I was recently gifted an eyeshadow palette from Sephora that I had never heard of, nor seen any reviews of: The Smashbox Double Exposure palette. Smashbox has never been my favorite makeup brand, in fact, I don't keep up with them much because their products don't tend to interest me.

That said, I was still very excited to receive it and test it out, especially because I never gravitate towards the brand. My interest peaked even more upon further inspection when I discovered that the 14-shadow palette's shadows each have a different transformation that they undergo when used with water.

I have never seen another palette quite like this, one that is designed to have two functions with transforming shadows. The palette came with a small guide of how each shadow would transform, as well as a double-ended brush. I tested the palette a few times using both the wet and dry functions in order to be able to adequately review it.

Pros of the palette:

1. The colors are very on-trend.

Warm, red-based colors are super "in" right now in makeup, and this palette is mostly warm-toned. It also includes a burgundy shade; burgundy shadows are currently being sought after in the makeup world.

2. The option of using water to transform the shadows gives you more bang for your buck.

Each shadow does transform with the addition of water, whether it is drastic or not. This means that you receive 14 additional options on top of the 14 you have by just using them dry.

3. The brush that comes with it is actually pretty nice.

Usually, I tend to use the brushes that come with palettes like this once and then never again; most of the time it's a typical thin, flat shader and angled brush combo. The brush that comes with this palette is also a double-ended shader and angled brush, but the shader's bristles are short and densely packed and I found that it works really well to pack colors onto the lid.

Cons of the palette:

1. These shadows do not blend.

I worked for quite a while using my trusty blending brushes in an attempt to blend these shadows on my lid. I found that once I placed a color, it was stuck there. So when I would gently touch a dark color to my crease, there would inevitably be a dark, dense line in that spot that would sort of blend out, but absolutely not enough in comparison to other shadows.

I also found that when I would try to use a lighter shade to blend out the crease like I always do with other light shadows, the shadow would just pile on top of the other shadows in a very chalky and patchy fashion rather than blending with the other color. Using them wet also did not work well for blending. If anything, wetting the shadow made it stick to the first place you put it down even more than it had when dry.

2. Many of the colors take some work to get good color payoff, especially dry.

I noticed this while I was initially swatching them; the shadows themselves are very stiff and hard, and therefore, the color payoff can sometimes be very light.

Final verdict:

I would not recommend this palette. I found it very difficult to use and borderline gimmicky. For me, the ability to transform them when wet is cool, but first and foremost the shadows should work dry, and the bottom line is that these shadows do not.