There are a lot of permanent products from Urban Decay that I really love (Vice Lipsticks and 24/7 Eyeliners are some of my go-tos, as far as I can have go-tos!). I’ve found that their seasonal/limited edition launches can be more hit or miss, and they can be repetitive, despite the brand not having THAT many launches per year (like why it is always the same cheek trio?).
— Christine
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No longer represented in stash other than a few older 24/7 liners.
I don’t like that the brand seems to have gone off the rails quality-wise with its switch to a vegan eyeshadow formula. I noticed the Vice lipsticks have not been restocked at retailers, so I bought a couple of favorites in case they are planning to reformulate those as well. I also found and bought a Born to Run palette because that’s sold out, too, and I never had purchased that well-reviewed palette. A few months ago, I got some of the old formula singles and made my own palette, which was super fun. It’s like I’m having a pricey little funeral for my former favorite brand.
They keep discontinuing the more interesting shades in their line and their formula keeps getting worse over time. They just feel out of touch and like they lost their edge a few years back. I miss the Feminine, Dangerous, and Fun era. They do know how to make good staple products like primers and foundations though.
I like their primer potion and the 24/7 liners. I don’t like… basically any palette they’ve released in what, the past 4 years? I think the last one I got that I liked was the Heavy Metal one (or whatever it was called) and even that one has very weird packaging. I have the GoT palette because my spouse bought it for me as a gift (and was very excited to actually buy makeup for me, lol), and it’s solidly OK.
I love that UD reliably releases cool and neutral colors, instead of an unending stream of warm pink/peach/gold-ish demi-neutrals season after season.
I don’t like that they discontinued so many of their best products (the Afterglow blushes and highlighters, the Revolution lipsticks). I don’t like the mess they’ve made of UDPP (taking the WORST of past packaging versions and putting it all together in the worst one yet). I really HATE, HATE, HATE that they have replaced their legendary eyeshadows with cr*p ones and still haven’t taken it on board to make them easy to depot or make them available, as MAC does, in pro-pans. As for what I love (make that “loved”) – their unique and glorious eyeshadows of the past; the Naked 1, 2 and Smoky palettes, the Vice and Naked on the Run palettes….so many other palettes. They used to be such a great company (with some misses, for sure, but that’s true of every makeup company) and now they’re just UGH. Oh – another hate – all the drugs and violence names and images (lipsticks that look like bullets? no thank you !)
I’ve basically written them of at this point. I’ve been buying UD since 2006, but now they’re nowhere close to be what they once were. The Beauty With An Edge slogan no longer applies to them.
I LOVE the Vice lipsticks. They are my go to. They just had a massive 50% off sale and almost all are no longer available on Sephora, which makes me a little worried they will reformulate again (please don’t!) or maybe they are just leaving Sephora? I have a bunch of their old palettes that are going strong and lovely performers. The heavy metal liners are very fun. Colorful 24/7 liners are great to wear on my lower lash line (although they irritate my eyes in my waterline so not versatile for me at all). The packaging (up to the new singles packaging) has always been on point for me. The new stuff? No thank you. The quality has not been on par for many years now. Beautiful color stories that speak to me more than any other brand as I’m a cool toned lover, but the performance is just not there for me anymore.
I really used to love Urban Decay. They had those gorgeous Afterglow Blushes, yearly Vice palettes, and a huge range of stunning eyeshadows sold as singles. Those are all gone now. All that’s left that I still love are the lipsticks and eye pencils. They used to have some excellent limited edition products, too. Like Beached and Basquiet. Heck, even the GoT collection was decent enough for me to buy most of it. But that was the beginning of their downfall. That’s when one could absolutely see that the quality had begun to go downhill on the eyeshadows. Since then, the brand has tanked, if you ask me. This latest epic fail Prince “collaboration” and them getting rid of most of their well-known, well-loved eyeshadows for mostly garbage reformulated ones, and recently, I saw Vice lipsticks on sale for $10 everywhere. So, I suppose they’re getting ready to ditch those now, too. This question got my claws out!
