Urban Decay Vice LTD Palette: In Depth Review & Swatches

I picked up the Vice LTD palette from Urban Decay awhile back but I didn't think I would keep it until I saw the fabulous reviews from other bloggers. So I decided to take the plunge and review it for you guys even though there was some insane controversy over the release of this product. 

Urban Decay says this is an extremely limited palette and I do not own any of the previous VICE palettes so this one looked like it would be my favorite curation of colors (the neon packaging helped, too).

The Urban Decay Vice LTD palette retails for $58 at ULTA only and contains 20 shades of eyeshadows, of which 9 are exclusively in this palette. 11 other shadows can be found in other palettes, so I'm listing them all below for you:

Crystal (Book of Shadows IV), Junkshow (15th Anniversary Palette), Backdoor (Smoked Palette), Deeper (15th Anniversary Palette), Nameless (Shattered Palette), Vaporize (Anarchy palette - reformulated) and Perversion (Book of Shadows II), Freakshow (Fun Palette), Blitz (VICE Palette), Last Sin (VICE 3 Palette), Anonymous (VICE Palette)

I'm lucky that I don't have that many duplicates, I only have the Book of Shadows and I didn't bother buying UD smaller palettes or the other VICE's, but if you have been collecting, you're definitely going to have repeats.

Inside some typical psychadelic cardboard packaging you will find this hard-plastic neon-green case with a push-button. This palette is great because you press the button gently and the top raises up on its own, which means you don't have to pry at it with your fingernails to get it open or worry about magnets not sticking closed during travel.

I love the bejeweled "UD" decal on the front, it adds some glitzy feeling to the otherwise Nickelodeon slime green color selection (I'm not even knocking it, I love it!).

Upon opening the palette, an over-sized mirror greets you, which is upright and ready for makeup application (perfect for on-the-go if you don't mind lugging this rather large and bulky palette around).

There's a nice variety of candy-colored shades in here, ranging from hot fuchsia, muted neutrals, to pops of glittery and metallic orange, yellow, golds, and some gem-toned shades such as sapphire and emerald.

If you're a fan of mattes, this palette is not for you. Urban Decay does a lot of things right, but mattes are rarely among those - there are only 4 matte shades: Backdoor (cool dark brown), Perversion (soft black), Anonymous (peachy cream) and Laced (soft pink-nude taupe).

The mattes, especially the darker shades, are rather patchy and more difficult to blend than the satins, metallics, shimmers and glitters. If you love glitz and pops of color in your eye looks, you will love the VICE LTD palette.

There is also an exclusive double-ended brush in this palette but it's smaller than others I have received in my Naked 2 and Naked 3 palettes. There's an all-over shadow brush (right side) and a crease brush (left side). 

The bristles are a tad stiff on the all-over shadow brush but it has a nice density. The blending brush seems to have a rather small point so I don't think it would be too useful for creating a blown-out effect, but rather applying more concentrated color to the crease.

I didn't find myself reaching for this brush because it was a little bit small for the purposes I would use it for.

As you can see from my swatches above (if you want to see the photos larger, click to enlarge), there is good news and there is bad news.

The poorest performing shades were definitely Backdoor (patchy and dry), Perversion (just not black enough, patchy - has to be layered a lot), Junkshow (powdery, needs building up for full opacity), and Laced (dry, hard to get any color payoff from this one).

The good news is great, out of the entire palette I was only disappointed by 4 shades. Roadstripe is sheer but has a beautiful duo-chrome pink to blue shift, so it makes a wonderful highlight. Crystal and Provocateur are to die for light blue and mauve shades with plenty of shimmer that will make any eye look pop. Deeper, Heat and Vaporize are buttery smooth to-die-for shades that will enhance any look. 

Goddess and Floss were okay, but that might be just because I'm not a huge fan of chunky glitter fallout - I suspect these are great over a black base and Floss is definitely superior to Goddess in consistency and shadow quality. Although Disco is also a glitter it seems to have the particles embedded in the formula better, making it easier to blend out. 

Any shade I didn't particularly mention performs as I expect from the Urban Decay brand (since reformulation of their eyeshadows) - can blend easily, has a smooth consistency and good color payoff.

