Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani Palette Review, Swatches & Makeup Look

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It was only a matter of time before I posted an official review of Limited Edition Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani Palette [$58 at Sephora]. It was released in time for the Holidays and the initial stock sold out within hours. Not surprising, after all Gwen is an idol for many girls and guys of my generation, and her personal style is a big part of why she’s famous.

To make this palette truly special, Gwen personally collaborated with Urban Decay to make sure every color is exactly as she envisioned. The palette includes 15 eye shadow pans, 12 of which are brand new, and the other 3 are repeats from Urban Decay eye shadow range. Here they are:

• Blonde – pale beige with pink iridescent shift. Love that pinkish glow! I don’t have many colors like this in my collection, making it very unique. The formula is great, too – pigmented and blendable.
• Bathwater – pale beige with gold pearl. It looked nicely pigmented in the swatch, but it’s a little sheer on the lids in comparison. Still, this is a beautiful lid highlight!
• Skimp – pale nude satin. I was not a fan of this one, because it was a bit too powdery so I had to cake it on to achieve desirable pigmentation.
• Steady – medium rose with metallic gold shift. Absolutely gorgeous! Pigmented, blendable, stays on all day, and doesn’t flake off like many metallics. One of my faves in the palette!
• Punk – reddish brown matte. I found that it applied best with a firm flat brush, because the pan is a tad too hard. Considering I recently bought a Viseart palette with a similar matte shade inside, I don’t think I’ll use this one much anyway.
• Baby – cool metallic rose. Although listed as a metallic, this color leaned almost glittery on the lids. It felt a tad drier than other metallics in the palette, but wore well nonetheless.
• Anaheim – light taupe-brown matte. Very nice matte color, it applied evenly, blended like a dream, and stayed put all day without creasing. This is another one of my favorites.
• Stark – nude-pink matte. Wasn’t as pigmented on the lids as it looked in swatches, and felt a little powdery. Not a bad formulation by any means, but I wish it felt a little creamier.
• Zone – medium brown matte. Well done UD, that’s one fabulous matte! It’s really hard to do matte eye shadows right, and so far this palette has more hits than misses. This by the way is the perfect crease color!
• Serious – smoky gray with iridescent floating pearl. I love using it to line my top lid, because this color looks more modern than plan black eyeliner. The pigmentation and staying power are fantastic, which makes it another one of my faves.
• Pop – pale coral with iridescent sparkle. I was not a fan of this one, mainly because I experienced fallout even with primer. It also had that gritty texture, like you’re rubbing glitter into your lids.
• Harajuku – metallic blue-pink with iridescent micro-shimmer. Not sure if this one was intended to be sheer or not, but I actually liked the way it applied like a translucent pink veil. I don’t usually wear pinks, but this one is lovely!
• Danger – deep metallic royal blue with blue micro-sparkle. Probably the most impressive pan in the palette, this gorgeous blue has a near perfect formula. UBER pigmented, blendable, zero fallout, and creaseproof wear – it’s like a Jack of All Trades, Master of Everything 😉 I wish I wore colors like this more often so I could truly appreciate the beauty that is Danger, but for now I enjoy using it as an eyeliner.
• 1987 – bright metallic yellow-gold. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with this one, because again, I’m not super adventurous with my eye shadows, but it worked as a lid highlight and didn’t even look too yellow with other colors around it. The formula is really nice, too!
• Blackout – blackest black matte. Now that’s an intimidating one! This black is very pigmented, making it a little hard to blend and easy to over-apply. I used it to line my lids with instead of an eye pencil, which worked really well so far.

So as you can see, in my opinion this is a fantastic palette for someone who loves neutrals with a couple bolder colors mixed in to encourage experimenting. Not all pans performed well, but most did, and that’s good enough for me. I personally liked that Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani Palette contains a nice mix of finishes: from mattes to metallics; it allows for more creative ideas!

Now, here are some swatches for you! I broke them down into groups of 5 to correspond with the way the pans are placed in the palette [well, except I goofed on that last row with black & gold, but you can probably deduct which one’s which].

Swatch reference: My skin tone is between MAC NC15 and NW15 with yellowish hue and neutral undertones. Sometimes I can wear NW20 in the Summer. I thought this would be useful to know, since all screens show colors differently, and I also don’t have a studio setup with consistent lighting. Hope that helps!

In case you wanted to see this palette in action, I took a few quick pics of my neutral everyday FOTD from a few days ago when I wore Skimp as an all-over lid shade, Zone in the outer corners, Anaheim in the crease & along the lower lash line, Bathwater in the center of the lid & under the eyebrow, and Blackout used as an eyeliner. Pretty basic look, I know, but that’s the kind of makeup I usually wear on most days. So unless I’m going out, I tend to stay within the neutral zone, and Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani Palette has the perfect colors for all my needs.

Oh, and if you haven’t heard already, Urban Decay is collaborating with Gwen again, this time on the line of lipsticks! Each Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani Palette actually comes with a little sampler inside, but I haven’t opened it yet. I should totally try these lippies over the weekend!

WHERE TO BUY: $58 USD. Available at Sephora, Ulta, Nordstrom.

Are you planning to buy Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani Palette? What do you think about Gwen’s personal style: was it reflected in this palette or did you expect something different? What’s your everyday makeup look like? Let me know in the comments below!

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