There are some great permanent products, but I worry how long that will last with the reformulating currently going on. I love the 24/7 Eye Pencils.I love the Naked Honey Palette. The All Nighter Spray and foundations are great.
UD was once my favorite brand, but now they bore me. Now they don’t innovate much, and the creativity in colors and packaging is no longer there. Style-wise, they’ve gone from urban decay to urban housewife. It makes me sad. The new eyeshadow formula seems hit or miss.
The awful Prince collection, and general inability to make good purples any more is the capper. I don’t even feel like rooting for them any more.
I used to love their formulas (in just about most of the products) and their ingenuity.
Now, they are repetitive, lacking vibrancy, and inconsistent showing a lack of quality control. When you try a gimmick, and your quality is top notch – people will buy your gimmick and think you’re a creative genius. When you try a gimmick and you let subpar quality pass through, your gimmick looks like a gimmick and it weakens your credibility.
I guess your question could have been: what did you like about Urban Decay in the past vs the present?
I only own some of their older palettes – all three original Nakeds, Vice 2 and one or two smaller ones.
These are great – love them all.
But I wouldn’t purchase any of their newer products – since they have changed their formulas the brand has only delivered average to very poor quality products.
I used to be an Urban Decay junkie and they’ve broken my heart with the junk they spew out now!
When it comes to Urban Decay my opinion is skewed by the fact that I first discovered the brand when I was living back in Europe, so I started knowing them only from the products available there 6-7 years ago. For me Urban Decay was that grungy aesthetic, the Naked Smokey Palette, the best black eyeliner I ever tried, the original Naked foundation.
Although Naked Smokey is still the best palette from my memory… I personally never liked the Naked palette line, meaning the other palettes. The color schemes are not my liking and in most colors had undertones that don’t flatter me, the warmer variants too warm, most of the shades looked too similar once blended.
The 24/7 eyeliners are still one of the best formulas, and they do eye primers very well (still wishing the primer potion didn’t had a doe foot applicator).
But the eyeshadow quality dropped a lot in the past years, and even when it’s good, it’s inconsistent.
I just don’t like that the brand lost it’s identity. I liked them better when they had fewer products. I mean… they launched like a dozen variants of brow products… I think their line has more options than ABH.
Maybe it’s a personal preference, but I liked more the Urban Decay with the Naked Smokey palette and the Gwen Stefani collaboration.
I still like the UD eye pencils, setting spray and Born to Run palette. Their new items do not ring my bell, at all. The unique colors, wearability and decent packaging just vanished. Sad, I used to love their products.
I was so happy when UD came here. I think it was when Naked 2 was released. I immediately bought it, strangely it was the only item for sale at Sephora. A bit later they came to another retailer and I bought quite a lot from them. I still have and like many of their palettes, lipsticks, eye pencils. I didn’t buy Born To Run, but may get it if it’s on sale.
I haven’t bought much from them lately though, I did buy Ultraviolet even though I knew it wasn’t that good, and I sort of like it.
So, like, I like what they used to be and I don’t like what they have become. Reformulations should be to make products better, they seem to have missed that IMHO.
UD used to be so edgy. What happened??
I’ve been very disappointed in the formula changes to their eyeshadows with the past few releases, like Wild West. They had a great formula and now it feels like the majority of their eyeshadows are anemic, dusty, lacking good pigmentation and adhesion. It’s like they got rid of all their fun duochromes and edgy colors. They don’t appear to have any good purples anymore.
I loved their Afterglow blushes and wish they had expanded that line. I really enjoyed their Vice bullet lipsticks, but I’m thinking they’re going to be discontinued.
The few products I’ve really loved lately have mostly been LE – Reflect eye pencil, Space Dust eye pencil – and by the time I realized I loved them enough I wanted to buy a backup they were gone.
I do love the Hydromaniac and am grateful to finally have a shade I can wear without having to add a white mixer. I wish they would come up with a stick foundation formula.
Urban Decay was once my favorite mainstream brand, but I’ve continued to be disappointed by release after release for a while now. I wish they’d hire someone like you for eyeshadow product development after seeing what you did with your Sydney Grace collab.