The Beauty Sleuth

On a recent trip to Los Angeles, I made a pit stop to visit one of my favorite beauty peeps, Lori Taylor of Smashbox cosmetics who is not only makeup director for the brand, but is lead artist and a incredibly talented makeup artist in her own right. Lori is very passionate about makeup and gets super excited when talking about all the new goodies releasing the coming season. I just love her enthusiasm! For me, I get that in that deep in my gut, kid-in-a-candy store sensation whenever I get to peruse a beauty closet, so much so that by the time I leave, I feel as if I am literally levitating! During my visit, Lori shared with me some of Smashbox’ newer eye shadow palettes from their Photo-Op series. Each palette is dedicated to a specific eye color, such as Hazel, Brown or Blue. The collections have a nice group of both matte and shimmer shades, that enhance the tone of the eye. I used the palette for brown eyes, which has an inky blue matte shade that really made the brown tones in my eyes pop and a greeny bronze shade brought out the hazel gold flecks. I was pleasantly surprised with all the nice comments about my eyes of late. I don’t usually wear a lot of color ( those of you who know me, know that I am rarely seen out of the Black, grey and now new to my color scheme, Navy hues ) but this sweet collection has encouraged me to stretch my color boundaries a little. Well at least when it comes to makeup anyway!

As far as the formula goes, it is very good. For me the matte powders are the barometer for overall quality of a shadow. With many brands, they tend to be chalky and overly dry but in this case the matte shadows went on silky smooth and blened extremely well with the other shades. The shimmer colors have a delicate texture, not overly shiny or sparkly, yet enough shimmer to illuminate the eyes. Even if your not one to wear a shimmer shadow, you might find these ones will offer the perfect amount of sheen without looking overly done (or god help us older folk) highlight any wrinkles or ceases.

All three Shashbox palettes are available nationwide at Sephora : www.sephora.com