For my look, I used the following colors and created a look exclusively from the Urban Decay VICE LTD palette:

• Crystal - all over the eyelid
• Anonymous - brow-bone highlight shade, underneath eyebrow
• Laced - as a transition shade in the crease
• Deeper - to define the crease
• Blitz - inner under-eye corner
• Hoodoo - outer under-eye

Verdict

This palette is worth your time if you're an avid Urban Decay collector or you don't own too many palettes from them (to avoid repeat shades). I do appreciate that all of the shadows are their new pigment-infused formulation so you're getting tons of color payoff with most shades. 

If you like fun shades and like to experiment with color, this palette is definitely for you (specifically if you didn't purchase an Electric Palette). 

For the bold, adventurous and wild at heart, I give it two thumbs up and a very respectable score of 9/10.

Review: Kat Von D Innerstellar Palette - Limited Editition Sephora Exclusive

Sorry for what feels like a lifetime since I have last posted but I had many other issues to deal with and now I'm back baby! I hope you all had a happy holiday season and are looking forward to all good things in the New Year.

I was able to get my hands on the retro-futuristic Innerstellar palette (which I posted about before in this preview - Sephora's swatches of it really convinced me to pick it up!) and I'm reporting back with an in-depth review.

Should you get this palette or should you skip it? Read below to find out!

First of all, the packaging is absolute amaze-balls. It's psychedelic and reminiscent of the name it shares a homonym with "Interstellar" - it's kind of what space would look like if it was illustrated by a graphic artist in the 1960's and I'm all about that sort of thing. On the back you can see a detailed photo depicting the finishes of the shades (ie. the shimmer shades have little glittery-looking chunks in the graphic).

The external packaging and the outside of the palette itself look identical so I won't bother you with more photos of it. The inside reveals a cool-toned palette with some definite neutrals and even warm-ish shades thrown in. Right off the bat I'm impressed by the mahogany browns and lilac purple shades (my absolute favs for amber/brown eyes).

I've heard some complaints about this palette because although the size appears similar to the Monarch and Chrysalis permanent-collection palettes, this one is 0.6 oz of product compared to the 0.73oz of the older palettes. The price of the palette has remained the same. I still think that for the amount of color and the large size of the palette, the Innerstellar palette is a good deal for the retail price of $46.

 Swatches were broken up into quads since I believe that each highlight shade (the large ones at the top) were meant to be coordinated with the 3 vertically-placed shades underneath. The looks seem to range in intensity going from left to right, with the brightest and most metallic shades being at the right of the spectrum. With that being said, each "quad" coordinated look contains some mattes and some shimmer shades.

Gravitron is a white-based pink with a hint of lilac shimmer
Night Crawler is a cool toned taupe satin shade
Dios is a medium gray satin shade with silver shimmer
Lunacy is a dark mid-tone purple with slightly poor color payoff than most other in this palette

Vast is a frosty warm taupe brown
Astrological is a bright lilac with golden shimmer - has some powdery kick-up after swatching
Darkstar is a cool-toned dark purple shade with phenomenal pigmentation - a little goes a very long way
Orion is a satin warm medium to dark brown

Lycan is a matte yellow-toned white shade

3AM is a bright metallic warm taupe with a satin finish

Moonshine is a metallic bright silver shade - this shade was fairly powdery

Killing Moon is a matte black that seems to be the driest and has good pigmentation but skips on the skin, so it requires some extra blending

Overall, this palette performed very well, I only had slight issues with the shades Lunacy and Killing Moon, otherwise I was happy with the performance of all of them on my fair skin.

I think this palette fits a very important niche, it's not quite as "out there" in shade-selection as the Chrysalis palette but it does incorporate a lot of nice cool toned colors that are very wearable from day to night.

The texture of the shadows is buttery and smooth with the exception of Killing Moon which felt somewhat dry and skipped on the skin when swatching and applying. The application and blendability of these shades makes them ideal for beginners and the overall arrangement of the colors makes it easy to create looks.

I highly recommend this palette and I hope we see even more palettes that are a nice mixture between cool and warm such as this in the future!

Stay tuned, I'll be posting looks using this palette in the days to come.

New Kat Von D Innerstellar Palette, Limited Edition (Sephora Exclusive) - Swatches Inside

Kat Von D's makeup line has long been a staple of Sephora's powerhouse collaborations with various brands and companies to bring you the latest, trendiest collections. 

