I had my eyes on the Gwen Stefani Urban Decay Palette ever since it was announced a few months a go. Not only do I love Gwen (much like her voice, her style is just amazing) but I’m also a huge fan of Urban Decay’s eyeshadows. I mean, hellllooo??? The original NAKED palette will forever be a favorite.
As much as I wanted to get my hands on the Gwen Stefani Urban Decay palette though, being that it consists of mostly warm neutrals, that little annoying voice in my head kept saying “dude… do you really need another one of these??”. So, unable to make up my mind, I waited and then I waited some more. Finally, my sister ended up buying it for me as a Christmas gift. She actually had no idea that I wanted it (and told me she kept stalking the blog to see if I already have it) so I was very surprised. So surprised, that I actually cried when I opened it. It was right then when my brother and my husband had one of their “silent” dialogues, where my brother looked at my husband thinking “wait.. is she serious? is she really crying over some makeup?” then my husband looked at him with that look that said “don’t. just don’t, bro. let it go.” My poor little brother was then even more confused when I cried even louder (I might have actually screamed….. Nope….. Not might have, I screamed so loud that our dog started barking, trying to figure out what’s wrong) as I opened his gift, which was a huge Gryffindor blanket. What can I say, guys. My family just gets me.
….okay, back to this beauty!
“In a true creative partnership, Gwen Stefani and Urban Decay created the UD | Gwen Stefani Eyeshadow Palette. Wende Zomnir—co-founder of Urban Decay—and her product development team spent countless hours at Gwen’s house, talking makeup and working closely with her on every detail of this palette—from the case to the amazing shades. These eye shadows were carefully created with Gwen Stefani, filling a void by creating the exact shades she always wished she had in her collection. This palette features her 15 must-have shades of eye shadow, including 12 never-seen-before colors and three that are from the Urban Decay shadow collection. With the ultimate range of neutrals and a few jewel tones to mix things up, this is Gwen Stefani’s go-to kit to create her most iconic looks. With these shades in your beauty wardrobe, you’ll have everything you need to recreate these signature looks for yourself. Each eye shadow in this palette is formulated with Urban Decay’s Pigment Infusion System™, the proprietary blend of ingredients that gives every shade its velvety texture, rich color, serious staying power, and blend-ability.”
UD x Gwen Stefani comes with – 15 x 0.04 oz eye shadows: Blonde (pale beige/pink iridescent shift), Bathwater (pale beige with gold pearl), Skimp (pale nude satin), Steady (medium rose/metallic gold shift), Punk (reddish brown matte), Baby (cool metallic rose), Anaheim (light taupe-brown matte), Stark (nude-pink matte), Zone (medium brown matte), Serious (smoky gray with iridescent floating pearl), Pop (pale coral with iridescent sparkle), Harajuku (metallic blue-pink/iridescent micro-shimmer), Danger (deep metallic royal blue/blue micro-sparkle), 1987 (bright metallic yellow-gold), Blackout (blackest black matte).
And since when doing reviews I love listing things I love and things I don’t love, here are my thoughts.
What I love
-first thing’s first: the packaging. It’s absolutely beautiful. I love the design, it’s sturdy, edgy with a huge mirror and I don’t see any problems with using this palette while traveling.
-this palette has an amazing value. For $58.00 you get $228.00 worth of product.
-the eye shadows have a great formula, they blend easily, and are nicely pigmented.
-I love unique colors like 1987 and Danger- they both have an AMAZING pigmentation and are great for adding a little pop of color.
-the formula is also long-lasting.
-I love that there is a mix of matte, metallic and shimmer finishes.
What I don’t love
-here’s the thing, I think this palette is gorgeous and I love how these colors work with my skin tone. BUT, I also have a very light skin tone- similar to Gwen’s. I feel like some of these neutrals will have trouble showing on deeper skin tones. It seems to me that instead of creating a palette inspired by Gwen, one that everyone could use, this palette was created to suit those of us who similarly to Gwen, have a light, porcelain skin tone. This doesn’t mean that you can’t get use out of this palette if you have a deeper skin tone, but I would definitely recommend using a good eyeshadow primer.
-I love neutrals in this palette, but when I think of Gwen Stefani, I think color, color, color. And here we only have about three shades that really “pop” (Harajuku, 1987 and Danger).
-the pigmentation is not uniform throughout the palette some of the colors like Pop and Harajuku, weren’t as pigmented as the rest.
-I kinda also wish that this palette came with a brush because I love UD’s makeup brushes, but that might be pushing it a little ;)
I have to say that I am in love with this palette. Some of my favorite colors here are Punk, Blackout (which has crazy pigment, just look at the swatch!) 1987, Danger and Skimp. Once again, if you have a skin tone similar to mine (NC15-ish) you will love this palette. If your skin is a little deeper, I’d definitely try to swatch it at Sephora first.
Gwen Stefani Urban Decay Palette
Do you have this palette? Planning on getting it?