Smashbox Iconic Eyes Palette

I'm a huge fan of the little 'Weekly Specials' section on the front page of the Sephora site. It always includes some great deals from higher end brands. When I was making my massive Sephora haul, I decided to pick this up. Right now, the Smashbox Iconic Eyes Palette is only twelve bucks!

The packaging of this palette is made of sturdy cardboard covered in a shiny plastic made to look like leather, which is one thing I really like about it. Generally, a downfall of cardboard packaging can be the issue of accidentally touching it with damp hands, but the thin plastic covering on this renders that a non-issue. The plastic takes fingerprints, but they are easy to wipe off with a tissue. The one thing I sincerely dislike about the closure is the hinge on this.

As you can see, the lid is attached to the bottom of the palette and not the top, making it wrap around in a way that is slightly awkward. This is more of a slight inconvenience than anything, but one that I thought I'd mention. The palette is magnetized so that it stays closed well. The mirror is also of good quality.

Each shadow is slightly larger than the size of a quarter, which is bigger than I thought they'd be. Each of these is a 2 gram shadow, slightly larger than both MAC's and Smashbox's regular eyeshadow singles (1.5 and 1.7 grams respectively), so you're definitely getting your money's worth of product.

On to the colors:

This palette comes with four shades, none of which are given a name, so I'll be calling them 'Brown', 'Shell', 'Blue' and 'Peach.' Aren't I creative?

Clockwise from Top-Left: Brown, Shell, Blue, Peach

Left to Right: Brown, Shell, Peach, Blue

On to the colors:
Brown is a very blue brown. Sephora describes this shade as 'Metallic', but this doesn't look metallic to me. It has a bit of a sheen, though. The pigmentation on this was very good.
Shell is an eggshell color with a bit of a sheen, though it's less pronounced here than with the other colors. This color is also slightly drier than the rest of them. It didn't swatch as well as it performed on my eyes.
Peach is a peach with a sheen. For such a light color, it has great pigmentation on my arm. It both swatched and performed well.
Blue is a pretty blue color that reminds me a bit of denim. It has good pigmentation and blends well. Like shell, it has less of a sheen, but the sheen is still there.

When I bought these I expected them to be okay, however I was ultimately very impressed. With primer (Too Faced Shadow Insurance) they wore all day and I had no pigmentation issues when putting them on my eyes. The light colors weren't chalky, which can sometimes be an issue for me.

The Good:

• Great value. Each of these shadows is larger than Smashbox's regular shadow singles which retail for $16 each. This palette comes with four 2 gram shadows and only costs $12, which comes out to $3 per shadow.
• Great pigmentation.
• Easy to work with.
• Good packaging, except for the weird hinge.

The Bad:

• The weird hinge. It may not bother you too much, but it bothers me!

The Neutral:

• None of these shades is a stand-out color you couldn't get elsewhere.

Overall, I think this palette is a great value and definitely worth every penny you spend on it. While the shades themselves aren't that unique, they are good sized and good quality shadows. If you like the look of the colors, I definitely recommend buying this.

The Smashbox Iconic Eyes Eye Palette is currently available for $12 at Sephora.