Earlier this year Kat Von D & Sephora released the Monarch and Chrysalis palettes, the latter being a warm-toned monarch butterfly inspired curation and the latter being a blue and purple cool-toned and more adventurous color palette.

The Innerstellar palette is a Limited Edition, VIB Rouge/VIB exclusive palette offered on the Sephora website for members only. I have heard rumors of these popping up in stores sometime mid January (the 15th I believe). However, I happen to think that this would make a very appropriate holiday gift since it contains some beautiful shimmer shades). 

This palette is rather a misnomer since it has nothing to do with the actual movie "Interstellar" which was released a couple of weeks ago - it's more of a self-empowering name because we can all show our "inner stellar" with it! 

I found some swatches below:

I'm very happy with the color curation, clearly this tends to be a cooler-toned palette featuring many varieties of taupes. I really like this palette, specifically for the winter-time since it is suitably themed. 

Each set of 4 shadows (the highlighter shade on top and then the 3 corresponding underneath it) are combined in such a way that you can create one "look". Obviously, you can just mix and match them however you'd like, the makeup police won't come after you - but I do like the option if you're feeling uninspired. 

There's a nice sprinkle of warm shades specifically 2, 4, 9 and 10 (Vast, Night Crawler, Orion and 3 AM) so this palette will be able to create a good variety of looks.

Are you going to be picking up this palette? I ordered mine already and it's on the way! I think it's the perfect palette to get your first taste of the Kat Von D set if some of her other ones are too bold for your tastes.

Review & Swatches: Smashbox On The Rocks Photo Op Eye Shadow Luxe Palette

Outer Packaging of Smashbox On The Rocks Photo Op Eye Shadow Luxe Palette 

The ULTA-exclusive Smashbox On The Rocks Photo Op Eye Shadow Luxe Palette retails for $42 and contains a limited edition eye shadow collection of 28 party-perfect shades! There are a variety of finishes from mattes to glitters in lush neutrals to dazzling jewel-inspired tones. 

Exterior of Smashbox On The Rocks Photo Op Eye Shadow Luxe Palette

The exterior of the palette has beautiful diamonds which reflect light wonderfully and would make for a delightfully glamorous gift. The palette itself feels a little pillow-esque when you push down on the top and it seems ideal for traveling, even though it is slightly larger than a typical travel palette. 

My only qualm with the Smashbox On The Rocks Luxe Palette is that there is an overlay that has the color names which I'm never a fan of, I would rather that they were printed next to the shade names (though I can see how that can be difficult with the diamond arrangement). The layout of the shadows saves a decent amount of space and you have 28 full sized eye shadows in a medium-sized palette. I love the diamond in the center, I don't know why but it makes me giddy with delight when I open the palette!

Names of Eye Shadows in Smashbox On The Rocks Photo Op Eye Shadow Luxe Palette

The palette seems to be set up from left to right as follows: leftmost there are nudes transitioning to earthtones and greens, in the center region above the diamond there are purples and below there are blue tones, on the rightmost side of the palette there's a mixture of smokey eye bold shades (grays, deep burgundy, dark brown). I appreciate that this isn't a random assortment of shadows because I find that some palettes can be too overwhelming to look at when there is no rhyme or reason to their placement.

Swatches of Nudes/Earthtones (Left side of Smashbox On The Rocks Luxe Palette)

From the left side of the palette, you can see that the shades are neutrals and earth-tones. Most of these shades are buttery, creamy and swatch absolutely perfectly but I found Midas to be weakly pigmented on the secondary swatch and it doesn't transfer well out of the pan. I was very pleasantly surprised with Zoom (mint green with gold shimmer) and Roast (dark brown with sparse gold sparkles). Ambient is a good dupe for Amber Lights from MAC, I own both and there isn't a major difference between them when worn on the lid.

Swatches of Shades around Diamond (Center of Smashbox On The Rocks Luxe Palette)

The shades in the middle of the palette perform fairly similarly, with Purple Mist not being very pigmented at all and easily brushing off the skin while pastel is rather dusty and too similar to my skin tone for me to wear as a unique shadow. Sapphires needs to be built up for maximum intensity which can be great for beginners or those who are afraid to go overboard with a dark shadow. Navy is slightly darker and a little less blue-toned. The standouts are really Lavender, Juniper, Peacock and Lilac, all of which are very smooth, easily blended and quickly reach full opacity.

