Thursday, December 17, 2015

Palette Showdown: Smashbox Full Exposure vs Lorac Pro



I'm super excited about this post! Today I will be comparing Full Exposure from Smashbox & the Lorac Pro  palette and telling you guys which is a bust and which is a must. 


Both companies have come out with a sequel to the palettes but these are the originals in both lines. I love products from both Smashbox and Lorac. I am not smashing the brand, I just personally believe that one of these palettes is significantly better than the other. 


These two palettes are very similar in the fact that they are both neutral palettes. Both contain a row of matte and a row of shimmer. It's nice because they are very versatile and you can create many types of looks. Both palettes come with a decent sized mirror which is always a plus! Both palette's packaging are a magnetized closure and a cardboard material, so they are not ideal or durable for travel. The material of both palettes cling to everything and difficult to clean. 


This is the Lorac Pro Palette, it contains 16 colors and comes with an eyeshadow primer. This is normally $42 but I purchased mine 30% off at Kohl's with my charge card (Khol's is a cool place to buy makeup and having a charge card can get you a lot of great deals as well as using Kohl's Cash towards makeup.. I love mine). This is a warm-neutral palette that works with any eye color or skin tone. It's nice because it does have color, but it is all very wearable. So even if you're someone who doesn't like colored shadow, this palette makes it easy to incorporate pops of color.


These are the swatches from Lorac Pro. All of the swatches in this post are one swipe of the finger and only one swipe onto the arm without using any sort of primer or base. First off, these are probably the softest eyeshadows I have ever used. They were super creamy, bendable, and pigmented. The colors show up the same on the eyelid as they do on the swatch. You can build up these colors more than the swatches show. There are only 2 out of the 16 colors I am not happy with. The LT. Pink (4th, top row) is the dud and does not swatch well or sit well on the eye, it definitely lacks pigmentation. Slate (last one, bottom row) could use some more pigmentation in my opinion. It is hard to pick a favorite but if I had to pick 3 favorites, (which is hard enough) I would choose; firstly, Garnet (6th, bottom row) which is a very warm, reddish-copper. It is not a color a lot of palettes incorporate but should because it looks good on a lot of different eye colors. As you can see from the swatch it is very pigmented. Next I absolutely love LT. Bronze (4th, bottom row). It doesn't look super exciting from the picture but is so creamy and personally makes my blue eyes pop! Lastly, I would pick Taupe (3rd, top row). It is a great matte and has a nice undertone that you could even use to contour the nose. It is the perfect crease shade that can be incorporated into any look. The mattes are just as soft as the shimmers- I would even describe most of the shimmers as metallic. I love this palette! If I could recommend one palette to anyone, it would be this.


This is the Full Exposure palette from Smashbox. It contains 14 colors and is a whopping $52. This palette comes with a really nice dual ended brush that does create a full look without needing to incorporate any other brushes. Another benefit of this palette is that it has both warm and cool colors. In my opinion, it really goes downhill from here. 


These are the swatches. Again, one swipe of the color and then only one swipe onto the arm. This palette looks so pretty in the packaging but it does not swatch how I would have hoped, at all. I will say this, the S4 (center, top row) does swatch well and is a great highlight on the eyes. These shadows are stiffer than my preference and do not blend very well. Not only does it lack pigmentation on the swatches but is almost worst on the eyelids. It does not wear well with or without primer. The shimmery shades just contain sparkle rather than a metallic finish. Overall I was disappointed with this palette and would not recommend buying it. 

with flash

without flash

I think the comparison swatches speak for themselves. 


It is clear who has my heart! I would recommend buying the Lorac Pro to anyone who is interested in a great, everyday eyeshadow palette. Also if you don't have a Kohl's charge card, Ulta is giving out 20% off coupons in the mail!


I hope you guys enjoyed my comparison/review of these two palettes.

-C 

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