Like a Ballroom Blitz? Urban Decay's Electric Pressed Pigment Palette

Urban Decay's Electric Pressed Pigment Palette

Holi, also known as the Festival of Colours, is an Indian tradition celebrated at the start of every Spring. When I saw Urban Decay's teaser video on Instagram a few months ago I knew almost immediately where they could've pulled their inspiration from.

The mighty ten

Nine pressed pigment shades were paired with its muse, Chaos, to tantalise the rainbow lovers. Personally, I'm a colour admirer -- I know what I like, but I've never been too bold in the makeup realm. Urban Decay's newest palette has given me a chance to taste that rainbow.

Revolt

Revolt is a shimmery silver. I wouldn't necessarily say its super pigmented, yet it does make for a great colour for highlighting the inner corners of your eyes.

Gonzo (the not so great)

Gonzo is described as a "bright turquoise matte with floating tonal pearl." 'Tis bright, but chalky and patchy. 

Slowburn

Slowburn is as orange as the setting summer sun. Matte and pearl collide in the finish.

Savage

Savage is the apple of Barbie's eye. It's a matte fuchsia pink that'd make Ken jealous.

Fringe

Fringe is a metallic teal; just think of a peacock's feather.

Chaos

Chaos (not the kind in Britney's life) is a vibrant, matte cerulean blue and is probably just as patchy as Gonzo. This is a buildable blue that requires a bit of patience during the application process.

Jilted

Jilted is a cranberry pink with hints of plum. This shade happens to be one of my personal favourites.

Urban

Urban is a punk-y regal purple that Queen Elizabeth could even get behind.

Freak

Freak is a moss green with golden undertones. Kermit knows full well it's not easy being green.

Thrash 

Chartreuse is the baby of lemon and lime. Urban Decay classifies Thrash as a matte, but I beg to differ.

Swatches from left to right: Revolt, Gonzo, Slowburn, Savage and Fringe

Swatches from left to right: Gonzo, Jilted, Urban, Freak and Thrash

Swatches of all ten shades

I have no real tricks up my sleeve in the makeup skills department, so I watched a tutorial filmed by Leesha of xSparkage for advice -- for me, she is a master at whipping up wearable looks with extraordinary colour palettes.

Just like Leesha I kept things in the family and paired several colours (Gonzo, Jilted, Urban and Revolt) from the Electric Pressed Pigment Palette with the a few colours from the Naked 3 Palette.

Prior to applying the six or seven shades seen above, I first applied NARS Smudge Proof Primer, which was followed by NYX's Jumbo Eye Pencil in Milk in order to have a proper canvas. This duo (primer and white eyeliner) helped to make the eyeshadow stay put, so much that I didn't fret about colour fallout.

This palette made me super giddy, I felt like a kid in a candy store as I wrangled up my brushes before trotting off to create this look. I can't wait to see how the other six shades perform.

Overall, I'm impressed by this leap of faith purchase. Thanks to Tacita for helping to make this possible!

The Bagful breakdown:

Total amount for Urban Decay's Electric Pressed Pigment Palette:

• $49.00 USD 

Value for money spent (performance and quality):

• 9 out of 10 bags — There were more hits than misses.

Would another purchase be on the horizon?:

• Tacita also picked up a couple of tubes of UD's Naked Ultra Nourishing Lipgloss.  I just so happen to be wearing Naked in these very pictures :)

Currently testing: Urban Decay's Electric Pressed Pigment Palette

Urban Decay's Electric Pressed Pigment Palette

Parental Advisory: Explicit Content

Swatches of all 10 shades from left to right: Revolt, Gonzo, Slowburn, Savage, Fringe, Chaos, Jilted, Urban, Freak and Thrash

Wearing Chaos, Jilted and Urban along with several paler shades from the Naked 3 palette

Here is a preview of the look I created with Urban Decay's newest release, The Electric Pressed Pigment Palette. Currently testing longevity and wearability. 

In the look above I was gunning for Jessica Alba's recent blue eyeliner look with a twist.

A little late to the party: Le Metier de Beaute's Kaleidoscope Eye Kit in Silk Road

Historically speaking, the Silk Road was pretty important for trade purposes, exploration and travel. With Le Metier de Beaute's Kaleidoscope in Silk Road, it's simply a rich contraption featuring four spicy hues. Despite Silk Road's release in late 2011, I still wanted to purchase it -- the chance to try a Kaleidoscope was what I was mainly after.

Le Metier de Beaute's Silk Road

Silk Road swatches

Four shades work harmoniously together -- a symphonic experience for the eyes.

