We were chatting yesterday about how the beauty biz has been affected by the recession, and how our buying habits have changed. Lots of you are focusing on careful spending, choosing tried-and-trusted brands and products over expensive impulse buys.
While Smashbox's new-season Artist Eye Palette is the guts of fifty quid at €45, I think it could make a decent investment piece for a shadow lover, considering the brand's single shadows are about €16 (they're bigger, granted) on their own.
12 shades provide varying degrees of shimmer - note, there are no mattes in this collection - and all are buttery-soft and nicely pigmented. This is a lot nicer in the flesh (and there's a bigger difference in colour between the top row and bottom, too) than it looks in the pic, and provides good versatility from day to night: I'll wear the browns and golds for day, and lash on the silver, deep purple and denim blues for evening. There's also a relatively decent brush included, though I'd advise picking up another for proper blending.
Advertised
The only thing that I'm docking marks for is the packaging. I just can't get down with card cases - they're pretty, sure, but they limit portablity and they tend to fall apart and look shabby quickly. My apathy towards the case is tempered by the nice big mirror inside the lid though, so overall, this is a great buy.
