I know that most people who own this palette have oohed and aahed enough about it, but since I have it and the weather is nice, I thought I’d take some pictures contribute my two cents on it.
This palette is, in short, incredible! I had to go through quite a bit of trouble to lay my hands on one, but boy am I not happy I did! I started getting into makeup several months after this came out. Not only do I not have access to Urban Decay where I live, but it was majorly sold-out almost everywhere. At the end I found it on the Boots website, and a British friend who was hopping across the channel brought it to me (thanks, R, I owe you eternal gratitude). The packaging usually doesn’t factor too much in my purchase decisions, but I just LOVE how practical yet sophisticated this looks! The colors are so masterly picked out that I’d venture to say this palette would work for everybody, regardless of skin tone and eye color. I am extremely warm-toned, but even the cooler colors work just fine on me. It is also not as boring as a lot of nude palettes on the market. I mean nude looks are very sophisticated and all that, but a palette with nothing but the nudest nude really depresses me. The quality is also top-notch. I had previously had NO idea that it is possible to make matte shadows SO creamy, but Urban Decay did it! The texture of glittery/shimmery ones is also extremely fine. Except for Sidecar I have no issue with fallout. I don’t think I have to say too much about the Primer Potion that comes in the deal, but as long as you wear eye makeup at all you’d be much better off with it. The eyeliners are creamy and easy to use (I don’t know/think you can still find the older version with the eyeliner on the market). You could do everyday neutral looks as well as sultry smoky ones with this babe. All in all I have to say this is a fantastic palette! I didn’t own a lot of eye shadows before I bought it, and now that I have it I’m sure I won’t need much more in the future either (which is true. I have owned it for a bit more than a year, and I have not purchased any colors in the same family since then). It’s not cheap cheap, but it’s not expensive for what you get. Unless you already have a lot of similar colors I’d recommend this to everyone!
Now onto the individual color. I’m not an expert at all, I’m just telling you how I use them:
Virgin is a frosty, shimmery white. It’s the best on inner corners, and if you use a light hand you can even highlight your brow bones, but I prefer to use my Bobbi Brown Bone for that now.
Sin is a beautiful, shimmery, pinkish champagne color. I use it on the first half of my eyelids, and I like to pair it with Toasted or Hustle.
Naked is a matte shade that I can either use as a layer of very light wash over my eyelids when I don’t wear makeup just to even my eyelids out. When I do wear makeup (especially when I know flash photos will be taken) I pack a bit more on the first half of my lids, which makes it a bit mauvey but still very natural. Or it is also very useful for blending when you do a smokey eye.
Sidecar is a shimmery, glittery taupe. I do experience a bit of fallout with it, but it pairs SO beautifully with Darkhorse I am willing to live with the fallout in this case. It’s the only glittery shade in my entire eyeshadow collection, because usually I’m not a fan of glitter.
Buck is a matte, warm brown that is VERY good in the crease. It looks extremely sophisticated and natural. I have no crease but I can easily fake one and create depth with it.
Half Baked is a warm gold. It nicely brings out my skin tone (NC30) and eye color (dark brown). I used to think dark brown eyes are just dark brown, and the whole “this shade brings out my eye color” business had nothing to do with me. How wrong was I! Half Baked makes my eyes look darker but by no means flat. In fact, it puts a TWINKLE in my eyes. I don’t want to sound narcissist, but I can’t stop looking at my own eyes when I have Half Baked on my lids. They simply look so alive! I have used it in several different ways: I can apply it with my MAC 217 as an all-over lid color, and then contour with either a darker brown (like Smog) or MAC Sumptuous Olive. I can also pack it on with MAC 239 to highlight the center of my eyes when I do a smokey eye with for example Darkhorse.
Smog is a warm, slightly coppery brown. It works nicely as a contour color with Half Baked, or basically any shade to its left in the palette.
Darkhorse is a smokey, shimmery dark brown. You can do a beautiful but not overly dark smokey eye with it, pair it with Sidecar gives you a VERY good result, or just contour your eyes with any color to its left in the palette (OK, maybe except for Virgin).
Toasted is a slightly mauvey pink on me, but I heard it looks very different on different skin tone. I use it to contour my eyes with Sin on the inner half.
Hustle is a purplish brown. Again, it’s different on different people. I very often smudge my eyeliner out with it, but I bet you can use it for more than that.
Creep is a black with a bit of glitter, and I experience no fallout with it. It’s good for a smokey eye, contouring the outer C area, and smudging out eyeliner.
Gunmetal is a silvery gray gunmetal color. It’s probably the most cool-toned color in the palette, and that’s probably why I’ve used it with caution and moderation. I’m pretty sure I can do a smokey eye with this as a main color though.
As to the eyeliners, I used to never line my eyes with eyeliners because I had been traumatized by how much it hurt when people tried to do that for me as a teenager. With Zero and Whiskey however, I don’t have this problem at all. They don’t pull, sting, or irritate. They glide beautifully on, which is a miracle for my rather sensitive skin. I still have to wince and tear up whenever I remember how I was repetitively poked in the eye with an eyeliner by this Clinique SA when I was around 17, and man didn’t full-on eyeliner make me look mean! I still pretty much only line my lower lash line with them because I have monolids and gel liners are the only options for my upper lash line, even the amazing Urban Decay doesn’t save the day in this case. The only complaint I have is that this DOES smudge on me after 10 hours, but mostly only on the outer corner of my left eye! It’s pretty funny, because it stays perfect 9 hours into the wear, but it always smudges when I check myself in the mirror after 10 hours, and only on the outer corner of my left eye (I think it’s because it curls outward a bit. I usually line a bit of my waterline on the outer corner of my left eye, just so that it doesn’t look like there’s a gap between my eye and eyeliner)! It’s really not that bad though, because it’s only a tiny bit that I can rub easily off, and once I rub that bit off it’s again good for quite some time. I haven’t really tried to stretch it but we’re talking about at least a couple of hours here. I have since then purchased the Urban Decay Grind House, and it works pretty well. Doesn’t eat them up like some cheap sharpeners can do (and please don’t use your regular pencil sharpener. It is simply not designed for this purpose. I made that mistake in the beginning and lost some product because of that). I haven’t had to sharpen them all the time either. I think it works OK for my lower lash line all the way till the tip has almost disappeared, which means it’s pretty economical, but then again I have monolids so I can indulge slightly more on eyeliners. On ladies with Caucasian eyes it’s probably not the same story. I prefer Whiskey to Zero on most days, simply because it’s very soft and natural. But you need Zero in your arsenal for the strength, drama, and ka-pow it gives you!
All in all, if you haven’t jumped the bandwagon it’s about time to do so, and I don’t say this about anything!
MOSTLY SUNNY 