Smashbox Try It Kit

Unless you are new to beauty products or only buy drugstore brands, you have probably heard of the company Smashbox. Their Full Exposure palette and face primers have quite the cult following and they are a huge name in beauty. Alas, higher end brands like Smashbox are typically out of my budget, especially if I don't even know if I'll like the item. That's why releasing Try It Kits are such a smart idea, and Smashbox has two of them out currently. I purchased their "Best Sellers" kit from Birchbox, and it retailed for $18 while claiming to have a $36 value. This kit contains their Photo Finish Foundation Primer, the Full Exposure Mascara, the 24 Hour Photo Finish Shadow Primer, and a Photo Op Eye Shadow Trio called Filter. This pretty much touches on each of their big name products, and at $18 I was more than happy to try it out.

Obviously each product is a deluxe mini, which is fine. I figure this will last about a month more of less, so a decent amount of time to form an opinion. These are also the perfect size for you makeup bag or if you are travelling. At $18 each item works out to $4.50, which is not bad at all I think. Though my favorite mascara is under $5 so I personally wouldn't pay $4.50 for a mini.

I came very close to buying the Smashbox Full Exposure palette the other month, but I was worried about spending $50 on a palette that might not perform well. That's actually when I decided to try this specific kit instead of one of the other ones. The Filter trio contains all matte colors, in a nice neutral range. I think color wise this was a good choice, everybody can wear brown but not everybody wants to wear blue or purple. The palest shade is Vanilla, and is a matte cream color. The next lightest is Sable, and is a matte light brown. The darkest shade is Sumatra, and is a darkish brown.

Obviously matte shadows perform differently than a shimmer one would, but I was disappointed in these. I felt they were a little chalky and not as pigmented as I would have expected. The swatches above are several coats, just a straight swipe of my finger was pretty light. I noticed that same lack of pigmentation when I applied it to my eyes with primer. After trying these shadows I'm very glad I did not drop $50 on a Full Exposure palette.

I'm very picky about mascara I've decided. I need it to lengthen my lashes, volumize them, and make them as black as can be. This mascara performed really well on two out of the three criteria, which is pretty good. I never experienced any clumping when I applied it, and the brush does a phenomenal job of separating each and every lash for a volume boost. My lashes looked longer too, but just weren't very black. This is a natural looking mascara, which is exactly what some people want. But I wear glasses, so I need to up the drama factor to 11 when I wear mascara. If this and the Urban Decay Perversion mascara had a baby that would be the best mascara in the world.

This was the #1 product that I wanted to try from Smashbox. Every single time I take one of those "which primer should you be using" quizes this is the answer it gives me. A full sized bottle of this is $36, so there was no way I was going to buy a bottle to try it. This is suppose to be Phtotshop for your face, while keeping your makeup actually on your face. I've worn this to work in 90 degree weather, out and about running errands, and out dancing and sweating. I've got to say, I finally found a foundation I love. Even on 90 degree sweating teaching Taekwondo days my makeup still looked great at the end of the day, which is a big deal. My makeup applied smoother as well and my pores were less noticeable. I 100% get why this item has such a following, and I will be waiting for a full sized to go on sale for sure.

You may be looking at this and going "hmmmm, you sure used a lot of it up, how old is that product?" This sadly is exactly how much was in it when I took it out of the box. It was a third full and almost rock hard. I had to stick a bobby pin into it to get it started because squeezing wasn't getting me anywhere. Even now after a week of use I have to warm the rice sized amount I need between my fingers before I apply it. As this is my first time using this product I have no idea if I got a bad tube or if this is how they all are. But I'm not going to waste my money to find out. Bad enough I got one tube like this, I'd be seriously angry if I got a second tube. Now I will say once I was actually able to apply it I was pretty impressed. This is like super glue for your eye shadow, no joke. I'm pretty sure I could shower and it would still look great. But even with as well as it performed I wouldn't buy a full sized tube because of the half empty rock hard tube I got.

Overall, for $18 I think I got my money's worth. I'll use up all of the products and will purchase a full sized of the face primer eventually, but I'm more than a bit disappointed in the eye shadow and the shadow primer. I really expected more from Smashbox than what I received. So I'm going to throw this out there, if Smashbox or any diehard fan wants to send me more products to try and change my stance I will gladly give them another try. But until then I won't be exploring anymore of their brand with my own hard earned cash.