Does pink make you puke? (Urban Decay in general)

Member Name: LittleEwok

Product:	Urban Decay in general
Date:	11/03/05 (404 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The colours, The staying power, the packaging

Disadvantages: The price!

Launched in January 1996 with the above tagline in magazines, Urban Decay is for people who like their makeup loud, proud and beautiful. With its “finger on the pulse of alternative culture”, and colours like “Smog”, “Acid Rain”, and “Oil Slick”, Urban Decay is truly a brand for the modern city girl…or boy if you want to be that progressive.

Definitely a trend-setter, Urban Decay is often imitated but never equalled. My second favourite make-up range (the first being the one from the Lush people…B never too busy to be beautiful), I am truly addicted to it. With innovative products like honey flavoured body dusting powder , Lip Gunk and “Good Karma” cruelty-free makeup brushes, you just cant beat it for inner city cool.

Urban Decay don’t test on animals and in fact have strict policies against it. Second most importantly, they realise that not all women want their lipstick to be bubblegum pink and baby blue with names like “Summer sky”, “Hunny Bunny” and “Sugar kiss”. Thank the Goddess, some of us prefer the deranged harlot look.


Some of the products

Cream eyeshadow

One of my personal favourites, its smooth and glimmery and totally sexy. It lasts surprisingly well for cream shadow, a little touch-up during a night out will have you partying til’ dawn, and my eyes have the odd habit of making most eye makeup run. They also stay fresh and never get that nasty “crusty” feel cheap makeup might after a few nights on the town. Its also a lot quicker and easier to apply than powder shadow, although you are supposed to use a brush, not your finger…but most of us don’t if we admit it! The colours are a little paler, girlier and fresher than most of the Urban Decay range, which suggests this stuff is more for subtle day-time makeup than “come hither” night out makeup. Some of my favourite shades are…

Foxy- A beautiful, warm, peachy glimmer.
Go Army- a bright army green with sparkles.
Moonshine- A gorgeous silvery pearly colour with sparkles.
Shag- A dusty, pink rose colour.


Powder shadow

Urban Decay’s huge range of powder shadow tends to be on the loud and proud side. They are easy to blend and can be used wet or dry, and like the cream shadow, they last very well. They are simple to layer and have a lovely silky feel, the kind that only ridiculously expensive makeup has. Some of my fave shades-

Acid Rain- a glorious, shimmering toxic yellow-green colour. Nicer than it looks, honest!
Fluorescent- an icy pink-white colour, can be subtle or dramatic.
Goddess- Not for the faint hearted, Goddess is midnight blue with shimmer.
Vapor- a lovely, pale silver colour.

And the damage- around £10 each for 1.5g (from the Boots website)


Liquid eyeliner

I’m not the greatest fan of eyeliner myself, most cos I can't apply it, so I use these as sort of a liquid eyeshadow, for which they give heavy and intense colour, they are great for bold Sophie Ellis Bextor style makeup. Or insane goth makeup whichever you prefer. The great thing about the eyeliner is it comes with a very fine brush, so if you do use it for eyeliner its much easier to apply a nice neat line than most, which is just as well given the bold colours it comes in. The stuff lasts very, very well, especially as eyeshadow, I’ve found, yet comes off nicely with makeup remover. Some of my fave shades are…

Spare change- A brilliant heavy silver colour, great for liberal use as an eyeshadow.
Crash- a bright violet colour with glitter.

And the damage- around £11 for 6ml (from the Boots website)


Lip Gunk

Hands down my favourite Urban Decay product, they come in cute little tubes and taste like candy…its pretty damn hard to stop yourself licking them off cos they taste so damn nice (hence they are good for pulling!), they also have a lovely, fruity, sweet scent, although some might find them a bit sickly. They’re somewhere between gloss and lipstick, they’re heavier than gloss and thus last longer, but not quite so heavy as lippy, but yet last about as long. Application is quite difficult as it’s a lot thicker and gooier than most lip gloss, but once on it stays put pretty damn well. My favourite shades are…

AC/DC- now sadly discontinued, this was a sheer, deep plum colour that I could rarely pull off due to my pale colouring, but I loved it anyway!
Asphyxia- A brilliant mid-purple colour
Paranoid- a warm, creamy browny beige colour, nice and neutral.

