Bright Eyed Beauty Blog: Review and Swatches: Urban Decay Vice Palette

Hello!

Have you been waiting for my promised swatches and review of the Urban Decay Vice Palette? The wait is over! This post has taken me a while to do and for good reason! This is a limited edition palette released as part of the Holiday 2012 collection and as you know, there are 20 brand new shades (new formulation, of course) in this palette. There is an absolutely fantastic range of shades. This palette contains a mix of finishes (matte, shimmer, frost and metallic) and has a great range of colours, from everyday neutrals to fun brights to dark shades perfect for an evening look.

The Urban Decay Vice Palette.

All 20 shadows in the Urban Decay Vice Palette.

Warning! Picture-heavy post ahead.

Because there are so many shades to review in this palette, I've decided to break things up a little differently. I'll be reviewing them row-by-row and will have pictures above each row's review.

First row:

First row of eyeshadow in the Urban Decay Vice Palette.
L-R: Desperation, Muse, Jagged, Blitz, Penny Lane.

Swatches of the first row of eyeshadow from the Urban Decay Vice Palette.
L-R: Desperation, Muse, Jagged, Blitz and Penny Lane.

Desperation: Medium taupe brown-grey with silver microglitter. This is a smooth, soft eyeshadow with good pigmentation- two swipes were needed for this swatch.
Muse: Bronze brown shimmer with bronze glitter. Powdery (had to blow some air onto it to get rid of excess shadow/glitter) but only one swipe needed to get the swatch- great pigmentation.
Jagged: Sheer dark olive brown with lots and lots of large gold glitter.disappointed. This has very poor pigmentation- it was sheer on the first swipe and powdery, too. In the swatch you can see even the brown is in little powdery clumps. This has heaps of fallout and even in the palette itself, I had to clean up the pan after swatching it for fear of Jagged contaminating all the other colours. Easily wins worst eyeshadow in the palette.
Blitz: Beautiful metallic gold shade with gold shimmer/microglitter. Smooth and good pigmentation. I only used two swipes to make the swatch wider, otherwise only one would be needed. Not at all powdery.
Penny Lane: Metallic orange peach with gold shimmer/microglitter. Well pigmented, smooth and not at all powdery.

Second row:

Second row of eyeshadow from the Urban Decay Vice Palette.
L-R: Junkie, Chaos, Occupy, Unhinged, Black Market.

Swatches of the second row of eyeshadow from the Urban Decay Vice Palette.
L-R: Junkie, Chaos, Occupy, Unhinged, Black Market.

Junkie: Beautiful deep teal shimmer with green/silver microglitter. Good pigmentation- only two swipes needed for the swatch. It also has very good staying power if my having to resort to scrubbing my forearm with a rough towel to get it off, even after three rounds with soap and warm water, is any indication.
Chaos: Vibrant mate cobalt blue. It was a bit powdery, with good but not great pigmentation (3 swipes) in real life, but amazing pigmentation in the photo. This may sound like an oxymoron, but though being matte, this had some purple and light blue microshimmer in the pan. Sounds insane, but it does look matte.
Occupy: Metallic silver with silver glitter. This had good pigmentation but it was a little powdery.
Unhinged: Shimmer turquoise with silver microglitter. This was smooth and had good pigmentation (2 swipes with finger- I ran out of sponge applicators).
Black Market: Satin finish brownish black, this one was smooth and soft but a bit powdery. It had good pigmentation with only 2 swipes with my finger needed for swatch.

Third row:

Third row of eyeshadows from the Urban Decay Vice Palette.
L-R: Provocateur, Rapture, Vice, Noise, Armor.

Swatches of the third row of eyeshadows from the Urban Decay Vice Palette.
L-R: Provocateur, Rapture, Vice, Noise, Armor.

Provocateur: Metallic light pinky-purple shade with lots of chunky silver and light pink sparkle. This felt grainy at first- there are some big glitter particles in this. It applied smoothly and wow, is this a pretty colour.Fallout-haters beware, this gets everywhere.
Rapture: Medium purple shimmer with silver and light purple glitter and reddish undertones. This is smooth and well pigmented (2 swipes needed for the swatch).
Vice: The palette's namesake, this is a eggplant purple with light purple microglitter. I was a bit disappointed that it was a bit powdery- when doing the swatch, some of the shadow clumped. It did smooth out easily, but the clumpiness was surprising.
Noise: Bright frosted hot pink with chunky bits of pink glitter. It has a blueish base to it. Colour payoff was good (2 swipes) but with how bright this one is in the pan, I thought it would be crazy pigmented.
Armor: It's an asphalt grey shimmer with reddish brown undertones and lots of silver glitter. It felt so soft and smooth and I only needed one swipe for the swatch. Highly pigmented! Love this!

Fourth row:

Fourth row of eyeshadows from the Urban Decay Vice Palette.
L-R: Nevermind, Echo Beach, Anonymous, Freebird, Laced.

Swatches of the fourth row of eyeshadows from the Urban Decay Vice Palette.
L-R: Nevermind, Echo Beach, Anonymous (please ignore the contaminated bit up top),
Freebird, Laced.

Nevermind: Beautiful, highly pigmented light bronze brown- I only needed one swipe for the swatch. This is a very smooth, soft eyeshadow but not powdery at all. It's very different to the pan (champagne beige with gold shimmer is what I thought I'd get) but I have zero complaints- it's very nice.
Echo Beach: Another lovely shimmer shade, a champagne beige gold. Smooth. Highly pigmented (again, only one swipe needed for the swatch).
Anonymous: Smooth, soft, matte ivory with pink undertones. I needed 4 swipes for my swatch. It's a little powdery but no more than expected with a matte.
Freebird: Frost baby pink with chunky silver glitter particles and finer light pink glitter. The pigmentation on this ok but on the sheer side. Also, beware silver fallout.
Laced: This is a matte pink-grey shade. I was very impressed with this one- good pigmentation (2 swipes), very smooth, and not powdery at all. It's gorgeous in real life.

General Review:

Packaing: This palette is a rubberised plastic (holds fingerprints like crazy, like most UD palettes) and comes with an automatic hinge slow-opening lid, which is nice. It stays open on its own, which is great. The jeweled UD on the top is pretty but would make stacking this palette more difficult. The palette does come with a little foam protector, but it still doesn't make it a flat topped palette. I don't mind, but others might.
Colours: Like I've already said this palette has lots of different colours and lots of different finishes (mostly shimmer, though). You can create a wide range of looks from this, easily. This would be a fantastic starter palette for Urban Decay newbies, but there are a lot of easily duped colours, so unless you're a massive eyeshadow junkie like me, those with a number of UD palettes already don't really need this.
Longevity: This is Urban Decay. With their primer potion, these last 12 hours perfectly without creasing.
Cost: USD$59 for 20 eyeshadows at 0.8g each. 1.5g of eyeshadow usually retails for USD$18, so at that price point, each of the eyeshadows in the Vice Palette is worth USD$9.6 each, meaning that there is USD$192 worth of eyeshadow in this palette. It also comes with a double ended eyeshadow brush -the two are the Good Karma Shadow and Crease Brush- which isn't sold individually, but the Good Karma Shadow brush retails for USD$26 and the Crease Brush for USD$26, too. Technically that means you get a USD$52 brush. That's USD$244 worth of product for USD$59. That's pretty good. It's a lot better value-for-money than their other new release, the Smoked Palette but not quite as good value-for-money as the classic Urban Decay Naked Palette. I paid more for mine (Ebay+shipping) but I'm still happy with it.