NEW FOR NEUTRALS

Two palettes have been burning a whole in my drawer throughout January, but now No Money Month is over I can finally tell you all about them. One of which I love and the other that was a little disappointing. Stop trying to guess, I’ll tell you… 

Smashbox Full Exposure // £36  
When this palette was first presented to me I literally “oooooooed” like the little aliens in Toy Story. From first look it seems like the perfect palette, a nice mix of nudes with a few darker smokey shades and a whole row of mattes (that’s hard to come by!). The top row is all “shimmers” although I would definitely call them glitters and they range from warm to cool shades. On the bottom row is all mattes and they are all incredibly wearable shades with again, both warm and cool tones. This palette comes with some great extra features like a little guide book to help you identify your eye shape and the look that will suit you. It also comes with a mini mascara and a brush that is actually decent for a change, it’s double ended and works really well. So here’s what disappointed me with this palette.. When taking a closer look I quickly realised that the 6 highly glittery shades were wasted on me as it’s a very rare occasion that I wear a lot of glitter on my lids. It’s great to have so many matte shades but I was not that impressed with the quality and found them to be quite chalky. After a few hours the shadows started to crease and go patchy which is something that I never experience with eyeshadows. It’s a huge shame for me, but I know a lot of people do love this palette so each to their own! 

Clinique Neutral Territory 2 // £32
The Clinique eyeshadow palette (worn in the photo above) blew me away and exceeded my expectations. It’s a lot smaller than the Smashbox one, it’s pretty much the size of an iPhone but thinner. There are only 8 shades but they couldn’t have been selected better. The lighter shimmery shades are great for both highlighting and wearing across the lid and then the mix of neutral browns and slightly orangey reds makes it a bit different from other palettes I have. It’s a great size for your makeup bag and the quality of Clinique eyeshadows are so buttery, easy to blend and long lasting. 

So this time my pick would be the Clinique palette, but two exciting launches and well, you can never have enough neutral eyeshadow palettes can you?