Needless to say, I was super surprised to find that Sephora had this sucker in stock online, and it just so happened that my mom wanted to order the Naked palette, so I snatched it up without a second thought (and with an IOU to mommy dearest ;) ).
Description from the Urban Decay Wesbite:
"It’s our party, and we’ll launch 15 NEW (and only in this kit!) eyeshadow shades if we want to! With just the right balance of neutrals and brights, darks and lights, the 15-Year Anniversary Palette is both versatile and the ultimate UD junkie collection. Shades like “Junkshow” (a bright pink), “Evidence” (a deep metallic blue) and Midnight 15 (an oyster pearl shade) mesmerize the eyes. The collectible gunmetal outer box features a luxe faceted jewel “UD” on the cover and an eye-grabbing laser-cut filigree design on the sides. Inside, the shadow tray pulls out to reveal a velvet-lined compartment that can be used to stash jewelry or personal mementos."On to the swatches!
The packaging for this palette is pretty brilliant. Not only is it extremely eye-catching with the bejeweled lid, and metallic silver + gold box, but it also includes a mirrored lid and, if that weren't enough, the shadow pan lifts up to reveal a compartment underneath.
The perfect size for storing jewelry or possibly a couple of travel-sized brushes, no?
Colours, from left to right:
Midnight Rodeo: Shimmery medium brown with silver and gold glitter.
Tainted: In the pan this looks somewhat pinky, but once swatched it is a matte purple with gold glitter.
Deeper: A shimmery deep brown.
Midnight 15: A pearl-y, champagne-y colour with gold glitter.
Junkshow: The picture does not do this shade justice. It is basically a hot pink with a "fuchsia shift" (quoted from Urban Decay website)
M.I.A: A shimmery dark brown.
Vanilla: The name is pretty apt. It is a shimmery light gold colour.
Omen: A shimmery purple duochrome, which shifts to a blue colour.
Ace: A shimmery gunmetal shade
Flow: A shimmery soft peach
Evidence: Deep metallic blue
Blackout: Your standard matte black
Chase: A bright metallic bronze
Deep End: Shimmery teal
Half-Truth: A shimmery smoky purple
Swatches:
I apologize for these particular swatches being blurrier than the following! My camera was being an itchbay (bonus points if you know pig latin ;) ) and would not focus for the life of me, and my arm was getting sore... haha.
Colours pictured, from left to right:
Midnight Rodeo (ugh, this swatch does not do this colour justice!), Midnight 15, Vanilla, Flow, Chase, Tainted
Fortunately, the swatches of the rest of the colours turned out much better, especially considering that they are the more interesting ones anyway! ...Except I rotated this picture while editing it, so the swatches don't really make as much sense...
Well, this time let's go from top to bottom!
Colours from top to bottom (following left to right):
Junkshow, Omen, Evidence, Deep End, Deeper, M.I.A, Ace, Blackout, Half Truth
These swatches, like those from my Naked palette, were done without the aid of any eyeshadow primer whatsoever, and again, a light sweep of the pan. No digging with these required! The shadows are very soft and highly pigmented, with EXCELLENT colour payoff. Actually, I found out just how soft they were the hard way when removing the pan from the storage area underneath, when the pen that I was using to do so slipped and dug into Half Truth! AHHHHHH! Fortunately it didn't leave too big of a crater, but argh!
Also, the pigmentation: we're talking barely having to tap your brush into it pigmented. I decided to try out M.I.A today, barely even touched my brush to its surface, put it on my eye... and then had to blend like crazy because it was just too freaking dark. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but haha.
My Thoughts:
Like I said above, this palette is true to Urban Decay's usual quality -- the shadows are highly pigmented, with excellent colour payoff. Most are true to what you see in the pan, minus a couple of colours, which either swatch darker than they appear, or almost a different colour all together (as is the case with Tainted).
I am definitely glad that I got this palette, because it contains some gorgeous, unique shades. I think that my favourite is Omen, which is definitely a true duochrome, even out of the pan. I can't wait to play around with it a bit more; I wore a little bit on my lower lashline today for extra "pop," as well as to see how the colour wears on the eyes -- again, it looks just like it does in the pan. Coming up as a second favourite is Deep End, which is probably the best-pigmented and prettiest teal shadow that I have come across. Not that I am a teal shadow expert or anything. I'm actually surprised that I like both of these colours so much, because I'm usually a neutrals kind of girl!
I am also super excited to play around with Junkshow, which is such a different, funky colour. Definitely not your everyday shade, but possibly would be a good shadow to wear out at night? I can't see myself sweeping this shadow all the way across my lids, but I think that a little bit on the upper lashline paired with a black gel liner would be quite pretty. I also think that Half Truth would be quite pretty in a purple smokey eye.
Overall, I am pretty excited to play around more with this palette, because there are some pretty fun colours in it. That being said though, I think that if you are looking for a palette that you would use every day, I would choose Urban Decay's Naked over this one. The neutrals in this palette are very pretty, don't get me wrong, but I think that the more "fun" colours definitely overshadow (heh) them. With the exception of Midnight 15 and maybe Flow, I feel that the others are pretty much your standard run-of-the-mill neutrals. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing; in fact, I think that this is one of the strengths of this palette, since it has a good balance of normalcy and funky.
My only complaint so far is Blackout -- I feel like it is just not quite black enough. I imagine that black shades are hard to accomplish and that it's difficult to make the perfect black, but there is just a certain something-something lacking in the pigmentation of this one. That is only a teeny weeny little complaint though, as I rarely ever use black shadows.
I have only gotten a chance to use this palette three times in the few days since I have received it, but overall I am quite satisfied and feel that I will get my money's worth out of it. Also, like the Urban Decay Naked palette, it is a pretty good value at $65 CAD for 15 full-sized shadows ($55 for those of you in the US -- it is so unfair how things are always cheaper for you guys, despite the fact that the Canadian dollar is on par!). I have decided that I am cut off from buying palettes from now on, though. Or at least for the next while. Haha.
Would I call this my favourite palette? I think that it is too early to tell, though considering the fact that it is more night-look friendly, I don't think that it will dethrone Naked for me. But it is definitely fun and has some gorgeous shadows, so I would highly recommend it if you are in the market for something different. Act fast though, because it's limited edition!
Considering this is a limited edition palette, I am not sure of its availability in stores, but I personally purchased this online at Sephora for $65 CAD. I have heard that it is quite difficult to find in store at Sephora, though I have not checked personally.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment