Stand out from the crowd! (Urban Decay Eyeshadow)

Member Name: Dooyaa

Product:	Urban Decay Eyeshadow
Date:	19/08/09 (49 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great colours, long lasting

Disadvantages: Expensive

URBAN DECAY EYESHADOW PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

This review will be on the Urban Decay powder eyeshadow 1.5g individual compacts. These best selling Urban Decay products come in a range of over 50 shades of everything from wacky brights to more subtle neutrals, but all with a hint of shimmer or a pop of colour to make them that little bit unusual!

Urban Decay made their name as an edgy, fearless brand. Even the name, the proces by which a city falls into dicrepitude (as stated by Wikipedia) is hardly the first thing you would think of when naming a new makeup brand. It hardly summons up images of beauty does it? But it goes perfectly with the image of the brand. They are all about hard edges, dramatic, unusual colours, metallics, rock chick products and a bad girl image. Think a dishevelled Kate Moss or Angelina Jolie back when she was a little bit crazy and wore blood vials (and she is indeed a fan of this range) you may hate them, you may not get them, you may wish they'd brush their hair (Kate Moss) but you can't deny their edge and sex appeal. Same for Urban Decay. They aren't selling glossy perfection, they are selling a party lifestyle and the look to match. And yet somehow, urban Decay have also managed to make a name for themselves as a makeup brand loved by makeup artists and not just party girls. The packaging and ethos are purely superficial - at the core of this brand are well made makeup products that do the business.

The Range

As I said, this comes in a range of over 50 colours, all of which can be found on the Urban Decay website and a selection of which are stocked in larger Boots stores. They come in a range of finishes, such as shimmer, satin, glitter and metallic. These colours are not for the faint hearted as they definitely stand out (especially in my local Boots where they are found next to the boring Bobbi Brown neutrals!) and some of the names given are, interesting, to say the least. They include some of the following:

Acid Rain: Green with yellow gold flecks
Asphyxia: Lavender with blue
Eldorado: Bright Gold with sparkle
Flipside: Electric teal with blue sheen
Gash: Deep brick red
Gunmetal: Grey with silver glitter
Lounge: Reddish brown with green sheen

I have described here some of the more unusual and outrageous colours in the range, but if you prefer a more subtle look, then there are plenty for you too. Personally, I like to own a range of neutrals along with darker more vibrant colours that, used sparingly, give a hint of colour and depth. And I LOVE shimmery shadows so this range s perfect due to its extensive use of shimmer and glitter. Some more, shall we say, restrained shades are as follows:

Midnight cowboy: The best seller, pink champagne with silver glitter
Baked: rich bronze
Hotpants: medium pink
Roach: Deep brown with reddish sheen
Sellout: my personal favourite, this is Midnight Cowboy but without the silver glitter!
Toasted: Rich copper
X: Gold with peach tint

I have described here just some of the colours available. The sheer range on sale is one of the strengths of this product. Here you will find colours that are completely original and unlike anything else you can find. They aren't afraid to push some boundaries but still the end results are nearly always completely wearable even for colour phobes, even the more crazy colours can be made subtle or dramatic based on your mood. I love that the range crosses all colours from pinks and browns to greens and blues, and the way they mix colours together to creat multi-dimensional tones, for example reddish brown with green hints. These particular colours are great due to their ability to look different depending on lighting and even what colour hair or clothes you may have, and can have really subtle effects, such as the hint of barely noticeable green can really make green eyes stand out and 'POP!' from your face.

Personally, I own only a few of these colours, due to their price (which I will come onto later) being slightly too high out of my budget range. Therefore, I tend to stick with the safer side of this range rather than risk splashing out on a more outrageous colour only to find I hate it, which would be a real waste of money with this brand. I would say to anyone that is new to the brand, definitely start with a colour that you are pretty sure suits you and you will like, just so that you can get the feel for these before you experiment. So for the basis of this review, I personally own:

Sellout
Roach
Twice Baked - brownie brown with gold glitter
YDK - bronzed mocha with golden microglitter
Chopper - golden fawn with silver microglitter

But it took hours and hours to pick every single one of these colours as I spent forever swatching colours onto my hands, blending them together to test them with each other, trying to convince myself that yes, I do need a bright iridescent purple or midnight blue shadow with electric blue glitter, before sighing and purchasing myself a much safer, much simpler neutral with a twist that I know I will get far more use out of. Because unfortunately, with a range like this, that does have to be taken into account. And that is because of...

The Price

Yes, the price. 'Spensive!! Be prepared to pay around £9 in the shops for one of these, although there are many good deals to be found on Ebay if you look hard enough, not all of the full range of shades are always available but you should be able to pick something up for maybe around £4.50, which is what I paid for my very first, Sellout. Now, if you were to ask if I think they are worth buying at this price I would say no, but that is purely because they can be found cheaper if you do a little research and so, why pay more for the same thing? However, do I think that they are truly WORTH this price? Yes. They are very high quality shadows (more details to follow) and I feel the price tag is slightly justified. Yes it is a very high price to pay but these shadows really have no real cheap alternative, as drugstore brands offer nowhere near the range of colours, the originality or the sheer quality that these can.

