Smashbox Wondervision Mega Palette review and swatches

The Wondervision Mega Palette by Smashbox is a new product that is (from what I can tell) exclusively sold at Ulta.

 The palette retails for $49.00

 It comes with 30 eyeshadows (8 of them matte) 3 blushes (1 with shimmer) and a matte bronzer. The colors seem fairly even when it comes to the amount of neutrals and brighter, bolder colors. Each one of the shades is very pigmented, bendable, and seem just amazing to me.

 You receive 4 cards that give you ideas on how to use the shadows and come with numbers on top so you know what shade should go where and which shades were designed to be used together.

It also comes with a half sized mirror and stays upright by itself.

The formula for the entire palette is the epitome of the word "rich" to me. They are super soft, buttery and amazingly textured. These shadows outshine even the best Urban Decay or MAC shadows I've tried, not to mention that it seems as though a lot of work and thought went into the making of this pallet. So let's start with the swatching. 

The first row is all neutrals with only one shade that isn't matte. All six shades are a dream to work with and Golden has a beautiful pearl finish. The top row alone makes a very wearable day or night look for girls who aren't always looking for big and bold.

The second row starts off with a shimmer shade. The rest of the row is a solid pearl finish row (as are most of the eyeshadows) This row reminds me of Fall completely. Also Umber is a dupe for MAC's Club, but takes less to get a good pigmentation for me.

This row starts off with a matte shade. Mint, Turquoise, and Green are both pearl finishes but Blue and Dark Blue both have more of a shimmer/glitter to them. This section completely makes me think of the ocean though.

These purples are what I wish most pallets would give you. You get a pearl finish with a hint of lavender, a pink with shimmer/glitter, a matte lavender, a pearl violet, a shimmer/glitter purple and a matte black. You can give yourself an impressive purple based smokey eye with just this section (As you could with all of the other sections though) and you can get it in any finish you want.

Last but not least (for the eyeshadows) you get this line of smokey shadows that has 4 pearl finishes and 2 shimmer/glitter finishes that my best friend describes as space. Don't be fooled by the swatch of Pewter it's a lot more taupe than it seems. I am glad that you have your matte browns and black while you also have a shimmer/glitter brown and black.

All three blushes are wearable, even glow which seems to have scary-ish amounts of sparkle in it before you apply it. These shades like the shadows are really pigmented so a little will go a long way. The bronzer was also flawless for my skin but I could see it being too light for medium to dark skin tones. 

No matter how I look at this pallet, I found no duds in it and I am completely happy that I made this purchase. No regrets at all. However, if you aren't in the market for bright colors or shimmers you might want to stay away from this one. You don't get enough matte shadows to warrant a pallet for this price or enough neutrals either. 

Hope you enjoyed.

The beauty noobz guide to make up (part one brushes)

Recently I was online and talking to a friend of mine who was asking me about make up. She started off by asking me if I subscribe to birchbox or ipsy. For those of you who don't already know both of these are companies where you subscribe to a monthly fee and they send you beauty products every month. Birchbox from what I know has a lot of hits and misses, everything is sample sized but it does have a shop to buy the full sized products. Ipsy also does the same thing but they ask you what kinds of things you like to use and dislike using and depending on that send you an array of items to try every month.

After we talked about them (I do currently subscribe to Ipsy) she started picking my brain about make up, different types, and what works best, but she also confessed to me that she did have brushes but didn't know what to with all of them. So I got the idea to break it down right here. I'm going to be using the make up brushes I got while I went to make up school. They are 15 brushes and all have a unique use, however, go with what you feel. If you want to use a fluffy brush for a light contour down the sides of your nose go right ahead. This is just to give you a general idea and get you started.

1. Foundation Brush

The foundation brush is usually used for even application of moist products this includes your primes, moisturizers, and liquid foundations. Now most people enjoy using make up sponges, or face brushes for this task. The key to the even application is that if you start to develop a patch of skin that looks as though it has too much product, take your fluffy face brush and buff it out. By buffing it out in a circular motion you spread the product and no longer have a big blotch.

