Beauty Review and Swatches: Urban Decay 15-Year Anniversary Eyeshadow Collection

I wanted to see what the buzz was about surrounding this palette. I've seen a couple of reviews prior to purchasing it on the day Urban Decay released it. Boasting fifteen new colors and a sick ass packaging, no time was wasted adding this in my cart.

Click the link below for my review and more pictures.


The packaging of this palette is different from the previous Urban Decay palette or any palette I've owned. The packaging is very edgy with its "laser-cut filigree design" on the sides of the cover and with a purple jewel "UD" on top it. The box is made out of some gunmetal finished mirror which might be a good idea in paper for a very luxe packaging, but not so practical in real life. I find myself needing to be extra careful with it and even thought of wearing gloves while handling it because the box a fingerprint magnet! Nothing drives me crazier when I see finger print smudged everywhere on my makeup packaging. I guess they really meant business when they said collectible since it's almost like this has to be housed in a glass box to keep it nice and clean.

But, I do like how this palette can serve another purpose... maybe a jewelry box or what not where you can keep your trinkets and jewelry. The tray where the eyeshadows are housed can be popped out on the bottom right corner and underneath it is a velvet lined compartment. It might be a better idea to take the eyeshadows out of its original packaging, depotted, and transferred into a magnetic packaging. Since the cover of the box is loosely fitted on top, this palette is not convenient for travel. You might get a better use of the box by using it as its alternative purpose, as a jewelry box.

When I saw the previews for the eyeshadows on this palette, I was totally excited how it has a pretty good variety of neutrals and colors in one palette. It can easily be used for work (corporate setting) and can be easily switched up to something playful or dramatic with the bold and dark colors.

However, I was really disappointed when I found out that all of them are shimmery and glittery except for one color, Blackout. I wish they did a bit of a mixture of matte, satin, and shimerry eyeshadows for a better variety of textures. I tried to use just this palette to create a look, and I ended up looking like a disco ball with all the shimmers on my eyes.

* Eyeshadow descriptions from UrbanDecay.com

L to R (with flash): Midnight Rodeo, Tainted, Deeper

Midnight Rodeo - medium metallic brown with silver and gold glitter

Tainted - pale matte purple with golden shimmer

Deeper - deep shimmery golden brown

L to R (with flash): Midnight 15, Junkshow, M.I.A

Midnight 15 - pearl  with silver glitter
Junkshow - bright pink with fuchsia shift
M.I.A - soft shimmery dark brown

L to R (with flash): Vanilla, Omen, Ace

Vanilla - shimmery white gold
Omen - shimmery metallic bright purple with blue shift
Ace - dark gunmetal shimmer

L to R (with flash): Flow, Evidence, Blackout

Flow - soft peach shimmer
Evidence - deep metallic blue
Blackout - darkest, most saturated black

L to R (with flash): Chase, Deep End, Half Truth

Chase - metallic bright bronze
Deep End - bright teal shimmer
Half Truth - shimmery smoky purple

I really wish that some of the colors were less shimmery like Vanilla and Midnight 15 since they'll make a nice highlight color under the browbones sans all that glitter.

The eyeshadows were pigmented as always except for Blackout which took about two swipes before I actually saw what they meant by "darkest, most saturated" black. And since they were pigmented, all of the eyeshadows (with the exception of Blackout) were also bombarded with glitter galore.

The one thing that really disappointed me about this palette is how chalky all 15 eyeshadows were!! Nothing brings out the inner crazy in me than a chalky eyeshadow. I mean it is a bit expected in a palette with plenty of colors. I usually let one or two slide, but not ALL 15 eyeshadows!! I thought that the fallouts were only because of the swatching, but when I actually tried it on my eyes the shadow fall outs were EVERYWHERE!! I've had Urban Decay eyeshadows before, and I know some of them are not chalky, so using this palette and having all of the eyeshadows fall on my cheeks made me really sad. As you can see in the image below how messy the palette has become after I used it with a brush. And I even lightly tapped my brush on top of it to prevent the mess, but the eyeshadow just crumbled. If you combine a chalky eyeshadow with a fingerprint magnet packaging, that equals to a mess.

Urban Decay 15-Year Anniversary Eyeshadow Collection
Available at: UrbanDecay.com, Sephora, Macy's, and Ulta
Price: $55

PROS:
- luxe packaging, can be re-used as a jewelry or keepsake box
- variety of neutrals and colors
- eyeshadows are easy to depot

CONS:
- packaging is a fingerprint magnet
- packaging is not meant for travel use
- eyeshadows were all shimmery (except for Blackout)
- chalky eyeshadows

Overall Thoughts: As pretty as the packaging and the colors in this palette, nothing drives me insane than messy, chalky eyeshadows. The packaging itself isn't enough to save this palette from me. Although the whole concept of being able to reuse this as a jewelry box is a nifty idea, the packaging for it as a makeup palette just fails in all levels from not thinking about how badly the mirror attracts fingerprints to a loose covered box that makes it impractical for travel. But then again, this was meant to be a collectors item, so I guess it does that job. I wouldn't recommend this to people who are starting up and building their makeup collection, unless you are just really buying makeup to collect it... and not use it.
Overall Rating: 2 out of 5