New Releases from Smashbox Cosmetics | First Impressions

HELLO THERE, FOXY LADIES (and foxy men too). I was invited along to the new Smashbox store in the Bullring a couple of weeks ago, but unfortunately because I haven’t tricked a rich man into marrying me yet and still have to work the 9-5, I wasn’t able to make it down. However, the lovely folk at Smashbox very kindly sent me a few of their new releases to try out – and what absolute beauties they are. I thought I’d put together this quick first impressions post so we can get get all loveheart-eye-emoji over the products together, and then you know what you need to rush out and buy immediately.

(Psst – I’ve also dug out these Smashbox discount codes if you fancy saving some £££ on your new products, hurray!)

First up, we have the Smashbox Photo Finish Lid Primers* (£18.00 each) in the shades Light, Smoke and White. So far I’ve only used the shade Light, and it did a great job of evening out my eyelids’ skintone and making them smooth ready for eyeshadow.  I don’t know if it’s because I’m a bit of an eyeshadow rookie but I’ve never seen a black lid primer before, so I’m interested to try that next time I attempt a dark smokey eye (with ‘attempt’ being the important word there for this cackhanded idiot).

Next the Always On Gel Eye Liner* (£18.00) is a super-black, super-smooth gel eyeliner. I tend to use pen liners on my upper lids and a kohl pencil on my waterline, but this actually works really well on both. When you first apply it, it’s really blendable for a few seconds so you can smoke it out if you want; otherwise it dries and then doesn’t budge. And I mean like “I’ve just sweated all of the water in my body out during a body pump class and am ready to collapse but daaaaamn my eyeliner still looks good” doesn’t budge.

Now we arguably have the two stars of the show – the new Smashbox Cover Shot Eye Palettes* (£24.00 each). These small but mighty palettes contain two base shades and six shadows, and there are seven different palettes in the range. I was very kindly given the very wearable, nude Softlight palette (above) and the electric, striking Bold palette (below). Now, as someone who is 90% of the time strictly monochrome, I was initially very scared of Bold. But I’ve recently got really into that smoked-out colour-under-the-eye look that the likes of Jamie Genevieve make look AMAZING, so I’m going to try. I really am guys. I’ll probably end up with badly-applied yellow that makes me look like I have some sort of terrible eye condition, but I’m really going to try.

These palettes are obviously gorgeous inside, but the packaging is really extra-specially stunning. So much so that I knew a photo wouldn’t do it justice, and so have included this wee Instagram video. JUST LOOK AT THAT. FIT FIT FIT.

A post shared by Vanity Claire (@vanity__claire) on Mar 12, 2017 at 3:43am PDT

So overall I’m loving these new Smashbox releases, and am very happy indeed to have them as new additions in my catfish kit – I mean, makeup bag. If you’re interested in picking up some Smashbox products yourself then you can shop them online here or do what I intend to this weekend and pop into the brand new swanky Bullring store.

Have you tried any of these Smashbox products – or are there any others you think I should know about? Let me know in the comments!

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