Archived Post

Urban Decay 24/7 Shadow Pencils Review, Photos, Swatches (Part 1)


24/7 Shadow Pencils: Sin, Lit, Midnight Cowboy, Rehab, Wasteland, Mercury

Urban Decay 24/7 Shadow Pencils: Part 1

For spring, Urban Decay’s launching a brand new product: 24/7 Glide-On Shadow Pencils ($20.00 for 0.10 oz.), which come in twelve different shades. There are six included in this post: Sin (champagne shimmer), Lit (sunny bronze shimmer), Midnight Cowboy (beige with fine gold sparkle), Rehab (taupey brown sheen), Wasteland (dark brown sheen), and Mercury (gunmetal grey sheen).

  • Sin is a light-medium pink-beige champagne with a frosted sheen. It swatched very comparably to Sin Primer Potion–it seemed less frosty.
  • Lit is a softened orange-gold with a frosted sheen. It’s actually similar to Guerlain’s Gold Eyeliner, but it has no similarity to either Eldorado (which is a yellow gold) or Baked (much darker, bronzy).
  • Midnight Cowboy is a medium beige with flecks of gold glitter. The glitter seems finer than what is in the eyeshadow. I was crossing my fingers that this would resemble Midnight Cowboy 24/7 Liner (which is exclusive to the 24/7 Liner Anniversary Set), but it’s not. The liner is definitely lighter, a little warmer.
  • Rehab is a dark red-toned chocolate brown with a smidgen of taupe. It is similar to Underground 24/7 Liner–a hair darker, cooler, perhaps, but it could be a potential skip in lieu of other shades that are less similar.
  • Wasteland is a cool-toned olive brown with fine gold shimmer. It didn’t match up with any of the 24/7 Liners. It’s more like a mix of Stash and Bourbon but compares to neither alone.
  • Mercury is a silvered gray with frosted sheen. It seemed warmer when swatched next to Gunmetal 24/7 Liner, which also looks bluer.

These really do feel like jumbo-sized 24/7 Liners–they are smooth, creamy, and glide across the lid with ease. I will say that these seem more pigmented than the 24/7 Liners. You really get true color with one stroke, and even lighter shades go on opaque. I wore Clinic (to-be-reviewed) on one eye and Midnight Cowboy on the other eye for twelve hours yesterday, and I didn’t experience any creasing. I wore them both all over the lid and above the crease, applied with the pencil itself, and straight on the lid (no primer).

I later wore just Rehab all over the lid and above the crease, blended out with fingertips, with Rehab over Urban Decay’s Primer Potion on one lid and by itself on the other. This test was more about blendability and how it would work over a base. It dries down quickly; it’s smudgeable and blendable for 15-20 seconds, but you’ll want to work pretty fast if you’re blending two or more of the Shadow Pencils together. Lighter shades like Sin, Lit, and Midnight Cowboy are beautiful all-over lid shades–for those mornings where all you have are two minutes to spare.

I thought it was interesting that there was very little overlap in the names. It seems like Urban Decay often uses the same names (and the corresponding shade) across product types (e.g. Ransom 24/7 Liner, Ransom Eyeshadow), but most of these are new names. Meaningless in terms of the product itself, but it made me curious as to what else we might see from Urban Decay in 2011. It also made me curious given that there are some shades that are rather close to existing 24/7 Liners.

They are shorter than 24/7 Liners (just over 5.5″), but they are definitely fatter–they also contain over twice the product (.10 oz. vs. 0.04 oz.) and only cost $3 more ($20 vs. $17).  In terms of high-end products, they compare to NARS Shadow Pencils in look (doesn’t migrate), but they perform well, like MAC Shade Sticks (creamier, though). I’m pleasantly surprised at how the price/quantity worked out here. All in all, I’m liking these so far, and they make excellent colored eyeshadow bases that can also double as eyeliner. So far, I’ve found they adhere well to the lid without creasing or fading.

If you want to know more about how products are evaluated, read out Rating System FAQ! 🙂

  • Product: 29/30
  • Value: 8/10
  • Ease of Use: 4/5
  • Packaging: 5/5

RECOMMENDATION: If you like Urban Decay’s 24/7 Liners, I think you’ll like these. Whether you use these as eyeliner or as an eyeshadow, they work as well, if not better, than the 24/7 Liners–since they’re more pigmented but wear just as well.

