Tuesday, May 26, 2009

NEW Maybelline Stylish Smokes Quads - Pics + Swatches.

Ready for this?

If you're a regular reader of The Pink Train Case, you know that I am a huge fan of the newly formulated Maybelline eyeshadow quads (examples here and here). On an emergency run to Wal Mart (that happens often- and I know, it's Wal Mart but it's the biggest store in my small town), I, as usual, made a run through the cosmetics and spotted a display for these new Maybelline quads for a collection called Stylish Smokes. I'm a total sucker for anything smokey, so I picked up the 4 new quads (in the display were4-5 re-packaged quads already in the permanent line).

Enough babble- time for pictures and swatches........


Top left: Natural Smokes
Top right: Emerald Smokes
Bottom left: Charcoal Smokes
Bottom right: Amethyst Smokes


Amethyst Smokes


Lid, Crease, Outer Corner, Brow Bone
The lid and crease shades are my absolute favorites. The lid is a pretty duo chrome bright purple that flashes blue- reminds me of a MAC shade? Anyone care to jar my memory? The outer corner shade is a really dark and pigmented sparkly black, the brow bone shade is a pretty pigmented frosty white. And, I wouldn't put that on my brow bone, yowzers!


Natural Smokes


Lid, Crease, Brow Bone, Outer Corner
Yes, this was the first quad I grabbed. I have to say I'm a little disappointed with the lid shade :( It looks positively beautiful in the pan, but not as pigmented when I swatched it. But, I'm so biased by the pretty sparkle I still say it's a pretty shade. The crease and outer corner shades are really nicely pigmented, these are my favorites. The brow bone/highlight shade is really subtle, the least shimmery of all the brow bone shades from the quads.


Charcoal Smokes


Lid, Crease, Outer Corner, Brow Bone
Looooooooove this quad!! The first two shades are beautiful and not as straight-forward grey as I thought they were going to be. The outer corner shade is the same sparkly black as in the Amethyst Smoke quad. The brow bone shade is a pretty silvery color.


Emerald Smokes


Lid, Crease, Outer Corner, Brow Bone
Okay, THIS is my favorite quad out of the whole collection!!!! If you're only going to buy one, buy this one. Each shade is absolutely beautiful and unique- I don't have any greens like these at all in my collection. The lid shade is an olivey-gold, not as pigmented as the rest but it's still a beautiful shade. The crease is a gorgeous, shimmery emerald- kind of reminds me of MAC Humid. The crease shade is an intense dark black-green, again, totally gorgeous. The brow bone shade looks white in the pan, but swatched is this shimmery yellow-gold. I tried to capture the different flashes as best as I could in the picture. Again, this is the quad to get, if you had to choose one.

Yet again, I am so impressed with these quads. There are a couple of bummers, but the good definitely outweighs the bad. I haven't seen these in drugstores yet, which is funny that I found them at Wal Mart, since they take forever to get the "new" items. I paid about $4.50 for each quad, but I'm sure when they do hit the drugstores, look out for those sales!!

17 comments:

Maggie said...

wow, the emerald smoke does look beautiful! i'll be on the look out for that.

oh, and i think some of the colors are sold separately. like, the amethyst lid color, sparkly black, and the emerald green color, i've seen individually.

i am sooo going to get the green one! i don't have greens. gonna have to be on the look-out at walmart!

Maggie said...

oh, and another thing. lol.
the charcoal quad, the first 2 shades look TAUPE-ish? well, the swatches do.

Unknown said...

holy crap! these are awesome! Thanks for the lemming.

Phyrra said...

In the Amethyst Smoke Quad, I LOVE the lid color and browbone color. That lid color is AMAZING. I would actually use the browbone color on the lid with the lid color in the crease, and maybe blend out the browbone color to a very light shimmer. However, I'm known to wear crazy vivid colors :)

In the Charcoal Smokes Quad I like all 4 colors.

Unknown said...

thank you so much for this review!

ndoodles said...

I have one Maybelline eyeshadow quad like that and it always happens that the lid and highlight colors aren't as pigmented as the rest. But yes, the green one looks really nice.

AskMeWhats said...

we should have those quads down here as the pigmentation looks AMAZING! the Maybelline e/s we have down here are a bit powdery and not too pigmented!

Rae // theNotice said...

Ahh!! Gorgeous. If I hadn't just bought a new palette, these would SO be my next haul :P And at $4.50/ea?! What a deal!!

*puts Charcoal Smokes on wishlist anyways* :P

plue said...

Hello, this is my 1st time leaving a comment on your blog ^_^

Why Maybelline has such nice quads in your country? Mine here totally sucks! Chalky, powdery and everything's bad! >_<

I wish I'm in US right now.

G. said...

OK so the last time I tried a Maybelline e/s was maybe 5 years ago and there was no pigment and it was so chalky! I can't believe how much they've improved! Thanks for the new lemming and that Emerald Smokes quad is *gorgeous*.

What is the staying power like on this?

Shizznizzle said...

Wow those look pretty! I actually like Natural Smokes right off the bat, but too bad the color payoff aren't as pretty as it looks in the quad. Otherwise, they look very pretty...drugstore brands started to step up their game! Thanks for the lemming =)

delete this said...

Ohh I am liking that Amethyst Smokes and Emerald Smokes palettes! I haven't seen them yet , but now I will be on the look out!

Semi Permanent Make Up said...

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Big M blog said...

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Mazhar Shah....

Ahleessa said...

I saw the Natural Smokes at Walgreens and fell in love. I decided not to buy it since I'm not a fan of Maybelline eyeshadows. Then I decided to read the reviews and ran into your blog... hehe~ Thanks for the review!

Amy said...

I just purchased the Emerald Smokes quad today and you're right, it's so beautiful! I have to go back and pick up some more of these Stylish Smokes quads!!
Do you know if the Stylish Smokes quads are part of the permanent collection or just LE?

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