I bought one of these smoky eye palettes a few years ago. I don't tend to wear eye shadow much any more but when I do I use it for high impact eyes and a smoky eye is the perfect thing.

I tend to think Bourjois are a relatively trustworthy brand, their cosmetics don't tend to be overly showy and therefore what you do get is quality. I also think for a high street range they are reasonably priced and their products are consistently good. Buying an eye shadow that I know I won't use often I therefore wanted it from a brand I could trust as otherwise it would be a total waste of money, and that's why Bourjois were my first choice.

The smoky eye palette is in a compact style pot which has a flip lid. Part of the lid is a grey plastic, like the base, and the other part is clear plastic which allows you to see the three eye shadows. On the inside there are three domed shadows and a double ended applicator. The design is good, I like that you are given the opportunity to see the colours of the shadow - though I do wish it had a mirror on the inside. The applicator has one wide end and one thin end for different types of application. I don't tend to use this because I prefer the precision offered by my own finger but if you do like these applicators then this seems like a good quality one.

The shadows themselves are relatively small, the size of a 5p coin roughly. However, they are generously domed and therefore you do actually get a fairly decent amount of them. They offer this palette in a variety of colours, though I bought mine in the grey range (Gris Dandy). In this one you get a silver shadow, a medium to dark grey and a black shadow. The transition between the colours isn't exactly subtle and therefore blending is really important which luckily these shadows do well.

They feel very smooth and velvety to touch and are really nice to apply. They blend together well and actually look far better than I expect them to given the disparity in colours. I do think some of the colours they have offered in these palettes means that the term smoky is rather loosely used. For example, they do a pink palette but the deepest shade is a fairly bright pink - personally I wouldn't say this would create a smoky eye as much as it would a colour transition/fading. This isn't so much a criticism because my palette obviously does create a smoky eye, I just think they've misused the term slightly.

The overall effect of using the shadows is really nice. These are actually a better consistency than single shadows I've used from the brand which can often be very hard. These are soft enough to apply easily but also don't create a load of excess dust. All in all I really like this product, but I do have one slight issue with it. Since using a slightly more expensive smoky eye kit (see Benefit review) I have practically stopped using this kit and it's due to the colours provided. I find them a little bit harsh for me and in the other kit I used the tones are more closely matched and have a slightly softer fawny edge to them. The other kit is considerably more expensive though so I suppose once it runs out I will probably return to my Bourjois palette.

The eye shadow trio costs £7.99 which seems a really reasonable price for something that has lasted me a couple of years with very little wear. I would like it if the colours were a little softer but it's a cheap and cheerful product which I enjoy using from time to time.