Good things come to those who wait for the sale - Smashbox Cream Eyeliner Palette

How often does it happen that something you have been really, really - and I mean really - coveting comes up on sale? In my experience not very often, but somebody was smiling down on me today because while browsing the sale racks at Life Pharmacy I found the Smashbox Cream Eyeliner Palette for NZ$34.00, reduced from NZ$55.00.  Now I've had a serious case of the covets for this for the longest time, even though I've read some mixed reviews of it, but I could never quite bring myself to fork out the money considering how many eyeliners I already own.  But now it's mine, all mine! My Precioussssssss:

Top row left to right: Lava, Picasso, Midnight Purple, Midnight Brown and Putty. Bottom row left to right: Caviar, Thunder, Midnight Green, Deep Bronze and Cameo.

Here's the top row swatched:

Top to bottom: Lava is a charcoal with silver shimmer, Picasso is dark blue grey, Midnight Purple (which looked gorgeous in the palette) is actually a rather disappointingly sheer purple, Midnight Brown is a fairly standard dark brown, and Putty was the surprise of the bunch - in the palette it looks taupe, but it goes on a dark and quite intense brown. 

Bottom row swatched (I had to use my other arm, because the first lot were really hard to remove with baby wipes, which I guess bodes well for it's wear time!):

Top to bottom: Caviar is your bog standard black, Thunder looked boringly brown/grey in the palette but went on much darker - albeit very close in colour to Midnight Brown to my eye, Midnight Green I didn't think I'd like but it's actually a gorgeous dark forest green which unfortunately doesn't photograph well, Deep Bronze is more copper than bronze and has a copper shimmer, and Cameo (another one I didn't expect to like) is a lovely rust brown.

All in all I'm super pleased with my purchase - the formula on these is nice and creamy and applies well and the colours are overall very nice. Whether I would have been so impressed had I paid full price I'm not sure - I think I would rather have seen less browns and perhaps more variations on the blues and purples.

Oh, and the brush that comes with the compact? Throw it out - nasty synthetic thing with too-soft bristles.  I'll be using my trusty M.A.C. eyeliner brushes.

For my fellow kiwis - I got this from the Life Pharmacy in Westcity and it would be well worth your time to check your local Smashbox-stocking Life Pharmacy to see if they're having the same sale - there was a big range of Smashbox products on sale at roughly 40% off, including eyeshadows, blushers, foundations and lippies - I was very restrained just buying the one thing!