Urban Decay Smoked Palette Review and Swatches

Recently I had the opportunity to try out the Urban Decay Smoked Eyeshadow Palette. I was really interested in the palette because I liked the looks of the matte shades and I thought it would be great for travel.

It contains 5 new shades, never seen before, which are:
Asphalt, Backdoor, Barlust, Freestyle, and Kinky
and 5 other shades:
Blackout, Evidence, Loaded, Mushroom and Rockstar.

Of the 10 shades, I already own Blackout and Evidence from the 15 Year Anniversary Palette, and I purchased Mushroom when I purchased a Build Your Own Palette. So 7 of the shades were new to me. Not bad!

The kit comes with the 10 eyeshadows in a zippered palette, a look book with 12 looks, a small size of Primer Potion and a full size 24/7 pencil in Perversion. You already know that I find Perversion to be the blackest black liner out there, darker than even MAC Feline for me.

All of my swatches are on Meow Light Primer.

You can see all the lovely shades in the palette. It also has a well for the pencil, which is great if you want to keep it in the kit.

Packaging
The palette itself has interesting shadowy designs on it, such as the snake and the creepy crawly scarab, as well as butterfly wings. It’s a very lightweight. It actually does zip open and shut. I’m not sure that I like the zipper, though, as I prefer a magnetic closure.

Shadow Formula
Urban Decay shadows last all day on me with primer. Urban Decay Original Primer Potion doesn’t work as well for me as my favorite primer, so I stick to what works with my body chemistry. I am curious to try these shades with UDPP Eden, as I do like the matte primer. The eyeshadow colors apply easily and blend well, even the mattes. They’ve got great pigmentation.

 

Kinky
soft ivory peach with matte finish
My Take
Very much a ‘my skin but better’ type of shade. It’s a pale peachy-ivory matte, just like UD described.

Freestyle
light pantyhose nude with matte finish
My Take
Light peachy tan matte.

Backdoor
true dark brown with matte finish
My Take
Very dark brown matte, reminds me of the outside of a coconut. This is such a dark brown that it can be mistaken for black in low light. It’s almost like it has black undertones.

Barlust
dark golden brown with metallic finish
My Take
Rich shimmery dark brown with golden tones.

Rockstar
deep aubergine with shimmery finish
My Take
Red-based purple eggplant with shimmer.

Blackout
blackest black with matte finish
My Take
Deepest true matte black.

Asphalt
deep gunmetal with silver micro glitter and metallic base
My Take
Gorgeous deep charcoal grey with silver micro glitter. I absolutely LOVE this shade. It’s one of those greys that I find looks fantastic with my eyes.

Mushroom
warm grey with shimmery finish
My Take
You already know that I love this shade because I purchased it quite some time ago and have worn it a bunch. It’s a great transitional shade, much like Pistol. To me it’s a warm mid-tone grey. I’ve been in love with warm greys since MAC Copperplate.

Loaded
deep emerald shimmer with metallic base
My Take
Dark emerald green on a blackened base with shimmer.

Evidence
deep navy blue with shimmery finish
My Take
Blackened sapphire blue with shimmer.

 

Smoldering Smoky Look

The Book
I have to also mention that I really love the look book that came with this palette. I feel like a lot of thought, time and effort was put into the book.. Now, I own a lot of makeup books at this point, and I much prefer ones that lay out looks the way this one does. The book provides a diagram of the eye and labels the different parts so that the reader can make sure that they understand the instructions. The instructions are very clearly written out so that you can follow along and achieve the perfect smoky eye look of your dreams. I personally found doing a good smoky eye to be difficult, so I really appreciate seeing 12 different variants on the smoky eye and how to achieve them. You can actually purchase the book separately for $9. It is SO worth it, in my opinion.

Upcoming tutorial with Freestyle, Kinky, Mushroom, and Backdoor.

If UD comes out with another makeup book, I’m snappin’ it up. I think all the smoky looks in this one are great and the tutorials are very easy for me to follow. Please Urban Decay, consider making a makeup book devoted to how to create more lovely looks!

 

The Urban Decay Smoked Palette is available now from UrbanDecay.com and retails for $49.00.

Product Information:
10 eyeshadows at .03 oz
1 eyeliner at .04 oz
1 primer potion at .13 oz
1 book

A single eyeshadow is typically .05 oz. For the price of $49 you’re getting about $108 in eye shadow, $18 for a full size eyeliner, and $9 for the book. I’m not sure what the primer retails for, but you’re getting at least $135 worth of product.

I’m very happy with this palette and I’m taking it with me on my next trip, which happens to be only a few weeks away. It has a lot of versatility for me with these shades as I can stick to smoky for my trip.

I love the new UD shadow formula. With 5 new shades and several workhorse neutrals, this is a really nice palette to invest in. I definitely prefer this to the naked palettes because of the jewel tones in it. Plus, no Midnight Cowboy! If I were going to change anything about the palette, I might throw in a golden shade, like Half-Baked, instead of Loaded, and instead of Evidence, I’d have put in Hijack. But, that’s because I’m a gold and teal fiend.

Now, if you’re not a fan of dark eyeshadows or smoky looks, you may want to skip this palette and opt for the 15 Year Anniversary if you want brights (I think it may be available online) or the Mariposa palette, or one of the Naked Palettes if you want to rock a more neutral look.

The Urban Decay Smoked Palette is available from Urban Decay online and will be available soon from Sephora.

Rating:

To the best of my knowledge Urban Decay is cruelty-free.
Product sent for consideration. All opinions are my own.