I think they’ve improved their packaging over the years–though they could go slimmer sometimes still!–and I feel like I’ve seen more color, too, but I’d love to see less mega-palettes during the holidays and more, well-curated sets and six to nine-pan palettes instead.
— Christine
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i love there eye shadow primers and always use them what i dont like about urban decay is the sales staff in their concept stores are too standoffish sometimes
Love:
– Eyeshadows — a lot of my favorites are UD singles, and they’re easy to travel with. I have several favorites among the Vice lipstick line. Speaking generally, in both categories the products are reliably good enough that I can chance buying something without having tried it in-store.
– I think they’ve tapped onto something with the Beached palette — smaller, focused, decent quality, a color story and range that makes sense. Hope they keep this up.
– I appreciate that most of what they offer is out in stores; none of this ‘online only’ stuff.
Loving less:
– Not a fan of the super mega palettes, as quality doesn’t seem to be consistent (Naked Heat is pretty good though) and they’re unwieldy.
– Blushes range seems limited.
– The pattern of placing certain LE releases only in certain stores is annoying. Beached — only Ulta; some Vice lipsticks — only Sephora; they had some eyeshadow palette that was only Macy’s.
– Turnaround time on some LEs is crazy short.
I agree with everything you said! I just started getting into UD, because of Christine’s amazing reviews & swatches. I bought the Beach palette & love it. Also, some of their vice lipsticks, which I love as well.
The fact that certain product are in certain stores annoys me.
Love: Quite a few UD products are top favorites in my stash! For instance; Afterglow blush and several other cheek products (UD, if you’re reading our comments, PLEASE make Jawbone from the Basquiat collection a permanent cheek product???). 95% of the lipsticks and glosses I’ve bought of theirs are favorites of mine for good reason, they feel lux, are very pigmented and last on my lips a good amount of time. Also, when they get an eyeshadow palette right, it becomes a well-loved favorite of mine!
Hate: Sporadic eyeshadow palette quality along with bulky, space wasting packaging is a giant turn-off. Thankfully, those are almost always LE, but still.
So are the rapid fire reformulation of winning products. As in, why the redux of the Revolution Lip Glosses instead of simply adding new shades? Plus, adding Sodium Saccharin to the formula when so many people have sulfa allergies? Having bought one unwittingly and only being able to use it maybe once a month, at most, I’m highly disappointed with UD for this irresponsible decision.
I loved the 15th anniversary palette, but I feel like the naked palette formulas are so dry! UD used to be my go to, but now I reach for colour pop more!
That 15th Anniversary Palette is such a treasure. I used it the other week for the first time in quite a while (blame it on the packaging! I tend to tuck it away where it’s not right at hand) and was reminded yet again at how wonderful shades like Chase, MIA and Deeper are (to say nothing of the purples and teals).
Rave: On the whole, UD have delivered some amazing eyeshadow palettes in their time: the Naked range, 15th Anniversary, the Vices and Spectrum, plus many other colourful smaller creations (Ammo, Mariposa, Feminine and Beached). Their lipsticks are lovely too.
Certainly the above palettes are superior to anything we have seen before in Australia.
Rants: It took a very, very long time for their palettes and products to be sold here and it was about buying sight unseen, which is very tricky. Only certain palettes reach our shores – I haven’t seen Beached yet.
It’s good that they have moved away from fussy packaging (the Shadows) and have become more practical.
Every now and again they do put out a dud, like every brand.
Genevieve I too am in Australia, but the only site I seem to find Urban Decay is on ebay. Have you found another site to supply us?
Overall, I like and use most of the eyeshadows, eye primers, and 24/7 eyeliners. I like the non matte lipsticks and the setting sprays. I use other makeup products from other manufacturers doo have no opinion on those.
Maybe it’s just me, but as a lifelong (it feels) UD Addict, I’ve definitely seen a decline in quality and performance of the 24/7 eye liners. They used to be impossible to remove, which was a very good thing. Now, they run, creep and just don’t work as well as I remember. They were my ride or die, and I have almost every color but new ones (looking at you, Perversion) disappoint and lead to cheating…
Love, love, love lipppies. Glad they turn over so quickly, it means I can own them all for cheap, LOL! All it takes is patience.
I still love the 24/7 eye liner pencils and the Naked Heat palette is a favorite for me, but the last few palettes have been kind of underwhelming. I think the blushes could use an update too.
I wish they could reformulate some of their more problematic glitter-bomb shadows so they’d be more wearable. I know they redid Maui Wowie a few years back and I love that shade so much but found it so unwearable so I actually purchased the “reformulated” version and it was barely any better. MCRA is such a beautiful colour but totally unwearable for me because the glitter falls out all day long. I wish they could make it into something where there wasn’t this day-long shower of unexpected sparkle. I also wish they’d make their single shadows available in “pro pans” for a slightly smaller price. Oh, and the druggie and sexually suggestive names – isn’t absolutely EVERYONE else over that, except for the people working at Urban Decay?
