For my first official blog post I have chosen to post about the Smashbox Rapture Collection and what I bought from it. It seemed fitting, as Smashbox was the first high end makeup brand I ever bought and for the longest time was the only high end brand I would buy. This collection renewed my love of this brand. The Rapture Collection, which was released for Holiday 2008, contained the following items:- Best of Smashbox Kit ($19.00)
- Rapture Lip Gloss Set ($29.00)
- Flawless Finish Primer set ($39.00)
- Rapture Eye Shadow and Brush Set ($59.00)
- Rapture Travel Brush Set ($49.00)
- Ulta and smashbox.com online exclusive, the Ultimate Beauty Palette.
From this collection, I purchased only two things.
The first was the Flawless 
Finish Primer set, which contained a full sized (30 ml) Photo Finish Primer and a to-go sized Photo Finish Primer (15 ml) in the original clear formula. There isn't a whole lot to say about this set other than that it's a pretty good deal for those who like Smashbox's foundation primer like myself. Smashbox's Photo Finish primer is a silicone based primer that I use whenever I wear foundation and occasionally when I wear blush. I find that it smooths out my skin a bit and helps my foundation and blush "stick" a bit better. improving its wear.
Despite it's massive appearance online, the palette, when closed, is a bit bigger than a DVD case. Inside, the palette has two layers. The top layer contains 70 eyeshadows.
All of these shades are very wearable and neutral and are perfect for everyday wear. The shadows are of Smashbox's usual good quality, with a buttery, easily blendable texture and somewhat sheer but buildable color. I have swatched them all below by column as labeled. All swatches were done on the inside of my arm over UDPP (Urban Decay Primer Potion) on NC 30 neutral skin in slightly cool natural lighting.
The second layer contains brow tech wax and powder, 8 cream liners, 12 lipglosses, a bronzer, a highlighter, and two blushes.
The cream eyeliners are all black based eyeliners, making them all very wearable colors. Unfortunately, they were already a bit dried out in this palette, which made them just a bit difficult to apply. This wasn't a big deal to me as I didn't buy this palette for the eyeliners, which I am not that fond of to begin with. Why? Well the eyeliners just don't stay put. Even over an eyeshadow base, the liners still manage to crease a bit and smudge or dissapear. The bronzer was a very nice peachy color, which was a bit odd as a bronzer, but luckily, it was a very nice peachy flush on me, making it a very nice blush for me. The blush next to the bronzer, labeled "blush #1", is a brownish pink with shimmer, and "blush #2" is a nice matte pink flush. The soft lights was probably my favorite of the cheek powders as it is a very gorgeous highlighter shade.
The 12 lipglosses that were included with the palette are also very nice wearable colors, with only one real flaw for me; they're flavored! Other than that, they're wonderful, somewhat sheer, glosses that are not overly sticky.
Overall, this is an amazing palette, and is the best "blockbuster" type palette I have ever seen. It is no longer available at Ulta, but you can still get one at Smashbox.com. It is an excellent deal at $59, although it's so pretty that you may find it hard to dig in at first!
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