Years ago at Jezebel, we had a regular column called Worth It that we used to recommend products that we actually liked. Advertisers had no involvement—it was simply the online version of a person suggesting their favorite lipstick/humidifier/bike lock to a friend.
Worth It has been dead for awhile, but, believe it or not, I still use products that I like and advertisers still don’t pay me to recommend them. This is one of them: Smashbox’s #SHAPEMATTERS PALETTE. Why the hashtag and all caps in the title, I don’t know! All I know is that I bought it in June and since then, it’s basically paid for itself.
What does it include? More like WHAT DOESN’T IT INCLUDE? (It doesn’t include primer, foundation, mascara, eyeliner, or lipstick.) The palette features a contouring kit (I mostly only use the highlighter and glow powder because I do not know how to contour without looking like a sex clown), nine eyeshadows (the darker ones successfully double as eyeliner), and—best of all for me, a person with eyebrows so light, I might as well not have any—eyebrow powder and eyebrow wax (the wax is applied first to keep the powder in place).
I’ve been using the palette all summer and in varying degrees of heat and humidity. I used it in the desert and by the ocean, in New York City, and Los Angeles. Our very own Stassa Edwards, who lives in Florida, backs me up, saying, “It’s easy and Smashbox (more than any other brand I’ve used) doesn’t drip down my face an hour into Miami humidity.”
If you’re thinking of getting a reasonably priced makeup palette, you might want to consider this one. If not, keep living and enjoying your life. I don’t care, I’m just trying to be a good friend.