On black Friday, Melt Cosmetics released their Smoke Sessions palette. I didn’t miss out on the launch, but within a few weeks it was already sold out. This meant that I couldn’t share with you all how much I LOVED the palette, because it doesn’t make much sense to recommend a palette that no one can get.

Last week, Melt announced that they would be restocking 4/20 (no coincidence there) and I thought it was the perfect time to finally share my thoughts with everyone, and if I think it’s worth adding to your collection.

The Palette

Smoke Sessions ($48) is an 8 pan palette, with a mix of greens and golds inspired by various strains of marijuana. Now, I know weed in itself is a controversial topic however this palette is merely inspired by it and not infused with it. For anyone who doesn’t partake, the inspiration shouldn’t prohibit anyone from getting it because it truly is an amazing color story.

Green is my favorite color, but in person the golds are the shades that stand out the most. Particularly because they are olive gold metallics, and are good alternatives for those of you who do not like bright yellow or true golds.

Swatches

These are HIGHLY pigmented shadows, and not necessarily for the beginner makeup artist for a few reasons. First, I believe a true beginner palette has more matte transitions than shimmers. This palette is primarily shimmers, with 2 very deep grey/olive and hunter green matte shades. If you’re not experienced with blending, these 2 mattes aren’t the easiest to work with. Because of this, it is more of a companion palette and you should be prepared with alternative matte shades for your crease and to transition.

The textures also require some knowledge on how best to apply. For example, Blue Dream appears to be a highly pigmented metallic mint green shade in the pan, but it loses it’s opacity when swatched. On the lid by itself, it is a better topper shade because the shimmer goes on very sheer and you lost most of the mint base shade. In order to really get the pigment, it is best applied on top of a glitter glue specifically. If you’ve never worked with a glitter glue or mixing medium before, you will definitely have trouble getting the pigment to show up.

But if you’re patient, and wiling to take the time blending out the shades + play with various application techniques, you will get really amazing pay off.

Green/Gold Smokey Cut Crease Eye

I created the look below using every color in the palette, and here’s how I did it:

I started by packing on Space Queen in my crease, slightly above, and on the inner and outer third of my lid. I then took a clean fluffy blending brush and smoked out the edges.

I then deepened the outer corner and my crease by adding Sour Diesel.

Once I was satisfied with my blend, I then cut my crease with concealer.

I packed on Gravity OG closest to me tear duct, followed by Grand Daddy, and Black Widow.

I used Mean Green to soften the transition from Black Widow to Space Queen on my outer third.

I used a bright green liner on my bottom lash line, and a little bit below. I applied Sweet Tooth on the inner half of my bottom lash line, and Mean Green on the outer half. I smoked out the two shimmers by adding Space Queen below them.

I finished by adding Blue Dream to my inner corner for a minty sheer pop of color.

Final Thoughts

I may be bias because I LOVE green, but this is truly a beautiful palette even if it wasn’t my favorite color. It may have a learning curve if you’re new to makeup, but once you practice and master working with the shadows, they have a truly amazing pay off. They’re so beautiful I may actually pick up a 2nd one during the relaunch because I can’t imagine hitting pan on any of these shades and not being able to repurchase it in the future.

Smoke Sessions is set to relaunch on 4/20 via Melt’s website. CLICK HERE to make sure you sign up for email notifications as soon as it is available, because you definitely don’t want to miss out on it this time around.