Basically, if a beauty burglar raided a fortified diamond emporium that also stocked jewel-toned eyeshadows and then crammed her beauty booty into a single palette, that palette might look like the new 28-pan Smashbox On the Rocks Photo Op Eye Shadow Luxe.
Clearly designed to entice with endless eyeshadow possibilities and pics of holographic cushion- and emerald-cut bling, this limited edition palette is filled with a nice selection of surprisingly complex jewel-toned shades that are almost as dazzling as a diamond-encrusted tiara.
Smashbox has fun with finishes here, going from matte to sheen to shimmer to high-shine frost to glitter, then even adding undercurrents of pearl to some of the shades.
There’s a lot going on here, but Smashbox manages to keep it all together. It took more than a quick glance at the pans for me to grasp the complexity of these shadows. I had to get them on my skin to really see their potential and capabilities.
Thankfully (yay!), Smashbox included a few transitional neutral matte beige and brown shades to ground the jewels and make them more wearable, and this may or may not have made me twirl around with my arms out like Julie Andrews in the opening scenes of Sound of Music.
Transition colors, y’all. They make me break into song. 🙂 Never underestimate the power of a good transition color.
As for fallout from these shadows, yeah, there’s a little, but even with the darkest shades, it’s easy to clean up with a makeup wipe.
Plus, who knows? These shadows are so smooth that they make beginning blenders look like seasoned pros (well, you know), so maybe you’ll have such a good time blending that you won’t even notice.
PRICE: $42
AVAILABILITY: Limited edition, available now online and at Smashbox counters
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: A- (slight fallout)
Boo! It’s raining.
Two days ago it was 70-something and sunny. Today it’s rainy and cold.
Bluh.
Welcome to fall in the Bay Area, LOL!
I remember getting so bummed as a kid when it would rain on Halloween… I still went trick-or-treating, of course. I’d stay out until either the umbrella started to cramp my style, or until I felt like I’d gotten enough of the “good” candy, which usually meant Blow Pops, Dum Dums, Tootsie Pops (I was all about the Pops) and (you know this) Snickers.
As far as I was concerned, everything else was basically filler.
What are/were your favorite treats to get on Halloween?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
At first glance, I thought the jewels on the box were 3D! I’m surprised that there is so much variation in how the colours swatch, but I’m happy to see that most of them are still nice and pigmented. Thanks for your review!
The palette looks good but I’m scared of trying Smashbox eyeshadows. I bought a palette in the past and I was extremely allergic to it.
It’s raining here too, no trick or treaters (although we left an hour into official trick or treating). When I was a kid in Poland Halloween was not celebrated so I have never trick or treated 🙁
Your makeup in the last picture is beautiful! I’m not a fan of huge eyeshadow palettes myself but love when people create amazing looks! 🙂
Love your ear cuffs.
Halloween hasn’t been a thing in germany when I was little, so no trick or treat for me. But even though it is celebrated now, no one came round to our door yesterday, so I may have some candy leftovers.
I generally really like Smashbox eyeshadow, so I feel veeeery tempted to try and get my hands on this one. I’m happy to hear they blend so well. And the fall-out? Meh, I’ll manage 🙂
I’ve never tried any Smashbox shadows but those swatches are looking mighty nice. I love the color scheme and the jewel accent inside is just too cute! I’ll have to check this out the next time I hit Sephora
When I saw the photo without reading the title I was like “WTF is wrong with that middle pan? how can a shadow even get that jacked up!” Proving I should always read the title first.
That’s a lot of shadow for $42
How is this palette compared to the Full Exposure one? Anyone know?
Now, that’s a palette you don’t see everyday! I think it’s so funny how the colors are placed in the palette and that diamond thing in the center is just everything 🙂
Love, Stefi
http://www.brighteyesandglossylips.com
Nice swatches. Karen, what foundation are you wearing? Your my skin- twin and it your makeup looks fab! I’m guessing the new LM skin fluid
Is that the ear cuff from Celestine Jewelry?
I bought the NYX Suede palette so I’ve got those velvety jewel-tones covered, although the bling on this thing is worth a look!
I grew up in the northeast in a little Dutch town and so Halloween was . . . unusual. All of those elderly Dutch women would bake all day and wrap their cookies and candies in beautiful cellophane with ribbons. And when I got home with my pillowcase full of stuff (we usually came home once to empty out and then went back out) —
the cookies and fudge and candied apples and anything else baked went straight into the garbage. Fear of poison, you know. So my question as a child was, If these sweet old ladies are out to poison us kids on Halloween, how do we act toward them the rest of the year!?
The big thrill was Snickers, Almond Joy(!), and Milky Way. And, I must confess, Sugar Daddy. The big one (haha) with the enclosed card of a dinosaur drawing. I tried to collect all of the dinosaurs!
Now I need this I love the radiant orchid shades !
I love the pink hair!
I rocked an Orchid streak on my hair for the majority of this year.
That eyeshadow looks gorgeous on you !!
I got so confused because Bobbi Brown just released a palette called On the Rocks too, and I was like… “they changed the packaging and contents…..?” haha. But I just looked it up and it’s SCOTCH on the Rocks, 😉
Happy Belated Halloween! My favorite candy growing up was always the Twix bars, or really anything with caramel in it. I was always disappointed at the tootsie rolls and tootsie pops, ha!
There is a boatload of colors and finishes in that palette – something for everyone! 🙂
I’m not much of a candy person but I’ve been known to sneak a couple of Twix or Reeses Peanut Butter Cups from the kids’ bags.
We had a lot of work to do for a hockey fundraiser so we toiled away at that while the kids trick or treated and the husbands handed out candy and socialized. A long night and a bit cold but no precipitation, thankfully! We did get our first flurry of snow in the area on Saturday night, though.
Oh my goodness, this palette is GORGEOUS. I want this. Right now. I was already planning to take a trip to Ulta this week, I’ll have to check this out where I am there. Those colors look stunning on you and I really like those earrings 🙂 x
You are awesome! I was dying to see a review of this palette so I could decide whether or not to buy it! Thank you ^^ That look is stunning on you!
I’m debating about this one!! It’s so beautiful but I’ve heard Smashbox shadows are iffy. I swatched a few of the shades (I ran out of hand space!) And most seemed really nice.
I have like a dozen of palettes I haven’t even touched yet but ahhh so pretty!!
Karen, thanks so much for this review, I was on the fence about this palette but decided to go ahead after reading your review, and I’m having a lot of fun with it! I’ve done looks with the greens, blues, and purples so far, and all have been beautiful. The greens are a bit different from any other greens I own, they are beautiful colors, I like how one is a yellow-green and one is a blue-green. The blues were threatening to fall out a bit during wear, so I used a makeup setting spray and that problem was solved. I really appreciate that there are base and blending shades in the palette. It is a bit big and clunky to work with, so having to pull out a second palette in order to make a complete look could be a bit of a pain. I would say that the overall quality is not quite as great as the Santigolden Age palettes, but the only shade that seems to be a complete dud on me is the light/white/silver glitter shade, I get very little pigment, almost all glitter, and little of that glitter actually gets to my lid. But all the other shades are at least good, and several seem great, very pigmented and blend-able, some complex and unusual colors. It’s possible to create many, many different looks with this palette. I think it’s a really good palette for someone who likes to play with color on their lids — although you can create neutral brown and smoky grey/black looks with it, too! It’s very versatile.