Old question, I know, but I think this is still relevant. Arguably, a clearer way of doing this is to use the unquote() function (which SASS has had since version 3.0.0):
@mixin box-shadow($top, $left, $blur, $color, $inset:"") {
-webkit-box-shadow: $top $left $blur $color unquote($inset);
-moz-box-shadow: $top $left $blur $color unquote($inset);
box-shadow: $top $left $blur $color unquote($inset);
}
This is roughly equivalent to Josh's answer, but I think the explicitly named function is less obfuscated than the string interpolation syntax.