REVIEW: Urban Decay Smoked Palette

So I received the new Urban Decay Smoked palette from a close friend and work colleague of mine, and I am in LOVE with it!

The palette features 10 super pigmented eyeshadows, including 4 matte shades, plus a FULL-SIZE 24/7 Glide On eyeliner pencil in the shade PERVERSION. I'm so glad that this palette didn't come with one of the Urban Decay Karma brushes, as I'm not a fan of them - the ones I've received previously in the Naked and Naked 2 palettes were both given away immediately! Also, the palette comes with a cute mini Eyeshadow Primer Potion! It's soo adorable! Look at the comparison between the sample and a regular-sized Primer Potion tube below! 

The palette is totally different to the Naked palettes, as it features a zip-around fastening. I'm not a huge fan of this type of fastening because I find it can ruin the overall look of the palette; however, I guess it fits in with the all-black "tough" theme of the case. But the advantage of it is that it makes the palette more secure if you're travelling - it's not likely to open in your bag and ruin the eyeshadows or your bag, so it's a good idea in that sense.

The casing is very fitting to the name; it's black and has a cushiony-soft touch but still durable and sturdy, with "SMOKED" written across the front in an "embossed" effect. The only disadvantage to this casing is that it tends to get messy quite easily - if you have foundation/eyeshadow/makeup etc on your fingers when you're handling the palette, fingerprints and marks are easily left on the casing and can make it look dirty - similar to the NARS blushes/eyeshadows.

The shades in the palette are:

Kinky - a matte, light neutral peach

Freestyle - a matte, medium tan

Mushroom - a warm, taupe-grey shimmer

Backdoor - a matte, dark brown

Blackout - a matte, blackest-black

Barlust - a dark, golden brown metallic

Rockstar - a deep purple shimmer

Evidence - a navy blue shimmer

Loaded - a deep emerald metallic

These are swatched on my arm from left to right in the same order as mentioned above;
However, "Kinky" doesn't show up very clearly because it almost completely blends into my skin tone!
(yes, I am THAT pale..!!)
For this reason, I have included the swatches below that have been taken from THEMAKEUPMANUAL's blog -
you can see the swatches clearer on her gorgeous, medium-toned skin!

  



Also included with the palette is a "Get the Look" booklet, which features step-by-step tutorials on how to acheive different smokey eye looks using the shades in this palette. The looks range from super dramatic, evening looks to more daytime and work-appropriate looks.

I honestly fell in love with the palette the first time I used it; the eyeshadows are SO incredibly pigmented and soft, and I believe this is because of their new shadow formula and "proprietary Pigment Infusion System - Richer and smoother colour, more velvety texture, blendability and even longer-lasting results" (taken from the Urban Decay website). I totally agree with this statement - the colours do seem very rich and smooth and my eyeshadow stayed PERFECT throughout the whole day, from 6am until 3am!

With regards to the eyeliner pencil, I actually owned this shade prior to having this set and I admit, at first I did not really like it - I preferred ZERO for a long time. This was purely because I found it smudged like CRAZY when I applied it to my waterline, but I loved how much darker it was compared to Zero. HOWEVER!!! A trick I learned is after applying it to your waterline, keep your eyes open for a few seconds - DO NOT BLINK OR CLOSE YOUR EYES - it helps if you wave your hands in front of your eyes, too. This allows the eyeliner to dry and "set" onto your waterline, and you will notice that once it has dried, it is virtually smudgeproof!

Most of the eye looks in the booklet tell you to smudge this pencil onto your eyelids - you will need to do this as soon as you apply the liner, otherwise it is very difficult to smudge! I now am a very big fan of this pencil, and I do recommend it instead of Zero, as you get a very black line with one gentle swipe!

Overall, I really do recommend this palette to anyone, even if you're a beginner and would like to learn how to create different smokey eye looks, this is definitely a must have! All the colours are easily wearable and the looks can all be adapted for daytime as well as for night.

Urban Decay Smoked Palette is available worldwide from House of Fraser online, instore from Debenhams  and on the Urban Decay website or Sephora if you're in America and overseas. RRP: £35.