Today’s Friday Flash Review is Smashbox’s “In Bloom” Eye Palette. You may have guessed that from the post title, which says “Smashbox Eye Palette”.

“Ooooh. An eye palette. An eye palette with a proper brush. That makes a change from the usual crappy foam applicator you usually get with eyeshadows! The brush even gets a mention on the packaging- “eye shadow palette & brush”. So it’s obviously a brush worth shouting about.

The palette feels very sleek and well-built; unexpectedly heavy but not so heavy that you’d think twice about taking it away with you. The clasp works nicely. Am I boring you to death yet? Inside we have ten shadows and….a brush! The mirror in the lid is large, which is an extra-extra bonus. The shades, I can see instantly, are all shades that I will love to wear. Nothing too bright, nothing too outlandish; there are four shimmery shadows and six matte. Mattes include a gorgeous grey which – hold on! I can see shimmer in it! I think? OK – we have five shimmers and five matte. A useful matte brown and nudey cream, a pale pink (probably my least favourite) a dusky mauvey pink and a darker grey with bluish undertones. Shimmer-wise, there’s a pinky one, a brown maybe slightly bronzey one, a greenish sparkly khaki typed shade (doing well, Crilly, doing well) and a muted, antiquey gold.

[I’d just like to categorically state that I shall never be attempting to describe that many colours in one go ever again. That was bloody useless.]

The shadows apply beautifully. I have a picture to vouch for this; I applied the following ‘look’ (used in the loosest sense of the term, obviously) in approximately thirty seconds. Just now! Each shade blends very well; the shimmers are easy to apply over the mattes and all of the tones complement each other nicely.

Photo Opportunity:

The powders are fine and soft but the shadows are long-wearing. And the brush? The brush is actually very good! Although I’m not entirely sure that it’s from the same run as the Smashbox brushes (sold separately for over £20 each), it makes pretty light work of the whole blending business. Each shadow works out at around £4 (taking off a nominal, entirely made-up price of £4 for the brush!) which isn’t too devastating. £44, the total price of the palette, sounds slightly more devastating – I was expecting it to come in at around £30 – a bit of a shock. However, I really can’t fault the quality on this, and if you’re a ‘safe’ eyeshadow wearer (like me!) you’ll get a lot of use out of it.

I have never really come across Smashbox before – I’ve seen it on counters whilst galavanting about on my travels, but never tested it out. I’m impressed – it’s nice stuff! The sheen you see on my face in the photograph is from another Smashbox product – more on that soon!

Smashbox ‘In Bloom’ Eye Shadow Palette & Brush, £44 from Debenhams.