If there’s a new baked palette in the market, I would want to at least have a look. So look here, it is the Sephora MicroSmooth Baked Collection.
Open the magnetic “doors” to reveal a range of color-coordinating shades for many holiday makeup looks. The palette is quite large but thin, the flaps close by themselves if you let go.
The baked and spring mineral water infused formula allows wet or dry applications and easy blending, with buildable pigmentation and finish. My kind of product!
This palette contains:
– 15 baked eye shadows (0.026oz/ 0.75g) with matte and shimmery finish
– A baked luminizer with darker pink veins running through the beige base (0.088oz/ 2.5g)
– A baked blush duo in Tea Rose Tickle– lighter and darker pink, slit in the middle (0.088oz/ 2.5g)
– A baked bronzer duo, a champagne and a matte brown (0.183o/ 5.2g).
Packaging wise, the black and white patterns and hot pink trimming are classy and fun. Shade names are printed on the paper sleeve that comes with the packaging, not on the palette itself.
The palette could be a little more compact by eliminating excess spaces on the “frame” around the products. The thick plastic sheet that fits snugly on top of the domed products is great to avoid contamination and keep the shades clean.
First look at the eyeshadows:
First row: 1 Natural Light, 2 Light Pink Shimmer and 3 Matte Brown.
There are quite a few highlight colours in this palette and they do take a bit more work to show up on my skin. If you are fairer than me, the colours might not work.
As the first examples, Natural Light is almost invisible, and Light Pink Shimmer has a light pink tint. Best use for these would be on top of a cream colour base, or a brow bone highlight.
Matte Brown looks more like a taupe with a satin finish, a great crease shade. The colour payoff is good and buildable.
Second row: 4 Light Gold Shimmer, 5 Sunray and 6 Sunset.
This trio works a little better for my skin tone. Light Gold Shimmer would work well as a cool face highlight or an eyeshadow for the inner corners. Sunray is an awesome rose gold shade, one of my favorites.
Sunset has more brown, and is buildable as well. A good daily shade on the lids. A dense brush would speed up application and pigmentation, if need to.
Third row: 7 Pink Shimmer, 8 After Glow and 9 Purple.
These shades look the best in the palette but are the hardest to work with. They are sheer and not easy to build up for pigmentation. The swatches were done in the same manner as others but the colours hardly show up. They are harder to use on the lids.
This Pink Shimmer and Light Pink Shimmer from the first group look quite similar too. Sephora could have gone for variety here.
Fourth row: 10 Silver Sparkle, 11 Black Light and 12 Black Sparkle.
Silver Sparkle and Black Light are pretty close, except Black Light is more grey and less shimmery.
Black Sparkle is sheer with silver sparkles but again, buidable. I reach for it often when I want to go darker on the eyes. The palette just needs more brighter colours to pair with Black Sparkle, for coloured smoky eye looks.
Last row: 13 Multi Sparkle Brown, 14 At Dusk and 15 Solar Eclipse.
Another favorite of mine, Multi Sparkle Brown, almost duochrome-y and quite pigmented, a good companion to Matte Brown or Sunset above.
At Dusk is a little more sheer, lands somewhere between brown and grey with some lilac tint. Complicated and pretty.
Solar Eclipse is the only blue in the palette, works well with almost any other shades. A bit on the sheer side as well.
The face colours were swatched next to each other here, with a slightly fluffy brush.
From L-R:
– the baked luminizer: almost invisible on the skin, except for that natural glow you see at certain angle and lighting
– the baked blush duo in Tea Rose Tickle: swirled together to create a darker pink, very easy to build up
– the baked bronzer duo: light and sheer when swirled together, also buildable. The bronzer almost works as a contour colour for my face too.
As a whole, this is a nice palette with some good shades while some others need a bit more work with pigmentation. My personal votes go to the face products and the last row of eyeshadows. The palette retails for CAD39 at Sephora.
Source: http://sparkledbeauty.blogspot.com/2012/11/sephora-microsmooth-baked-collection.html