It does however, mean being restrained, something I find very difficult! Like I said before, I am reluctant to splash out on one of these in a colour that I'm not already pretty convinced I will like. The price makes me less keen to experiment which, at the end of the day, is what this range should be about, discovering new and exciting looks, and so I think this is a shame. But when it comes to bright purples and and zingy greens I am far more comfortable paying £2 for a cheapie that I know I can throw in the bin should it make me look like Boy George.

It does, on the plus side, make these a great luxury item that it feels amazing to buy as a treat for yourself or as a present for a friend. If you know anyone who is into makeup then they will definitely appreciate these, everyone loves a bit of Urban Decay and these are just a little bit special, a great gift.


The packaging

One of the things I love most about these is the cute little pot they come in!! Shallow I know! Basically you get a plastic cube casing and inside is a silver compact, described by their website as a subway token. Well, I don't really know what that is so I'm going to stop writing for a second and google it...

Ok I'm back, and I found out what subway tokens are. Kind of obviously, they were coin type things used to pay the fare on the NYC subway. So that's what the compact looks like. It all fits in again with the edgy, city feel of Urban Decay (i'm starting to think I should sell this brand for a living...) and these are an attractive addition to my makeup collection. Open them up, and inside is a pan containing your shadow!! It does not come with an applicator, but I tend to find that applicators that come with shadows are useless anyways. If you're going to be using a good quality product its only right that you get some good quality brushes to go with it, trust me, they make all the difference.


The shadow

The shadows themselves are pressed, highly pigmented shadows which apparently contains very few binders that hold them together, which is supposed to make them easier to apply and blend to get that perfect look. Often bright eyeshadows are a letdown upon application as you find that they are nowhere near as pigmented as they appear to be in the packaging and you have to pile on tons of powdery mess in order to get anywhere near the colour you wanted. That is not the case with these. While it is true that a light application can give a subtle result, it takes very little buildup of product in order to achieve exactly the colour it appears in the tin.
There is very little wastage from the tin, often when you swoosh brushes around in eyeshadow you find that tons of loose powder comes away which only leads to wastage, but that is not the case with these and therefore this prolongs the longevity of the product.

Application is simple too. These are so soft, they glide on so smoothly without any fallout onto my freshly applied foundation (something I find incredibly annoying) and no tugging at the eyelid to get the colour to go on. Just a gentle brushing on and you get a beautiful colour. They are very soft and blendable meaning no harsh edges of colour, and If using more than one to create, say, a smoky effect, then they blend together seamlessly to creat a graduating effect, for example light to dark. Basically this eyeshadow will go on wherever you want it to go.

And the result? Is beautiful. Pigmented colours, a strong look, and a unique edge. I do love shimmery and glittery eyeshadows but I am aware that there are many others who do not. Never fear, firstly their satin finishes have little to no shimmer or glitter and are basically matte, soft shadows, and secondly, the shimmer or glitter is not too strong. They use microglitter in most of the shadows meaning you can barely feel it in the shadow, but it still gives that sparkly, twinkly effect. Often glitter can feel gritty but not in these.

The finer details - longevity and removal

Of course it is no good if your eyeshadows looks amazing at 9am to find it has creased or just worn off by 11. Likewise, I often wear these for a night out (definitely more suitable for the stronger colours which might be a bit scary for the office!!) and I don't want my sparkly showstopping eyes to have slipped off after my first dance. But this is not the case. When I apply this, I can go to work for 8 hours and this has not budged, in fact it doesn't look any different. And this is through rubbing my eyes, rushing around, everything, it survives and still looks perfect even when the rest of my makeup has come off!

However it is very easy to remove. They are not waterproof and will come off in water, although not instantly, ususally it takes a quick wipe over with a cloth or something to get it all off, and unless you use a cleanser you may still notice a hint of glitter or shimmer. But if you were to go swimming, you would notice that, especially with the darker colours, once they get wet they start to get chalkier and cake a bit, and then crumble off. The Urban Decay website states that all of these eyshadows can be used wet or dry, but in my experience this is not true. They do not last half as long if applied wet, and if you get a single drop of water into the shadow it solidifies and then that part of the pan is useless, product will no longer come off it.


THE VERDICT

So have you guessed what I'm going to say? I feel like I've been rambling on forever about these but that is how strongly I feel about their quality. They have really impressed me and I will definitely be looking into getting some more from this range. The price puts me off slightly but I will continue to hunt them out for a bargain price. All in all these are just amazing shadows for creating stunning looks and I would definitely recommend them!

THE END AT LAST.

Summary: Amazing eyeshadows that I will continue to buy!