I love a lot of their products but will be forever grateful for UDPP especially – it was my first e/s primer and probably the grand-daddy of them all and it changed my ability to wear eyeshadows.
totally over ALL there pallets, naked 1 and 2 hold no appeal 3 spoke toand i bought it as 1 of my 1st mid end makeup spluges and was disapointed every other eyeshadow pallet that suckers me in from them disappoints me too.
thats being sad the current vice lipsticks are a big favorite and i own a lot.
the people who designed the lipstick need to go address the pallet issue
Rave: I love a lot of the products that I have purchased from UD. I have quite a number of eye shadows that are my favorites. They wear well, are not too powdery and blend nicely. I love the 24/7 Glide on Pencils and the vice lipstick formula. I have several palettes and really love them although some that were released last year had really dud packaging. I use to use only UD eye shadow primers and the All Nighter spray was a favorite. Seems like I don’t find as much to rave about anymore.
Rant: I don’t love the druggie/sexual names of products. I think they need to stop reformulating products that don’t need fixed and focus on just making great products. I wish that their single eye shadows would come in a pan that I could put into a regular magnetized palette. They don’t de-pot easily. I think they have some quality control issues as some shades in palettes feel completely different from other shades that are in the same finish. I would like them to streamline their packaging. I purchased the Born To Run Palette while in Seattle over the weekend and while the palette feels well made, it is really heavy and maybe too heavy to work for travelling outside of the country where weight restrictions are a problem. It is thicker than it needs to be and the mirror while nice is really large and heavy. (Personally, I don’t use the mirrors in palettes but I know some people do and that is okay but this one feels like it would be too heavy to hold up while applying makeup. They seem to have jumped on the “setting mist/priming mist” situation and have released several different iterations that are basically the same but with one ingredient added or removed. Still don’t know why companies do that except to make more money by producing a product that is basically just like the last one you delivered.
I agree with the single shadows. They are SO hard to de-pot! I did a couple when I was trying to streamline my makeup collection and it was such a pain.
Good: UD has some great matte shades for transition shades and its Laced is perfect for underneath the brow.
Bad: I wish that they still sold empty metal palettes that hold 6 single shadows; the cheap ones sold now are poor quality and don’t hold up. I also wish their single shadows were less expensive.
UD is my go to brand, so I love most everything, especially the eyeshadows and lipsticks. I’m not crazy about their mascaras or highlighters, I find the highlighters to be too chunky
ok I just realized that UD discontinued some of the Vice lipstick shades after having them on sale last year which is really disappointing as I was hoping to repurchase Lady Flower and Bang after I ran out.
I actually LOVE the big palettes. I don’t care much for the formula of the Naked palettes, and I haven’t purchased the Beached or Backtalk (I might when they get marked down), as I don’t see anything that special about those palettes. But I love Born to Run, all the Vice palettes, Electric, Troublemaker, the Kristen Leanne collab. I’m not someone who likes to collect singles in a magnetic palette. I’m okay with singles in their own packaging, but I don’t like assembling my own palette and really like a palette with a lot of choices. I also don’t travel much, and when I do, I generally just take one palette and make it work the whole time.
UD makes my favorite foundation, and has my FAVORITE packaging. I feel they were the first to really embrace color out of the Sephora-base of brands. Still remember their ’90s ads in YM and Seventeen, never could get my hands on them back then but craved their nail polish!
I’ve always felt they’ve put too much glitter in their eyeshadows…and spent too much time in Urban Dictionary coming up with edgy names like Backdoor for their dark brown (groan). I used to joke to myself they’d bring out an “Overdose” palette where with shades like Pinner, Screwball, Kick, China White and Dopesick and then sure enough they come out with shades like Blow and call their customers “Junkies” and give out a Junkie bag. (Jeffree S beat them to China White)
All in all it’s just makeup and UD’s still one of my faves, none of my complaints stop me from buying them.
Don’t forget about their white Yeyo eyeliner!!!
I too remember their YM/Seventeen ads and wanted buckets of their nail polish. Such a badass aesthetic and like nothing I had seen before!
Idk I am the most indecisive person. It takes me hours of scrolling to place an online order at Sephora and I don’t go instore to shop unless i have hours to kill. Urban Decay was my first favorite eyemakeup. Their palettes is one of the main reasons. They do a great job of putting together a whole palette with a variety of shades that I love and can wear. I love big palettes and own so many that I don’t have a need for singles or smaller sets. Plus I don’t see the point when I can get the larger one, love it and not have to try to decide on which new single shadow i want. That always ends up with me buying too many and having to sell my soul to pay for them all lol. You are right about bulky packaging and I do hate the click close naked packaging because out of 1,2,3 and smokey only 2 of my 4 stay snapped closed. Otherwise I love urban decay and have been using their products since the days of their first nail polish. Yes that’s how old i am