Review & Swatches: NEW Urban Decay Smoked Palette

It is always an exciting day when Urban Decay releases a new palette! Urban Decay is my absolute favorite eye makeup brand. So when I got an email about the new Smoked Palette, I had to order one immediately. After releasing two Naked Palettes intended to create natural, everyday looks, a darker smoky palette is a perfect addition to their collection.

 

I really like the packaging of this palette. The glittery matte design with glossy letters is so simple and sleek. It is fairly small, slim, and lightweight. Urban Decay packaging is always gorgeous, but sometimes they go overboard and make ridiculously large palettes for small amounts of product (Book of Shadows IV, I'm looking at you!). I also like the zipper closure because it will be brilliant for traveling.

Now on to the exciting part: swatches! All photos were taken in natural light, and all swatches were placed on bare skin with no primer, unless otherwise noted.

Kinky, Freestyle, Mushroom, Backdoor, Blackout

Barlust, Rockstar, Evidence, Loaded, Asphalt

Kinky, Freestyle

Kinky is a peachy white matte highlight shade. It can look a tiny bit powdery when it is swatched heavily, but that goes away when it is blended out. This shade is exclusive to this palette.

Freestyle is a matte peachy tan. It is a great shade for blending out other shadows and warming up any look. It is also exclusive to this palette.

Mushroom, Backdoor

Mushroom is a silvery taupe with some plum undertones that are hard to capture on camera. It is is a very complex and interesting shade with a metallic finish. If I had to pick one favorite shade from the palette, this would be it.

Backdoor is a dark matte brown. Urban Decay doesn't have a lot of shades similar to this so I'm glad they included it in the palette. It is fairly neutral in tone, but comes off a bit cooler once applied to the skin. Its pigmentation is not quite up as good the shimmery shades, but is still impressive for a dark matte. Backdoor is exclusive to this palette.

Barlust, Rockstar

Barlust is a medium metallic brown with warm bronze and golden undertones. I think this color could look orangey on very fair skintones, but is a gorgeous shadow otherwise. It is exclusive to this palette.

Rockstar is a deep shimmery purple. It has a lot of plum in it and has a borderline metallic finish. The camera had a hard time picking up the warmth and darkness of this shade.

Evidence, Loaded

Evidence is a shimmery cobalt blue. The shimmer is much lighter than the base shadow, which almost gives it an iridescent appearance. In terms of texture, this is the hardest shadow in the palette, but still has good color payoff.

Loaded is a deep forest green. It has the same borderline metallic finish as Rockstar. This is not a color I would normally think to use, but now that I have it I really like it and will be using it a lot!

Blackout, Asphalt

Blackout is a matte black. It has similar pigmentation to Backdoor (they are not quite as intense as the shimmery/metallic shades), but is still the best matte black shadow I have ever tried. The pigmentation of both of these dark matte shades improves over primer.

Asphalt is gunmetal with small flecks of silver shimmer. The shimmer is much smaller than actual glitter, but is bigger and more obvious than any shimmer in the rest of the palette. It is still a cool toned shadow, but is a little bit warmer than mushroom (as well as darker). This is another shade that is slightly metallic, and another shade that is exclusive to this palette.

Any Urban Decay fans know pretty much goes without saying that the formula and pigmentation of all of the eyeshadows is amazing. I think the pigmentation is better than any other brand of eyeshadows I own, including MAC. They are incredibly soft, blendable, and easy to work with. Even though I have 4 other UD palettes, there are only 2 shades in the Smoked Palette that I already own. I have Evidence in the 15^th Anniversary Palette, and Blackout in both the 15^th Anniversary and Naked2 palettes. However, you can't fault them for repeating Blackout in this palette, as it is an essential shade for any smoky kit. Even if you were a complete UD junkie and owned all of their other eyeshadows, at least there are still 5 shades exclusive to this palette. I like that there are also 4 matte shades. I know that a major complaint people had about the Naked Palettes was that they didn't contain enough mattes, so this should please them!

The only tiny complaint that I have is that the palette doesn't contain any light shimmery shades. Obviously they wanted to provide a wide array of dark shadows, which I think is great. I wouldn't take any of them away, but I think a couple more light shades would have been a nice addition, since the contrast between light and dark can really bring a smoky look together. This is not a major problem for me as I already own other palettes with many light shimmery shades in them, but it is something to consider if this is going to be your first UD purchase.

24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Perversion

Perversion

Zero, Perversion

I am so exited that Perversion is the eyeliner included with this palette. I have used and loved the 24/7 liner in Zero for years, and have been wanting to try Perversion ever since it came out. As with the other 24/7 liners, it glides on effortlessly (hence the “glide on” part of the name) and has amazing staying power. It is easy to smudge out when first applied, but stays in place all day once it sets. It has the same great formula as Zero, but is much darker black.

Mushroom over bare skin, Mushroom over primer potion

Backdoor over bare skin, Backdoor over primer potion

It it always nice to get another mini primer potion. It makes the eyeshadows in this palette even more vibrant than they already are. This is especially true for the matte shades. I mentioned that the darker mattes aren't quite as pigmented the other shades, but putting them over the primer potion completely solves that problem. It also ensures that they don't crease or fade throughout the day.

A really cool feature included with this palette is the look book. I didn't include pictures of it for copyright reasons, but it is much better than guides that I have seen included with other brands' palettes in the past. It gives you step-by-step instructions for creating 12 different smoky looks, and has a picture to accompany each one. There are also some additional tips and tricks in the front and back of the book. I think everyone could learn something new from it, whether they have been doing makeup for 5 weeks or 5 years. It is also available separately from the palette for those that are only interested in the look book.

One of the main reasons why I love Urban Decay palettes is because they are such a great value. Their individual eyeshadows are $18 each, so building up a collection of those is extremely pricy. The eyeshadows in the Smoked Palette aren't full size (0.03 ounces instead of 0.05), but they would still be worth $10.80 each. Multiply that by 10 and add the value of the primer potion (the travel sized 0.13 fl. oz. tube retails for $9 on the UD website), the eyeliner ($19), and the instruction booklet ($9 on the website) and the palette is worth $145. I would gladly pay $49 dollars for that!

Overall, I am very pleased with this palette. All of the products are amazing and I am quite excited to dive deeper into the world of smoky looks. If you already own one or both Naked Palettes and are looking to add some darker shades to your collection, I would absolutely recommend this palette. However, if you only want to purchase one palette from Urban Decay, I definitely think you should start with either Naked or Naked2, depending on your personal preference. They are just so much more versatile in creating both day and night looks, whereas I really only see myself using the Smoked Palette at night.

Which Urban Decay palette is your favorite?