NYX Box of Smokey Look Collection: Swatch and Review

The smokey look collection contains four different eye shadow areas containing 8 separate eye shadows and one interconnected eye shadow containing four colors. These colors areas are defined as “ classic smokey, purple smokey, bronze smokey, and natural smokey.” The kit also includes two bronzers, a highlighter, three blushes, a pencil eyeliner, four concealers, 12 glitters, and 16 lipglosses. I bought it for around $20.

They eye shadows in the classic smokey is different shades of grey, two that contain glitters, a tan, and a white. Purple smokey contains all purple shades except two blues and a black. Three contain glitter. Bronze smokey has various shades of brown and tan includeing gold and bronze shades. This set in particular is well pigmented. The natural smokey contains several light to medium tan shades and two dark browns. Two contain glitter.

The eye shadows were what drew me to this palette and as someone who had very few eyeshadow this was very much what I wanted. With this kit you can create a variety of looks both natural and dramatic. The pigmentation on this palette is overall fine, but it can be a bit hit or miss. The brown shades in particular turn out well, but some of the purple shades especially are hard to work with. The black in particular has some bad fall out.

everything is watched on bare skin

One of the bronzers is an orange/gold/brown shimmer shade. This could be used to warm up your face but the shimmer may be a bit much. I do not use it. The other bronzer is a matte dark brown. For someone as pale as me this is a bit hard to work with. You have to use a very soft hand and blend it out well to contour, but it is usable.  The highlighter is just a plain white powder.

The blushes are a peachy-pink, a red-pink and a baby pink. They all contain a bit of shimmer, the red pink contains the least. These are all ok to work with.

The concealers are just okay; there are only two skin colors available though, so you have to work with just those.

The lipglosses are all the same basic quality. Some are basically clear, but a few have some pigmentation. It is impossible to tell without swatching.

The glitters are just glitter in a tacky, clear base. I do not use these.                                                                        

Overall, the only useful pieces in this palette are the eye shadows and possibly the blushes. It was worth the money, but not much more than the price. As someone just starting to build their make-up collection, this was a good opportunity to try some stuff out, but since this my purchases have been leaning toward better quality and higher end.