Whilst out doing a spot of sightseeing in London i happened to walk past the Urban Decay store in Covent Garden. Directly in the front of the entrance lit up like an angel on a pedestal, was the new Urban Decay Gwen Stefani palette. I ran in asked the lovely sales woman for it and whipped out my card quicker than you could say "could you please enter your pin".... I was a woman on a mission and i blame MakeupbyCheryl for this purchase, she is a huge influence in many of my cosmetics purchases. Firstly can we talk about the stunning packaging!!!!... and there i was thinking Urban Decay couldn't create anything anymore as visually stunning as the Naked Smoky palette ( wrong! ). Not only is the packaging aesthetically pleasing for a gold packaging addict like myself but the quality of most of the eyeshadows blew me away....
Urban Decay is one of the best cosmetics companies on the market producing consecutively great quality items. They really have been on their A-game this year when it has come to their packaging, their packaging design team are in need of a raise! The Urban Decay Gwen Stefani Eyeshadow Palette is actually the first celebrity designed collaboration that Urban Decay has ever done, so that makes this launch very special and very unique to the brand. Gwen worked with Urban Decay throughout every little detail and her creativity was let loose on every aspect of the palette, from the design and packaging to the eyeshadow shade choices inside. Urban Decay of course brought their amazing eyeshadow formulation. I had read somewhere that Gwen struggled to choose just 15 shades, and if i am honest if i was told i could only choose 15 eyeshadows i would struggle also lol.
Gwen wanted the palette to contain shades that would represent what she would wear and have in her own collection. I can expect some Urban Decay fans to be somewhat disappointed to see so many neutral eyeshadows, with the palette not at all being dominated with loud, super-pigmented, bright colours that people would associate with the name Gwen Stefani. Gwens look when it comes to makeup has always actually been fairy simple with a bare eye, winged liner and a bold lip. Therefor you can expect the vibrant shades in the lipsticks she created and not in the palette. Twelve of the eyeshadow shades within the palette are brand new to Urban Decay and three are already permanent in their collection ( blackout, skimp & stark ). The palette is limited edition like the Vice palettes and was released through Urban Decay websites on November the 22nd retailing for $58 in the United States and £40 in the United Kingdom, it sold out almost instantly! However as of today December 1st 2015, it has come back into stock on both the USA & UK Urban Decay stores but it wont be for long!!!. At present the Urban Decay Gwen Stefani palette is only available directly to swatch and see in person in the London Covent Garden UD store for us here in the UK. However, it should be releasing through all other Urban Decay stores and beauty counters on the 3rd of December. So make sure to stalk the Debenhams stores and website. Hopefully my post will help anyone who is in two minds of whether or not to purchase the palette.
Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani Eyeshadow Palette
Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani Eyeshadow Palette
The Gwen Stefani Eyeshadow Palette comes in a beautiful white box with a gold asymmetric design. The Palette is made out of sturdy plastic and is interestingly designed. The palette is gold and the gold casing has a clear face-cover that presents what appears to look like a pro eyeshadow palette, with 24 empty looking wells looking to be filled up with the UD | Gwen Stefani logo on the right hand side of the palette. Gwen Stefani has a love for black and white prints so the design really compliments her style. The palette comes with a large interior mirror with a little dedication to one of Gwens 'No Doubt' songs " Magic's in the Makeup" quoted on the bottom right hand corner. The palette design does come off very personal and thought out but can i say the same about the eyeshadow choices?.....
Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani Eyeshadow Palette
The palette houses 15 eyeshadows and is filled with mostly warm-toned neutrals in light to medium shades. The few pops of colours make this palette a little less typical but i am not sure the three odd shades of colour compliment the rest of the palette? I can see why it may be seen as a bit disappointing to some Gwen Stefani fans who were looking forward to more unique fun shades. Some may wish that the palette wasn’t directly inspired by Gwen’s own signature look but prefer the shades to have been translated from her body of work, which tends to be a lot more colourful than her makeup. However i personally love the palette and only find myself disliking a couple of the eyeshadows. There is disappointing pigmentation with a few of the eyeshadows, which translate very sheer with almost no colour pay-off whatsoever on the lids but overall the pigmentation on a whole is brilliant. I must admit that i don't think that this will caters to all skin-tones as 2/3's of the eyeshadows within the palette are pretty light, therefor they wont show up on dark-tanned or deeper skin-tones, which is a shame really. Unless something like a MAC Paint Pot is used as a base. The eyeshadow names are all chosen by Gwen too which adds a touch of uniqueness.
Shades:
Blonde - Frosted pale ivory with pink iridescent shift
Bathwater - Frosted Pale beige with gold shimmer
Skimp - Very pale Peachy-beige - Satin
Steady - Shimmery Rose gold
Punk - Dark matte Reddish plum-brown.
Baby - Metallic Rose
Anaheim - Matte light taupe-brown
Stark - Matte Warm Beige
Zone - Matte Medium brown
Serious - Deep dark Grey-brown with gold shimmer
Pop - Frosted pale peach with iridescent sparkle
Harajuku - Light medium baby-pink with iridescent sparkle
Danger - Rich dark metallic Navy Royal blue
1987 - Metallic yellow gold
Blackout - Super dark matte black
Swatches
There is not much difference between the shades Blonde, Bathwater and Skimp. All three are pretty sheer and don't pack a lot of colour onto the lids, so i use them as inner corner highlights but who needs three inner corner highlight shades? I feel Skimp is a wasted colour in the palette, it's just not pigmented enough to stand out as a highlight on the inner corner and it sheers out too much to make any impact on the lid. Bathwater does contain glitter which can be intensified on the lid when wetting my brush. The lighter matte shades like Anaheim and Stark are a bit disappointing also, though they are super buttery soft but are not as pigmented as other Urban decay matte eyeshadows, however as they are transition/crease eyeshadows they can be built up to desired intensity. The shade Pop is sparkly but not so pigmented, it has a lot of fall out but i guess it can be used for what it has been named a 'pop' of colour on the center of the lid. I personally love the pigmentation of the shades Punk, Serious, Zone, Baby, Danger and Blackout, Black out is my all time favourite black eyeshadow. If i could replace any eyeshadows within the palette it would be Skimp, Bathwater, Stark, 1987 and Harajuku. Though the quality and softness of the eyeshadows in this palette are phenomenal the Urban Decay smoky palette is still my favourite UD palette, as every single shade has amazing pigmentation.
Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani Eyeshadow Palette
I am excited that hopefully Urban Decay will do more collaborations in the future, and hopefully with people who will have more well thought out shades to compliment every skin-tone, i can imagine how difficult that must be though. Overall the Urban Decay Gwen Stefani palette in my opinion is worth the money and i would recommend it to anyone who has fair to light-medium skin-tones. It is also ideal if you are an avid Urban Decay fan and collect all of their limited edition eyeshadow palettes.
What about you, will you be buying into the Special Urban Decay Milestone and be purchasing any of the Gwen Stefani collaboration products?
I am excited that hopefully Urban Decay will do more collaborations in the future, and hopefully with people who will have more well thought out shades to compliment every skin-tone, i can imagine how difficult that must be though. Overall the Urban Decay Gwen Stefani palette in my opinion is worth the money and i would recommend it to anyone who has fair to light-medium skin-tones. It is also ideal if you are an avid Urban Decay fan and collect all of their limited edition eyeshadow palettes.
What about you, will you be buying into the Special Urban Decay Milestone and be purchasing any of the Gwen Stefani collaboration products?
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