AVAILABILITY: January 2011 @ urbandecay.com; early February 2011 @ Beauty.com, Macy’s, Sephora, & ULTA


24/7 Shadow Pencils: Sin, Lit, Midnight Cowboy, Rehab, Wasteland, Mercury


24/7 Shadow Pencils: Sin, Lit, Midnight Cowboy


24/7 Shadow Pencils: Rehab, Wasteland, Mercury


24/7 Shadow Pencils: Sin, Lit, Midnight Cowboy, Rehab, Wasteland, Mercury


24/7 Shadow Pencils: Sin, Lit, Midnight Cowboy, Rehab, Wasteland, Mercury


24/7 Shadow Pencils: Sin, Lit, Midnight Cowboy, Rehab, Wasteland, Mercury


24/7 Shadow Pencils: Sin, Lit, Midnight Cowboy, Rehab, Wasteland, Mercury


24/7 Shadow Pencils: Sin, Lit, Midnight Cowboy, Rehab, Wasteland, Mercury


24/7 Shadow Pencils: Sin, Lit, Midnight Cowboy


24/7 Shadow Pencils: Rehab, Wasteland, Mercury


Lit (24/7 Shadow), Midnight Cowboy (24/7 Liner), Midnight Cowboy (24/7 Shadow), Midnight Cowboy (24/7 Liner), Sin (24/7 Shadow), Sin (Primer Potion)


Underground (24/7 Liner), Rehab (24/7 Shadow), Bourbon (24/7 Liner), Wasteland (24/7 Shadow), Corrupt (24/7 Liner)


Mercury (24/7 Shadow), Gunmetal (24/7 Liner)

57 Comments

Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!

Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).

We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!

Comments on this post are closed.
Jezi Avatar

At first, I was super excited about these. I do love the colors and the increased wear and lack of creasing, but I won’t go nuts over these like I do NYX jumbo pencils which work fine with a base under IMO.

Nathalie Avatar

Here too. UD has quickly become my go-to makeup brand for nice shimmery colors. I use my Naked palette on a daily basis.

This collection has my name all over it. Sin, Rehab and Wasteland are gorgeous! I wonder how these would blend though? I’ve never tried blending pencils before.

Sarah Avatar

Christine, any chance that when you post the next “batch” of these you could include a picture of them next to a regular 24/7 eyeliner just for size comparison? I have an idea in my head, but I’d like to maybe compare it to something we’re more familiar with to see just how “chubby” they are, lol! Thanks for all your hard work, and great swatches, as usual!

leesie Avatar

Hmmm, I might get one of the neutrals for mornings I work at 7 and can’t be bothered to do full eyeshadow. I think the colors are just too bright to wear to work on their own, gorgeous though they are.

HautePJ Avatar

I’m also in the pinky champagne obsession club and Sin looks so pretty. That is probably one of my most used UD shadows (along with Smog). This batch of 24/7 shadow liners look like there could be somewhat close dupes from the NYX Jumbo Pencils (Sin=Yogurt, Slate=Mercury, etc.) but it’s hard to tell without seeing in person. Looks like the 24/7 shadow liners in greens/blues are harder to dupe from NYX too. Good to know that you think these work better than NYX Christine and thanks so much for the review!

Svetlana Avatar

Nice. I don’t know what’s wrong with UD though, they are only available in 4-5 countries outside the US and they don’t ship internationaly. Brands like Too Faced , Sugarpill etc are available everywhere on other hand . Not to mention MAC, they are available even in the small cities across Europe .Benefit ships to all over the world for cheap. Only UD doesn’t care about international customers. Sorry Christine I know this is off topic but I had to share my frustration with Temptalia beauties 😉

Carrie Ann Avatar

Thanks a lot for the comparisons. The Sin pencil looks just like the Primer Potion, so that saves me some money, and I like the Midnight Cowboy Eye Liner a lot more than the Shadow Liner.

Julia Avatar

I agree! The midnight cowboy 24/7 liner is a lot prettier than the shadow pencil. I want the midnight cowboy 24/7 liner so bad – I hate that UD is not releasing it by itself! When I saw the midnight cowboy shadow pencil, I thought I could get that instead of the the 15th anniversary set of the 24/7 eyeliners, but now I might have spring for it after all…

Jeanne Avatar

These all look amazing! Your blog really is the best 🙂

This might be a stupid question, but will these fit into the fatter side of the Grindhouse sharpener? They look really thick.

Tish Avatar

Wow! They look more pigmented than the 24/7 liners! I’m definitely going to snag some of these when they come out! Thanks for the swatches, Christine.

Christina Avatar

WOW, these colors are amazing and finally, a Sin eyeliner (My holygrail eyeshadow color) Are these going to be released in a box set, since they look like the 24/7 liner collection that is out right now? Or is that the actual size of these pencils?

Elise Avatar

NICE! I love using cream pencils as a base for complex & dramatic eye looks. I am thinking these will be superior in staying power and crease resistance. Fingers crossed that they will also release them in gift sets. That way we can sample many colors & get more bang for our buck! Rock on Urban Decay!

prayers answered... Avatar

Just wondering to anyone out there who has any of the shadow pencils how much they’ve found themselves using them, any favs that are really impressive & any fav looks? Trying to decide what shade/s to start. Thinking Morphine or Lit as all over shades but curious how people are doing with contour shades/blending etc. Still as good as they seemed initially– really worth having or grab one or two? Any shades that have problems?

To go with Morphine and/or maybe Lit– Delinquent, Clinic or Mercury?

If it matters I have a lot of actual liners so I’m more interested in lid/contour.

(dear christine– these would make a kickass look) O:-)

Emily Avatar

Question: Has anyone waterproof tested these or the 24/7 liners? For the pool, would you recommend these or MUFE’s waterproof products?

We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!