2. Powder Brush or Face Brush

This brush is usually used for powders. Anything that you want all over your face or applied in a concentrated amount. For example, powder foundations, setting powders, translucent powders, or something like a skin finish that is more sun kissed and bronze. However, if you want a more concentrated application of blush I found that these brushes work well for that. 

3. Angle Brush

The angled brush is usually used for powders, you can use them for blush, contouring the cheeks, forehead and chin. I've also found that they can work well with more liquid products like when you contour the face with a darker foundation or a liquid bronzer. They can also be used to apply highlight.

4. Concealer Brush

The concealer brush is usually used for patting on your concealer. However this is sometimes flawed since it may be harder to blend out with the brush as opposed to your finger, but most likely more sanitary. This brush can also be used to lay down primer, and to this day if my brushes aren't clean and all I have is this brush I'll pat down eye shadow with it. (That's a bad habit)

5. Firm Shadow

Brushes like this one are really kind of tough. You wanna get in pat down your product and really move along because that thing will start to hurt if you start to windshield wiper motion with it. It can be used for a really concentrated amount of color, or to apply glitter. Also works really well for applying a cream base to eyes.

6, 7 & 8. Eye Shadow Brushes

These pick up lots of color, and they also pat on like a dream. If you want an allover color these brushes are the way to go and they range in size usually for whatever comfort level you have. I have big eyes that are too small to comfortably use the large eye shadow brush on myself. However, the smaller one does the same thing and fits comfortably to my eyelid. You use 'em for eye shadow, any shimmer or sparkle you'd want to add on top of anything really.

9 & 10. Fluffy Brushes.

Fluffy brushes also come in all shapes and sizes. Some people prefer them bigger, rounded, coming to a point or thinner, they make them in all different shapes and sizes for you guys. The point of a fluffy brush is to blend. Usually you use the blending color in your crease to help make your eye shadow not look like it have very harsh lines. You don't want people to be able to clearly tell where your eye shadow ends and your under brow highlight begins. You want it all to blend. You can also use these without a product. By swiping a clean brush upon an area you can soften the amount of product applied. 

11. Pencil Brush

These brushes are usually used to apply color under the eye. Lets say you want to smoke out some black eye liner under your eye, you pick up shadow on this brush and sweep it back and forth. (Be careful though, if the brush is too big for your eye it can get into your eye.) it can also be used to smoke out pencil (or still wet gel lines) on your upper lash line. You don't want a harsh black line on your upper lash line, pick up a matte brown shadow and smoke out the top line.

12, 13 & 14. Liner Brushes

Now with these they also come in all shapes and sizes. These brushes can be used to apply powder to the eyebrows, apply eye shadow as an eyeliner or apply gel liners. Some people prefer the angled liner, especially when you are trying to wing out your eyeliner. The flat liner also works extremely well for winging out liner. (I'll teach you how to do that with the different liner brushes soon) Or some, myself included prefer the old long liner brush, which is usually harder to use for people new to make up.

Last but not least...

15.  Lip Brush

These little guys are used for lip products. Lipsticks, lip glosses, lip stains, you name it and you can use a lip brush with it. Now you don't need to use a lip brush (unless you are doing make up on other people) but the lip brush helps with the colors that are harder to keep in the lines. There are lipsticks shaped differently, or just too dark that stain so it's sometimes best to just fill in your lips with the brush.

Well for now that's all. Hope you liked it. Feel free to comment or ask any questions you still have.

Also don't let price fool you. You don't need high end Sigma or MAC or Crown Brushes to make something beautiful happen. There are plenty of brands that are great and way more affordable. Try EcoTools, ELF brushes, (Crown Brush usually has a sale once every two months on Hautelook.com) BH cosmetics has great brushes, Real Techniques works well also. So look around and find what works for you.