Urban Decay 15th Anniversary Eyeshadow Palette Swatches, Photos, Review (Part 1)

Christine — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 05:14:26 +0000

Urban Decay 15th Anniversary Eyeshadow Palette

Urban Decay 15th Anniversary Eyeshadow Palette Review, Photos, Swatches (Part 1)

This post is going to look at six of the fifteen eyeshadows (and the second post will look at the other nine). With the server issues we have had today, it’s even more essential than normal that I split the photos (50!) over two posts to make things more manageable. The review (and rating), however, encompasses the entire palette.

Urban Decay 15th Anniversary Eyeshadow Palette ($55.00 for 15 x 0.05 oz.) includes fifteen brand new, never-before-seen shades in a limited edition palette. These shades are: Midnight Rodeo (brown pearl with silver), Tainted (pale matte purple with golden shimmer), Deeper (deep shimmery golden brown), Midnight 15 (oyster pearl with silver glitter), Junkshow (metallic bright pink with slight blue shift), MIA (dark velvet brown), Vanilla (creamy white gold), Omen (metallic bright purple with blue shift), Ace (dark gunmetal), Flow (soft peach shimmer), Evidence (deep metallic blue), Blackout (darkest, must saturated black), Chase (bright bronze), Deep End (bright teal), and Half Truth (deep greyish purple). It will be available on urbandecay.com beginning July 12th, and it will make its way to other retailers like beauty.com, Macy’s, Sephora, and Ulta in July/August. I do not have any specific dates for other retailers at this time.

Midnight Rodeo is a sparkly taupe brown. It does have glitter, but it’s subtle and doesn’t seem as large as Urban Decay’s other glitter-finished eyeshadows. I thought Toasted might be similar, but it’s not–much browner, less of a taupe. theBalm Insane Jane is grayer (more cool-toned), while Inglot #402 is nearly indistinguishable from Midnight Rodeo.
Tainted is a pinked lavender with a subtle golden sheen. I found this one a little powdery–almost too blendable (where it sheers out when you make any move to blend it)–and the sheen and lavender color don’t bind together entirely. It’s ridiculously more pigmented and leans more on the purple side compared to MAC Boy Crazy. Lancome Amethyst Glam palette has a shade that’s similar but purpler. MAC Lotusland is similar but seems a bit lighter.
Deeper is a chocolate bronze with a subtle golden sheen. It is a warmer, lighter version of Urban Decay Darkhorse, darker and less warm Urban Decay Smog–almost like the two had a baby.
Midnight 15 is a soft champagne with a hint of gray and frosted finish. There is a subtle amount of glitter which has a touch of fall out. Initially, I thought it might be similar to Urban Decay Virgin, but it’s grayer–looks taupe in comparison. It’s a little darker compared to the beige in Chanel Prelude and less yellow compared to Urban Decay Ruthless (this is the closest).
Junkshow is a brightened fuchsia-purple with a fuchsia sheen. It’s similar (but brighter) than MAC Double Feature 7, while Urban Decay Woodstock is pinker, less blue-based, and has no purple. It has a more vibrant and obvious pink base compared to Urban Decay Fishnet, however the iridescent sheen is less apparent in Junkshow.
MIA is a dark brown with a soft copper base and light sheen. It is lighter and doesn’t have the gold shimmer of Urban Decay Darkhorse.

Of the fifteen shades in the palette, Tainted and Midnight Rodeo were the ones I wasn’t sold on. Midnight Rodeo has subtle glitter, so there was just the tiniest amount of fall out (I tested all shades I thought might be problematic as soon as I finished swatching the palette!)–like two or three specks of sparkle, so nothing like the fall out from other glitter eyeshadows from Urban Decay. Tainted is easily sheered out; the matte lavender base doesn’t seem to bind with the golden sheen, and the result is that neither comes together to stand out. It is a shade that works better packed on and lightly blended around the edges. We are not talking about a terrible eyeshadow in either instance–those are just the two that I was like, “Hm, there’s room for improvement.”

The color payoff for nearly all of the shades was nice. Tainted sheers out easily but applies well initially, and Evidence (surprisingly!) felt a little stiff–it didn’t have the same buttery, dense texture that most Urban Decay eyeshadows have. Evidence works much better applied, and it still has decent color payoff when swatched, but the stiffer texture stood out immediately to me. The other thirteen shades were nicely pigmented and applied smoothly.

It’s possible to have too many similar shades to make the palette worth picking up, but overall, I think it’s an excellent palette that offers so much value. There are fifteen full-sized eyeshadows here, and Urban Decay’s full-sized eyeshadows retail for $17 each–that’s $255 worth of eyeshadow for $55. This is what I want to see when a brand puts out a value palette, set, kit, or what-have-you. It doesn’t feel like Urban Decay skimped on the quality, either, as some brands do when they put together a value palette. These eyeshadows feel just like singles and past palettes Urban Decay has put out.

The packaging is true-to-form for Urban Decay with the filigree edging and metallic finishes. Inside the cover of the palette is a full-sized mirror (spans the entire area of the lid), and the portion that holds the eyeshadows actually pops out to reveal a compartment below. You won’t be able to put much (maybe a few photos or something!) underneath, because it’s a rather narrow space with the insert on top. Urban Decay described it more as a way to make the entire box useful after you have used up all your eyeshadows, and once you recycle the eyeshadow insert portion, you’ll definitely have more room. It does hold fingerprints like crime scene, though!

Remember, you can compare all of these eyeshadows side-by-side in the Swatch Gallery!