Sephora Makeup Academy Blockbuster Palette Review & Swatches
Sephora Makeup Academy Blockbuster Palette ($49.50) is Sephora’s traditional Holiday monster palette that features 130 different products for eyes, lips, and cheeks! Concealer, eyeshadow, blush, lipgloss, lipstick, you name it and this monster palette has it.
Now I admit my first intro to the Sephora Makeup Academy Blockbuster was in August when Sephora had a preview launch for it. I didn’t indulge but seeing the promo images I thought it was a bit bulky and a bit too much. But it’s actually a bit smaller than you think and the contents are a whole hecka of a lot better than I had imagined.
Take a look!
Sephora Makeup Academy Blockbuster Palette is $49.50 regularly but during Sephora’s VIB Event this week you can get it for 39.60. At this price it makes it almost as cheap as the new Wet n Wild Jetset Palette plus way better quality. So if you are heading into the purchase of a monster palette at the moment I’d consider this as a go. Especially if you want to gift a teen or someone just starting out in makeup with a variety of products to start their journey.
The palette isn’t nearly as big as I thought it would be. I’d say you’re looking at about 8 inches in width and five inches high. It has vintage secretary desk feel in the fact it slides open and upwards to reveal a stand up mirror thus making it possible to sit at your desk and apply your makeup. As you slide the top off you’ll find the eyeshadow and two compartments on the right and left hand of the palette slide open to reveal the eyeliners, concealers, shadow primer, lipsticks, and gloss so the powder and cream portions are completely isolated from one another although the blushes are housed with the eyeliner shades.
I didn’t swatch EVERY single shade in the palette but I did a few of each item so you can get a feel for the pigment and texture! I hope this helps!
Shadows
Eyeliners
Concealers
Lipglosses
It contains 72 eyeshadows at 0.014 oz each in a variety of finishes. Matte, shimmer, sparkle, pearl, you name it they cover it. Sephora recently revamped their eyeshadow formula and that quality translates well in this palette. Although each is very small (smaller than a dime) you can fit a brush or sponge applicator easily into the wells. I think I automatically assume on such a large palette that quality might be a bit remiss here but the shadows all apply beautifully! The satins have a smooth, buttery texture, the shimmers apply with minimal fuss and fall out, and the mattes aren’t dry in the least, these have a silky texture. And yes, there’s quite a nice pigmentation to all the shades. Even without primer the colors look (as applied in my photos below) intense and beautiful plus they wear without creasing or fading for most of my day.
I’d typically navigate to the shadows in a palette of this size but what surprised me most was the lipgloss. You get a total of 28 lipglosses and they all have an incredible texture. Glossy, shiny, pigment rich, thick yet not tacky or sticky! Most can easily pass as lipsticks due to the pigment as you’ll see below on my lips. They were a surprise. I expected dense and perhaps sheerer but what I got was creamy, beautifully textured pigmented glosses.
I was disappointed slightly with the blushes. Although silky and nicely pigmented I find the wells a touch too small! You get 7 total blushes at 0.029 oz each in size. Wriggling a blush brush into a well that’s smaller than the size of a quarter proves a little difficult. They also placed the blushes right next to the eyeliners so you have to be careful of kicking up dust into your liner colors.
The eyeliners are nicely pigmented with a creamy texture but they are a tad emollient so they slip around a bit during application. Take this into consideration if you have oily lids. They set well for me and I see a fairly good wear time of about six hours before some fading occurs but no smudging just a loss of intensity in color.
Sephora even includes applicators, concealer, shadow and lip primer so you’re pretty much covers across the board for your face here just add your own foundation and you’re golden!
I gotta admit I had fun with this palette. There’s just something about a palette that has such a vast amount of colors to play with it! It’s like a big box of crayons on the first day of school! If you’re a no nonsense girl and not a hoarder of makeup this is an excellent way to get a fairly good amount of products that you’ll likely use daily in makeup looks. It isn’t travel friendly by any means but it is easy enough to set up on your vanity or desk for makeup application in a snap. The shadows all perform beautifully and the glosses, I can’t rave enough about those!
In the above photos I did three different looks using the shadows in the palette. One is a lighter, fresher no make up look, one is a smoky eye look, and the other a natural, nude brown eye look. In all the photos I am using shadows and lipgosses from the palette.
For those on a beauty budget that want more for a lot less the Sephora Makeup Academy Blockbuster Palette brings it!
It’s available now at Sephora and Sephora.com.
Anyone purchase or play with it yet?
Do share!
It’s available now for a limited time at Sephora and Sephora.com.