Distortion

Urban Decay Distortion Eyeshadow Palette ($48.00 for 0.90 oz.) contains five "duotone shadows" designed to "transform" the remaining 10 (regular) eyeshadows housed in a large, plastic palette with a more chromatic exterior. Each eyeshadow was 0.06 oz., so the palette definitely has plenty of product for the money. I had higher expectations--both based on the concept but also based on the brand's Heavy Metals palette, which was fabulous--but this just didn't meet them. It left me a little confused and wanting more.

The five transformative shades had a more powdery, slippery texture; they felt powdery, but the powder clumped up, so there wasn't a lot of dustiness in the pan, just clumpy, uneven application where product dropped in chunks rather than in a dusting of powder. I think if they had more of the shifting shimmer or were more loosely pressed, they would have worked better and gone further in transforming the other eyeshadows in the palette. In general, I do find that loose or cream-based duochrome products tend to work best for layering, though.

To make matters worse, the regular eyeshadows were under-pigmented, harder to apply and blend out, and were underwhelming. The best shades were First Offense and Territorial, but shades like 5.0 (which Urban Decay has done a few times by other names) and Old Smoke were surprisingly sheer. I also noticed that I really had to pack on the transformative shades to get a noticeable shift, and I have large dips in all five shades already.