Swatches of Smokey Shades (Right side of Smashbox On The Rocks Luxe Palette)

On the right side of the palette you can see from the swatches that the shades become darker and more smokey, even featuring some great highlight shades (Snow, Babycakes and Moonlight). The most bold colors are Frambroise, Asteroid, Royal, Smoke and Cabernet, all of which perform as expected. I was a little bit disappointed by Mink and Babycakes because the colors were just too soft and the shadow's pigment lacked a "stickiness" which keeps it adhered to your lid so it's harder to build up. Mostly, the shadows perform beautifully and are better than expected!

Smashbox Photo Op Luxe Palette "Get The Looks" Booklet

Included in this palette is a booklet with 6 looks that you can create from the shades, they are listed underneath and you can use them as a guide for your holiday parties this year! 

If you find that this palette is too big for you there is a smaller, original version of the palette called the Smashbox Photo Op palette. However, I would strongly suggest for you to pick this up, if not for yourself, then at least to gift to the makeup lover in your life!

The quality of the eye shadows is consistent and there is such a wide variety of unique shades that aren't usually found in palettes that pushes this palette to a must-buy!

Happy shopping and Happy Thanksgiving everybody!!!

Product Review & Swatches: Cargo Shanghai Nights (Ulta Online Exclusive)

I'm so excited! I received my Cargo Shanghai Nights Palette from Ulta and I got a chance to take photos, do some swatches & create a look to show you! I was super drawn to this palette from when I first saw the promo photos of it because it has nice shades of gold, bronze, taupe, bright blue and purple! I think there's a great variety of colors to create a multitude of looks.

Now, I have to tell you the truth, I had never touched a Cargo eyeshadow before this, but I had a hunch they may be decent because they came highly regarded by Marlena from MakeupGeek during one of her videos. And let me tell you, I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY by the quality, they are similar to the Lorac eyeshadows, but they feel even more smooth, buttery and richly pigmented to me, I noticed very little powdering from the mattes (this is to be expected of all mattes, though).

The packaging of the Shanghai Nights palette is to die for! It has a nice weight to it, although it's made of reinforced cardboard and its covered by a plastic overlay, it feels sturdier than some plastic palettes I own. I would feel very confident traveling with it and knowing it won't break. You are receiving a nice amount of product for $39, it contains 12 eyeshadows, each at 0.03oz (or 0.8g) - for comparison, MAC eyeshadow singles are 0.05oz full size (or 1.5g). The price here is amazing, this palette retails for $39 regularly, but I picked it up during Ulta's 21 Days of Beauty Sale for $20!

The eyeshadows consist of a wide variety of brow-bone shades (Neon, Hu), crease/transition shades (Wai Tai, Bund, Jin Mao), pops of color (Lychee, Jade, Bar Rouge, Skyline) and shades with depth to them (Street Style, Night life). 

I noticed right away that there were 4 mattes (Wai Tai, Skyline, Bund and Hu), 5 metallic shades (Lychee, Jin Mao, Street Style, Ginger, Jade), 2 satin shades (Neon, Bar Rouge) and 1 glitter shade (Night Life).

So not only is there a great variety of shades that can be used for different purposes, but there are also many finishes in this versatile palette. All of the shades in this palette are limited edition.

Bonus! It even comes with a dual-ended eyeshadow/liner brush, which I used to complete my look today. This brush is versatile because one end can be used to pack on eyeshadow and the other end can be used for more precise application under your lower lash line and above your lash line as well. The bristles are flexible and soft.

These shadows were not applied over primer, they are very richly pigmented, the only one that wasn't as vibrant as I was expecting was Skyline which appears as a gem-tone blue in the pan but swatches more like a navy. I was extremely impressed with Wai Tai and Bund, they are very rich and smooth shades, especially for mattes, and they were very easy to blend out. Jin Mao and Lychee performed very well and true to the shades in the pan and Neon was a tad sheer, but very pleasant.