And the damage- £8.50 for 10ml (from the Boots website)


Urban Decay also do a range of “Face Cases”, powder, nail polish and lots of other goodies, but sadly as a skint student who bites her nails and cant be bothered with powder, I haven’t tried the whole range, besides it would take me pages and pages to review it all, so I stuck to a few choice products.


Why I love Urban Decay

Just because I’m not a girly girl doesn’t mean I don’t like to wear makeup. Ok, so I’m not one for painting my face every day before work, but when I go out I like makeup and I like it bold. Between Urban Decay and B I’m covered for solid, heavy shades of makeup- I’m no Goth but I like making a statement with makeup instead of just using it to make myself are pretty and girly.

Urban Decays colours are often imitated these days, whereas when they started up they were pretty much pioneers…you would find many other makeup companies producing the colours and the products they do, and I guess I still think the original is the best. Yes you can get the same colours for a lot less cash, but frankly I prefer spending more on makeup knowing its going to have better ingredients and generally stay on better.

Urban Decay have a pretty strict policy on animal testing, and also the makeup brushes they produce are from a cruelty free source, which is pretty important me.

The staying power of their makeup is also pretty impressive. The Lip Gunk is probably worst for staying power, but even it lasts longer than you might expect a gloss to last. As for the eye colour, especially the eyeliners, they will stay on even if you’re partying til dawn, which is always good because we all know how much it sucks reapplying makeup in a darkened club somewhere after one too many pints (or Bacardi Breezers, whichever you prefer).

The packaging is also fantastic. The eyeshadow comes in funky little metallic tins, and the lip gunk and eyeliners have cool silver flame designs on them. The “Face Cases” also have a funky metallic style, and the XXX Slick Pot Gloss is the best of all, coming in adorable little spherical tubs with tassles that somehow remind me of old fashioned perfume bottles.

Lastly, if you fancy a shade that UD don’t produce, the makeup is easy to blend and create your own colours, great for the artist inside!


The bad bits

They are pretty pricey, I’ll be the first to admit. Although you’re usually paying for quality stuff, they do usually release things that make you wonder where your money is going (the Pleather Pencils come to mind). I have a bit of a fetish (or possibly addiction) for this stuff, but I don’t really have the income to suit the addiction! However, if you scout around the internet, there are plenty places to buy Urban Decay makeup on the cheap. Of course, its usually the discontinued lines, but there are only so many shades of bright purple and burgundy red one company can produce anyway.

Although they are pretty spot-on for crazy colours, occasionally even they come up with colours you’d have to be mental to wear. I did have a friend who invested in an ice-blue lipstick of theirs, but basically its only use would be when filming movies like Titanic where you need lots of dead-looking, blue-lipped people. Still, we all make mistakes!

Another colour-related issue is that sadly its dark-haired girls who pull off Urban Decay stuff better. Although I can pull off pretty much any eye colour, what I really want is to be able to pull off plum lippie or crimson high-shine gloss, but sadly with my pale complexion it just screams Goth. I think Urban Decay should work on developing crazy colours for us more melanin-deprived lasses.

Naturally, if you’re after the girly-girl look, then this certainly isn’t the brand for you!


Its overpriced and I know I’m being a bit of a consumer whore for paying for the brand name, but I’m truly addicted to Urban Decay’s makeup range. Its young, its fresh and above all its fun. Who said makeup has to be about impressing guys? I find it more fun to terrify them! If your going to spend about the equivalent of a year of your life painting your face, you might as well have fun while you do it, and “Fun” is Urban Decay’s middle name!

Summary: