Urban Decay Wired Pressed Pigment Palette Review & Swatches

Wired

Urban Decay Wired Pressed Pigment Palette ($39.00 for 0.40 oz.) is a new, limited edition palette that includes six eyeshadows and four pressed pigments (which are “not for use around the eye”). The pigments are easily identified and split up within the palette, which was a welcome update and something I wish more brands would do. That was the best part of the palette –it only went downhill from there.

The performance of the palette is drastic departure from the original Electric palette, which wasn’t perfect but was significantly more workable. If this palette was the full spectrum of colorful eyeshadows available, I’d give up wearing colorful eyeshadows entirely, but thankfully, that’s not the case. What year is it??

Part of me couldn’t quite believe it, so I dug out my original Electric palette (from 2014!) and recreated the same look, and it really was that different in performance. I spent 10 minutes to create the look using the Electric palette, whereas I had worked over 30 minutes (on one eye) trying to get the similar/same shades in Wired to work.

It is beyond disappointing to see a brand that used to be famous for their brighter colors “revamp” their Electric palette and release such a disaster.  Over half of the shades performed dismally without primer from the get-go: patchy, uneven color application, poor coverage, unable to build up pigmentation, and five to six hour wear.

When a formula is extremely poor without primer, I try hard to test it over an eyeshadow primer–in this case Urban Decay’s Anti-Aging Primer Potion!–just in case that’s the magic trick. By and large, most eyeshadows (in my experience) apply well enough without primer and it tends to be longevity that gets the most improvement by adding a primer (not application, pigmentation, blendability, etc.).

I had nearly as much eyeshadow below my lid as on it when I attempted to use any of these shades without primer: Glitch, Chaos, Shock, Fluorescent, and Switch, and to a lesser degree, Jolt, Switch, and Savage. The mattes lost a lot of color trueness applied, with and without primer.  Savage is a brighter pink but darkens and loses definition when applied, so it ended up running into Slowburn rather than being two, distinctive shades.

The matte shades were also moderately to very powdery with moderate to heavy fallout, uneven application, weaker coverage (that tended to sheer out), and were inconsistent in whether they blended out decently or not.  Shades like Slowburn, Savage, and Switch blended out decently, while Jolt darkened and blended out with some extra effort.  Shades like Chaos, Shock, and to a lesser extent, Slowburn caused lifting and patchiness when applied more heavily and blended out.  Chaos was, in fact, total chaos to use.

Perhaps you had hope for the shimmers (I did), but it would be misplaced–in fact, the phrase “abandon hope all ye who enter here” was where I landed after using the palette five times.  The two shimmers have a firmer, denser, and physically thicker formulation, which played poorly with the thinner, drier, more powdery mattes; they created an uneven surface, which resulted in patchiness, poor color application, and weak pigmentation that looked muted after application.  They pushed away the flimsy matte shades and help erase the look I already spent far too long fussing over.

Savage and Slowburn were the only workable shades in the palette; they were blendable and fairly buildable with only some fallout, and Switch blended out with complementary tones but would be difficult to finesse with more contrasting tones as it definitely wasn’t that blendable.

• Ingredients
• Look

Glitch

Glitch is a pale white with neutral undertones and a matte finish. It had semi-opaque coverage that did not build up well without a primer due to the more powdery texture that was also a little thin. There was fallout during application, so I’d work with this shade first if it was being applied higher up (like the brow bone) to avoid it turning other shades chalky. It lasted well for six and a half hours before fading noticeably.

FURTHER READING: Formula Overview for details on general performance and characteristics (like scent).

• Top Dupes
• Formula Overview
• Ingredients

Chaos

Chaos is a medium-dark, cobalt blue with strong, cool undertones and a semi-matte finish. It had medium to semi-opaque coverage in a single layer, but it was very powdery and prone to sheering out (you could almost blow away product it was that dry and powdery on my skin). The only way to make this work in any capacity was to apply it over another shade (like a shimmer) or over a white, slightly tacky base. It had a ton of fallout during application, erased away from my skin as I tried to blend it out, and what little I managed to keep on my lid had faded visibly after five hours of wear.

In the blue/green look above, I had originally used Chaos in the deep crease and crease area, but it would not stay as I blended it out–it just disappeared and left bare skin behind. I ended up taking Current and trying to apply it more into the crease so I could layer Chaos on top, which grabbed some of the product but still left a line of bare skin between Chaos/Current and Fluorescent. Unfortunately, even with primer and trying to cheat it with giving it something extra to grip, it was still a failure.

It was a massive downgrade in performance from my past experiences with the shade in adhesion, blendability, and wear.

FURTHER READING: Formula Overview for details on general performance and characteristics (like scent).

• Top Dupes
• Formula Overview
• Ingredients
• Look

Shock

Shock is a medium-dark lavender with warm, pink undertones and a matte finish. It was very powdery with a lot of fallout and poor adhesion. One layer had semi-opaque coverage, but the issue was maintaining that coverage as the product easily sheered out with the faintest of touches. It was still prone to sheering out and fading from its original color when applied over primer. The color wore decently for six and a half hours before fading noticeably.

FURTHER READING: Formula Overview for details on general performance and characteristics (like scent).

• Top Dupes
• Formula Overview
• Ingredients
• Look

Fluorescent

Fluorescent is a light-medium, bluish aqua with subtle, cool undertones and a matte finish. It had semi-sheer coverage with a very powdery consistency that also felt a bit dry and thin. There was a lot of fallout, even when I tried to tap off excess from my brush, along with a moderate amount of kick up in the pan. It had little coverage, did not build up, and was uneven when applied to bare skin. There was visible fading after four hours of wear.

Over primer, it adhered somewhat better and wasn’t as uneven, but it was still a difficult shade to work with. If I blended it heavily with Jolt, I could get it to look decent but I couldn’t use it as a transition shade (say with Chaos below it) because the edge would not blend enough.

FURTHER READING: Formula Overview for details on general performance and characteristics (like scent).

• Top Dupes
• Formula Overview
• Ingredients
• Look

Current

Current is a brighter, light-medium emerald green with cool undertones and a soft sheen. It was incredibly dense and firmly packed into the pan, which made it difficult to pick up with a brush. A warmer fingertip picked up product more readily but proved challenging in transferring product from fingertip to lid.

I had the some luck taking a flat, firmer brush and jabbing and pushing at the pan’s surface and then patting into place onto the lid. Unfortunately, this worked for getting “pigmentation” out of the product but made it hard to place and blend it out evenly. As I applied it, there was some fallout and the end result was more muted. When I used a dense, larger pencil brush to pack it onto my lower lash line, I saw maximum payoff, but I definitely noticed the pan softened slightly after repeated jabbing/uses.

The color showed signs of fading after seven hours of wear. Worth noting: the thicker consistency made it hard to layer with other shades in the palette, and I would recommend working with shimmers first and layering mattes over them or else this shade will push and erase other shades (it did that with Chaos and Fluorescent for me).

FURTHER READING: Formula Overview for details on general performance and characteristics (like scent).

• Top Dupes
• Formula Overview
• Ingredients
• Look

Jolt (Wired)

Jolt (Wired) is a bright, chartreuse green with strong, warm yellow undertones and a semi-matte finish. It had nearly opaque color coverage, but the consistency was on the powdery side with light to moderate fallout and some product that diffused too readily, so the result on bare skin was more medium to semi-opaque coverage. It seemed more reactive to natural skin oils, too, but it blended out fairly well. Over primer, it stayed truer to color and was a bit more pigmented overall. On me, there was visible fading after seven and a half hours of wear.

There was a shade previously released with the same name but was a completely different color.

FURTHER READING: Formula Overview for details on general performance and characteristics (like scent).

• Top Dupes
• Formula Overview
• Ingredients
• Look

Gravity (Wired)

Gravity (Wired) is a medium-dark purple with subtle, warm undertones and cooler, bluish shimmer that gave it a pearly sheen. It had good pigmentation but appeared several shades lighter applied than it did in the pan and did not build up to a deeper shade either.

The texture was fairly firm and felt denser, though it wasn’t as difficult to pick up as Current; I found that I had similar issues when it came to getting the product to adhere evenly and smoothly to my lid, though. It had a tendency to look like larger shimmer laying over the mattes, so I’d make sure to apply this prior to applying any of the matte shades. There were signs of fading after eight hours of wear.

There was a shade previously released with the same name but was significantly different to the point where it seemed to be a coincidence vs. poor replication.

Savage

Savage is a brighter, medium-dark pink with subtle, cool undertones and a matte finish. It had good color coverage but did not build up well over bare skin, and it darkened several shades and lost most of its vibrancy as well.

When I tried it over primer, it didn’t deepen as much but was still more faded than the pan would lead one to believe (and definitely less buildable and bright compared to the original shade I have). The consistency was thin, lightly powdery, but it was blendable and sat well on bare skin. This shade lasted well for eight hours on me and left the barest stain.

Switch

Switch is a light, yellowed orange with warm undertones and a mostly matte finish. It had medium to semi-opaque pigmentation in one layer, but it was quick to sheer out to more semi-sheer coverage as soon as I started to blend it out. It was a challenge to build it back up without a primer underneath, but at least, primer was useful in minimizing fallout, improving evenness and intensity, along with longevity with this shade (wasn’t always the right solution for the rest!). There were signs of fading after six and a half hours of wear.

• Top Dupes
• Look

Slowburn

Slowburn is a vivid, coral-orange with warm undertones and a semi-matte finish. It had opaque color payoff that applied fairly evenly and blended out well along the edges, but it wasn’t foolproof. The first time I used it, the product worked just fine (blending into Savage), but the second I used it, there as some faint erasing issues I had (when using it next to Shock). The texture was soft, lightly powdery but wasn’t prone to fallout like other shades. It stayed on well for eight hours before fading a bit.