Night Life was much more pigmented than the black from the Everything Nice palette I reviewed last week, and I found during application that much of the glitter doesn't really stick to the eyeshadow itself and therefore won't show up much, if at all (I'm perfectly fine with this!). Bar Rouge is a stunner, I love this fuchsia reddish purple shade. Jade was also less its namesake and more of an army green with shimmer. Hu, Street Style and Ginger looked exactly the same when applied or swatched as they did in the pan.

Here's the look that I create today with the Cargo Shanghai Nights palette:

I used a whopping 8 shades in my look and I feel that it didn't turn out muddy at all and you can see precisely where I placed each shade, even though I did some major blending! The performance of this palette was spectacular and I highly recommend it. It has treated me better than many of my higher end palettes and I am very excited to start collecting Cargo's Limited Edition palettes.

Here's a guide to show you where I placed each shadow if you own the palette and want to try out this look!

DIY Magnetic Eyeshadow Palette (Similar to MAC & Z palette)

Do you ever just want a travel-sized palette but don't feel like shelling out the big bucks for the tiny little ones from Z palette or MAC? To my knowledge the MAC palette is around $8 and can only fit a couple of shadows, and the smallest Z palette is still a whopping $14. I'd rather make one for free from stuff laying around my house. Makeup is all about creativity so why can't we be innovative with the way we store our pretties?

Let me show you what I did...

Tosowoong Makeon Waterproof Little Mermaid Gel Eyeliner Set (Season 2)

I had ordered this beautiful Korean gel eyeliner set Tosowoong MAKEON Waterproof Little Mermaid Gel Eyeliner Set (Season 2) and I had a beautiful leftover tin once I pulled out the little plastic insert where the pencils were held snug. It was just sitting around and I didn't have the heart to throw it out because it was just so adorable, so I had to re-purpose it into a miniature eyeshadow palette (ideal for travel).

I won't lie, I thought this would be a lot more difficult, and I looked into getting adhesive magnets to lay down as the foundation for my eyeshadow pans to magnetize to. But duh!!! Magnets just stick to tins! Halleleujah you don't have to do anything at all! You just put your round adhesive magnets onto your eyeshadow pans and they stick right to the tin. Such genius, much amaze, WoW. 

If you don't know how to achieve single eyeshadow pans, please refer to my depotting guide: Depotting Your Single Eyeshadows. You can take your eyeshadows out of their respective containers and thus allowing you to customize the way they are stored. I have depotted everything from MAC single eyeshadows to NYX single eyeshadows, to everything you see in my palette below and tons more. It's such an ideal way to save space... you don't realize how much space packaging takes up until you depot.

None of the shadows move at all, I actually think the magnet sticks more to the tin than it ever did to my Z palettes seeing as things are always floating around in my Z palette. This palette is so useful for travel since it closes securely and I have managed to put a good variety of shades in there for dozens of different eyeshadow looks.

The contents of my Mini Eyeshadow Palette:
Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips - Fashionista (pink and purple tones with pop of neon green)
Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips - Eye Candy, Enhance Blue Eyes (blue tones with pop of red)

Nars Eyeshadow Duo - Sugarland (sparkly apricot and pink)
Urban Decay Stardust Eyeshadow - Retrograde (deep purple w/ glitter)
ELF Eyeshadow Single - Saddle
4 small Estee Lauder travel singles (names/set unknown - depotted these forever ago)
Wet N Wild Single Eyeshadow - Brulee
Wet N Wild Single Eyeshadow - Nutty
NP set - Dublin (moss, emerald green, forest green eyeshadows)
Elizabeth Mott - Pop Goes the Shadow (champagne)

Review & Swatches: Wet n Wild Halloween 2014 Collection Eyeshadows - Limited Edition

I was so excited to find the display housing the new Halloween 2014 Wet N Wild collection, I could barely contain myself from purchasing the entire line! I did settle on these two palettes, "A Karat in the World" and "Daring Downtown" as being the most unique to my collection and ones that I would likely reach for.

Here's a closer look:

"A Karat in the World" features a gold theme, varying in tone from bright yellow to bronze and medium brown shades. "Daring Downtown" is a gem-toned palette, which appears not to be a stand-alone since Wet n Wild didn't stamp their typical usage instruction monikers. "Daring Downtown" is probably best served with a variety of light and mid-toned shades from your collection.

