Urban Decay Elements Eyeshadow Palette Review + Swatches

In general, eyeshadow palettes don’t excite us anymore. There are enough warm tones palettes on the market to give one a headache, and these days we do simple eye looks on most days. However, sometimes there’s an eyeshadow palette that hits the shelves of Sephora and makes us do a double take. The Urban Decay Elements Eyeshadow Palette is one of those palettes.

Urban Decay was kind enough to send us this palette to try out. You guys already know we LOVE their Born to Run Palette, so we had high hopes for the quality of this one. Upon first look, we were really impressed with the detail that went into the packaging. Although it’s not our style, it’s very artistic and creative. You might think this is your everyday colorful eyeshadow palette but we were really impressed with the range of shades and finishes in this palette.

There are only three matte shades in this palette: Elemental (warm brown), Antidote (peachy brown), and Dream Weaver (magenta). The shade ‘Fire Starter’ is a red matte as well but it has small specs of glitter. Although I would prefer more mattes I’m glad they provide a transition shade and a crease shade, that will go with any look.

The rest of the outer circle of shades are gorgeous metallics. These shadows had minimal fallout (when applied with a finger) and look like metal on the eyes. Honestly so impressed with this formula. The inner circle has two metallics (Fool’s Gold and Moon Rock) and the rest seem to be pressed glitters. These glitter shades have fallout and I would recommend using a glitter primer when applying them. I definitely prefer the metallic shades to the glitters but it’s all about personal preference! The middle shade, Luna, is a white glitter with a lilac flip. It can totally be used as a shadow topper!

Now let’s get into swatches!

 

Left to right: Dream Weaver (matte), Ego (metallic), Heavy Water (metallic), Sapphire Dream (metallic), Electric Air (metallic), Antidote (matte), Secret Keeper (metallic), Earthbound (metallic), Elemental (matte), Volcanic (metallic), Lioness (metallic), Fire Starter (matte)

Left to right: Tectonic (glitter), Hex Remedy (glitter), Fortune Teller (glitter), Silver Burn (glitter), Fools Gold (metallic), Moon Rock (glitter), Luna (glitter)

Overall, I would recommend this palette if you’re into colorful looks. I have not used such pigmented metallics in a long time! I think this would be a very useful palette for a makeup artist.  I won’t reach for it every day, just because I’m not a glitter person, but I’ll definitely use it more often than not. I’m glad Urban Decay is trying to create some interesting, unique products!

Rating: 7/10 | Price: $52.00 | Shop

xx, Britta