Tapestry - shimmery plum

Damask - orange-y gold

Ikat - matte-like mauve

Brocade - chocolate brown with golden metallic flecks

Each colour is soft, but not powdery; colour payoff is almost immediate and the ease of layering and blending is high. Working with this palette was enjoyable and seamless.

Creasing and fading are a non-issue -- these shadows like to stick around.

Let's play!

In order to create the look seen above, follow these easy steps:

• Start with an eyeshadow primer, apply all over your eyelid and blend out above your crease.
• Apply a neutral satin shade from your lash line to your brow bone. I used MAC's Shroom.
• Damask goes first, starting from your lash line and blended out slightly above the crease.
• Focus Tapestry on the outer half of your eyelid and sweep a bit into your crease. Make sure to leave a halo of Damask.
• Ikat should overlap a small amount of Tapesty and stop at the middle of your lid. Sweep and blend a small amount into your crease as well.
• Line the outer half of your upper lash line with Brocade and flick out to create a subtle cat eye effect.
• Finally, use a black liner to finish lining the upper lash line; I started at the inner corner of my eye and blended into Brocade. Liner of choice was UD's 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Zero.
• Oh shoot, don't forget mascara!

I think this look resembles a sangria at sunset ;) Cheers!

Some might think the price tag is a little hefty, but to help put things into perspective here -- you're pretty much getting four full priced shades in one nifty container. The thought of paying a boatload of money for "one" item can be a crippling thing; however, something tells me you won't regret this purchase :)

The Bagful breakdown:

Total amount for Le Metier de Beaute's Kaleidoscope in Silk Road:

• $95.00 USD

Value for money spent (performance and quality):

• 9 out of 10 bags – Took one point off for the expense; but you get crafty packaging and high performing shades.

Would another purchase be on the horizon?:

• Their blush looks like a fun time!

pssst.. I'm wearing Burberry's Lip Velvet in Pink Amber on my lips.

Makeup Geek Eyeshadow Swatches and Review

Anyone who watches YouTube makeup tutorials should be familiar with Makeup Geek. One of my favourite Makeup Geek videos is "How To: Blend Your Eyeshadow Like a Pro" which I have watched many times to help me with my eyeshadow blending technique. The beautiful and talented CEO, Marlena, has created her own makeup line. At present, it consists of pan and compact eyeshadows, lipsticks, and gel eyeliners. Today I've got some eyeshadow swatches here for you.

I purchased these a while back when Makeup Geek had a 20% off sale (if you follow them on Twitter/Facebook, you should be able to keep an eye out for any future sales). Since I love to experiment with colour but don't want to spend a lot of money on shades I won't use often, I bought mostly bright eyeshadows.

Burlesque - a dark, brownish burgundy with a touch of shimmer. On my skintone it pulls much browner and less red/purple than the swatch on the Makeup Geek site. I still love it, it's great for a warm, smokey brown look.

Razzleberry  - a bright red with gold glitter. I think some people have experienced irritation with red eyeshadows -- this was fine on my sensitive eyes until I forgot I was wearing eye makeup and rubbed my right eye. My left eye (which I didn't touch) was perfectly fine.

Mango Tango - a peachy pink with some gold glitter, noticeably less gold glitter than Razzleberry. This shade is great for summer, it's bright and fun.

Shimmermint - a shimmery, pale green. I love this for a soft, light, spring look.

Sea Mist - a rich teal with gold glitter. I like to use this with light turquoise eyeshadows for an ocean inspired look.

Unexpected - a matte mauve-y brown. I like to use this for blending out looks if I don't want to use a nude brown colour. I've seen it described as a dupe for MAC's Quarry.

Sensuous - a warm purple with gold glitter. A potential dupe for MAC's Trax.

Overall, I'm very impressed with these Makeup Geek eyeshadows. The shades with glitter do have a bit of fallout (I have yet to find a glitter eyeshadow without fallout!) so if you want to make the glitter stick, I suggest using a sticky or creamy base. The eyeshadows are pigmented, easy to apply and blend well. With these I didn't notice much fading or creasing, but it might have something to do with always wearing eyeshadows over a base.

I ordered the pan form which come in a sleeve similar to MAC's eyeshadow pans; they fit into MAC's 4 pan and 15 pan eyeshadow palettes. However, there's a hitch, Makeup Geek pans aren't magnetic -- in order to get around this I stuck small magnets on the back of each pan. If eyeshadow pans aren't your thing, you can also order them in small compacts.

The pans are $5.99USD and compacts are $7.99USD. I ordered these when I lived in the US and shipping was $3.94. They do ship internationally, so I recreated this order, selected Australia as the destination and shipping starts at $5.77USD.

Makeup Geekeyeshadows are cruelty free :)

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