Both sets of swatches turned out pretty true to color. I'm happy to report once again, such as with the Wet n Wild Fall 2014 collection, these shadows are the old, buttery Coloricon formulation! Let's all hold hands and say thank-you to Wet n Wild for listening to our pleas to return to their tried, tested, and true eyeshadows. The fact that they listened to consumers is going to make me 300% more likely to purchase more items from Wet n Wild collections.

All of the shadows are smooth, buttery and glide on like a dream. They pick up onto your brush without creating powdery fall-out, and you will be pleased with the way they transfer onto your skin. I know that these palettes may be a little hard to come by, since they may sell out quickly, but I highly recommend them.

I wanted to take a photo with flash for you to see how much sparkle is packed into these shades and how it can reflect the light. As I was taking this photo, I had an incredible revelation that the "Daring Downtown" palette is a dupe for.... Urban Decay's "The Black Palette" (LE)!!

Wet N Wild "Daring Downtown" and Urban Decay "The Black Palette"

I have them side-by-side for your viewing pleasure. You can tell that there is no dupe in the Wet n Wild palette for Barracuda (slate gray with silver sparkle) or Cobra (bold golden yellow with gold sparkle). However, you are getting a unique red shade in the Wet n Wild palette which is not featured in the Urban Decay palette.

Since "The Black Palette" retailed for $36 for 6 eyeshadows, and Wet n Wild's "Daring Downtown" retails for $3.99-4.99, you can expect that the Urban Decay shadows are more pigmented and easier to blend out. However, I do think that the "Daring Downtown" palette is a good performer, you may just need to layer the shadows on more than once to achieve the desired intensity.

"Daring Downtown" dupes for "The Black Palette":
Purple => Jet (WnW's is more black, UD's has more sparkle and is amethyst-toned)
Red is not a dupe
Black => Black Dog (WnW's has more sparkle, UD's truer black)
Blue => Sabbath (WnW's is darker, less blue, strong sapphire color in Sabbath)
Green => Libertine (UD's was darker, more black than green, highly pigmented)

Did you pick up any of the Wet n Wild Halloween palettes? Are you happy with the shadow formulation?

Wet 'n Wild Fall 2014 ColorIcon Eyeshadow Palette Collection

The new Wet 'n Wild Coloricon eyeshadow palettes have arrived for the Fall 2014 collection, I was able to find these at Walgreens in the LA area this week. I picked up 3 of the 4 palettes released (Melrose at Night, Smoke and Melrose, Angels in Aubergine), I was not drawn to High Waisted Jeans because I'm not a big fan of blue eyeshadow, I don't find that it's the most flattering on my amber/brown eyes and fair skin tone.

Originally, I was skeptical about the performance of these quints because I have heard rather poor reviews of the permanent collection of quint eyeshadow palettes from Wet 'n Wild's new formulation, but I am so happy to announce that these shadows seem to be the old formulation!!! I hope you get a chance to pick these up if you're a fan of the old, phased-out, color icon shadow palettes. All of the shades are buttery smooth, ultra-pigmented, and have little fall-out.

These quints also feature a variety of glitter, metallic, mostly matte and satin eyeshadows, with Melrose at Night and Smoke and Melrose featuring many dupes of the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette.

Melrose at Night is a perfect daytime look palette if you're looking for a no muss, no fuss, palette. It's great for work or night time, you can always add more of the definer shade in the outer-V of your eye for increased dramatic effect. The Crease shade is my least favorite because it was probably the least pigmented shade out of all of the palettes, but still a better-than-average shadow.

The Smoke and Melrose palette is my absolute favorite, the Browbone shade is as perfect crease transition shade for me and I absolutely adore it (it is a dupe for Nooner from the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette). Smoke and Melrose is a darker, more warm-leaning palette than Melrose at Night, with the crease shade being much more metallic than the rest.

Angels in Aubergine features a wonderfully pigmented Base color, a nice pop of color in the browbone shade and a great way to create a few variations of the smokey eye palette with aubergine (maroon-purple) undertones. This was my least favorite of the palettes, only because I am less of a fan of smokey eye looks than other variations - that isn't to say you couldn't create a rather usual look with just the Browbone, Base and Definer shades. The crease color seems to have the most chunky glitter of all the shades in this range.