today i wanted to share my swatches and first impressions of Smashbox’s Double Exposure Palette.  it’s current available to Sephora VIB Rouge members only.  it’s a palette featuring 14 colors in shimmer, satin, and matte formulas that can be used wet or dry for a total of 28 colors.  adding water can either intensify, change to metallic, or add sparkles to the colors.  there’s a variety of warm and cool tones.  while i haven’t played with them enough to justify a review yet, i thought i’d let you see the swatches and a couple of experimental looks first.  just in case this palette is something you want to add to your holiday wish list.

Smashbox Double Exposure Palette

the palette also comes with a sample of Full Exposure Mascara and an insert featuring tips on how to enhance your look according to eye shape.  props to smashbox for not leaving out us asian monolidders!  i also appreciate how the color index card tells me what the effect will be when i use the shadows wet.  i did use the domed end of the brush for all the wet swatches.  it performed ok.  the bristles are not super rough but they’re not soft either!

(L to R) Silver, Mauve, Peony, Blanc dry/wet

(L to R) Midnight, Temper, Haze, Noir dry/wet

(L to R) Quartz, Flushed, Veiled, Quartz dry/wet

i swatched Quartz twice because in the first wet swatch, i must not have cleaned off the brush properly and so there’s a tiny bit of a darker shade mixed in.  in the second set of Quartz swatches, i swatched the wet first then the dry.  sorry about that!

(L to R) Copper, Fig, Expresso dry/wet

i experimented a little with a few of the shadows.  here’s a few pictures of how they turned out.

i did one look for each eye.  on the left, i used Peony on the lid and Noir in the outer v.  i used Noir wet as a liner.  i also used Noir and Peony wet on the lower lash line.  on the right i used Blanc on the lid and Temper in the outer v.  i used Temper wet as a liner.  on the lower lash line i used Hazed on the outer half and Blanc wet on the inner half as highlight.

a close up of the look

here you can see Peony and Blanc both used wet on the lower lashline.  as you can see, although both are supposed to metallic when wet, Peony is really lacking the intensity of a metallic shade.

Peony and Noir

Blanc and Temper

i must say, so far i’m a little disappointed with the palette.  i was hoping the wet version of the shades would be more drastically different.  instead they seem just a little more intense.  one less purple (3 seems too repetitive?) for a green would have been nice too.

Readers, what do you think of the new Smashbox Palette? do you prefer it to the original Full Exposure Palette?