering for green eyes. The purple is not my favorite but adds some color and is fun for liner if I feel like it. And the black is a true black, great for a smokey eye and for a true black dry/wet liner.

   I have also mixed two shades to make the perfect brow color. And I like that all the colors can be used wet or dry.

   Final thought: This is as good as it gets. In a perfect world the lightest pink would have been a champagne highlighter. But of course this palette is called matte for a reason and this is not a problem really.

   As you can tell, if you have read this far (sorry this is such a long review), I really am impressed with this palette and with Smashbox. Will definitely try more products by them!

9. 

   culturedEagle0

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   I bought the MATTE palette. I am fair skinned and blonde with combination skin, in my 40s. I bought it as a work palette. I am a professional, so nothing terribly glamorous required! The You Tube girls who test these palettes look fab but don’t generally sport looks that I can wear to the office.

   I am delighted with this palette. I love the slim packaging and magnetic closure. Such a nice change from enormous palettes that are a pain to bring anywhere.

   I also love that you get two double size base shades. Fantastic.

   These shade are hugely pigmented. It took me a couple of days to get used to this as I loaded up my brush when applying the middle shades and ended up with much more heavily made up eyes than I anticipated! A little goes a long way.

   I have found the shades amazingly easy to work with. They all seem to work together, they blend really easily and it has been v simple to get the looks I want each morning. Darker corners, shading into the crease, lovely bright base shades, some v dark ones for a more evening look and for eye lining.

   They last well too, but do tend to crease into the eye lid without primer.

   Overall I’d call them foolproof and I’m definitely going to buy another.

   EDIT: A few weeks later, I am not so happy, the shadow looks great just after application but doesn’t last on the eyelid. It gets mussed up and looks muddy; have tried it with primer and without. Lasts better with primer but even then, you will not get all day at the office out of it. I guess they are a bit too soft.

10. 

    wrathfulLion3

    Reply

    I have to disagree entirely with the previous reviewer (whose review was here when I posted mine but who has since deleted it for some reason) about the pricing/value of this little palette. Maybe because I live in Canada, where we are used to paying way too much for cosmetics made in the US (oddly, this doesn’t seem to apply to French brands like Chanel or Clarins), I didn’t find this little palette overpriced or too costly for what it is. It is only $5 more than the Tartlette Tease palette but has more shadows in it and offers a bit more variety in a small package. Add to that the fact that these have arrived at Shopper’s Drug Mart, so I was able to use my Optimum points to bring the price down, and this palette is actually quite reasonably priced. I had been waiting for the Smoky palette to arrive at Sephora near me but was thrilled to walk into my local SDM and find it there. The colours are just the sort I always gravitate toward, especially the shades Hell Ya, Rock Me and STFU. While I could happily live without the darkest shade (Big Night, which is a black with multi-coloured glitter) and I do wish that there was a lighter creamy ivory highlight shade instead of Instinct, which is a darker, peachy flesh shade, everything else in this palette is really nice. The shadows apply smoothly, with little to no fallout (though I haven’t tried Big Night yet, so can’t say about that shade). This would make a really nice travel palette for business trips because you can do some nice, classic looks with it and also “party it up” a bit for evenings. What would have made this a “5 lippies” rating for me would have been the inclusion of a better browbone highlight colour, perhaps in place of the blackshadow or in place of Instinct. Anyway, the colours are:

    Feature – a light, warmer toned brown that is a good transition/blending out shade
    Headline – a plummy burgundy (I am trying to experiment with this type of colour, which I’ve tended to avoid in past)
    Hell Ya – a gorgeous, bronze-y brown (along the lines of Bare Minerals Ritzy or Elitist) – it’s the sort of colour I always love to wear
    Rock Me – a silvery taupe shade – again, the sort of colour I frequently fall for
    Instinct – the lightest shade (but not light enough for me) – sort of a dark fleshy/peach beige; this kicks up a lot of product that lands all over the shadows directly below it so be careful when dipping your brush into it
    STFU – beautiful dark-ish green, along the lines of UD Loaded (I could happily live without the name, though)
    Slayer – a very cool toned dark brown (bordering on black) – it is really nice because of its absence of red tones. It sort of reminds me of Anastasia Beverly Hills Smoke eyeshadow
    Big Night – the aforementioned black with multi-toned glitter (I can see pink and blue). I haven’t used this at all but may give it a try one night before I wash off all my makeup and go to bed, though it really isn’t a shade I can see myself using all that often (mind you, I felt the same about the colour Mood in the Estee Edit Gritty & Glow palette and yet I have used it – albeit sparingly – quite often and like the results).

    The other palettes in this release don’t really interest me – the “brights” are all shades I would just never wear and the other palettes don’t really excite me as they’re very close to shadows and palettes I already own or are too red-toned, but Smoky really called my name and I like it lots.

    UPDATE: As of Autumn, 2018, I’ve added 2 more of these palettes – Punked and Minimalist – to my collection and I am delighted with both of them. Punked is a purple and grey-based palette and Minimalist is a cool toned neutrals one and both are outstanding. I get more use from Minimalist as it just suits my daily life very well. Both are perfect for travel or for getting ready for work without a lot of fuss.