Monday, April 2, 2012

Worth The Hype? Urban Decay's "Build Your Own" Palette

Brace yourselves....

Disappointment is coming.

We all know Urban Decay. They are a brand that made themselves famous for their palettes, like the NAKED and NAKED2, the Book of Shadows, Anniversary Palettes, Midnight Emergency, etc. What is most appealing about these famous palettes is that they offer full-sized, higher-end quality eyeshadows for a very low price. The NAKED palette, a cult favorite, contains 12 eyeshadows, a mini primer, and a brush or eyeliner for $48. That means that every item in the palette has a $3.50 price tag on it, when the eyeshadows themselves are worth $18 on their own. That is one of the reasons so many people go to Urban Decay, because you get $250 worth of product for $50.



Recently, Urban Decay launched their new formulation of eyeshadows in conjunction with their hyped-up "Build Your Own" palette. There are several new points that UD is boasting about with this launch:


  1. An improved formulation for eyeshadows
  2. De-pottable (and re-pottable) eyeshadow pans
  3. Customizable palette

Let's start with the formulation. This isn't new per se, since UD has been slowly incorporating this new formula into the collection long before the release of this palette. The eyeshadows in the NAKED2 palette all have this new formulation, so if you already have that, you can compare it to the old formula. 

Now on to the most appealing part of this. The de-potting. As a beauty blogger and beauty junkie, making the most out of your makeup storage is very important if you're planning on keeping your collection from taking over your room... (my desk? Occupied? nah....) This is why people buy MAC palettes, why there are so many tutorials online on how to de-pot eyeshadows and store pans. Urban Decay have really outdone themselves with this. All of the eyeshadows in their new release are completely de-pottable, which means you can pop out the pan and keep the plastic frame. The main drawback of de-potting other shadows is that there is no way for you to put them back, and storage of single pans gets harder and messier. 
With this new design, Urban Decay has made it possible to de-pot an eyeshadow, put it in the palette, and use its frame to hold another UD eyeshadow. Since these eyeshadows pop in and out of their frame and palette, I don't think they have the magnetic strip necessary for other palettes, so they might not fit into MAC palettes or Z-palettes. 




However, the benefits of this palette still have drawbacks. This new palette only holds 6 eyeshadows, and is far bulkier than any other palettes in the market. both of the NAKED palettes are very slim for the amount of product they carry, which makes them perfect for travel.

Customizable? I beg to differ. Every time someone purchases a customizable palette, UD throws in a "Walk of Shame" eyeshadow (which I find will be a very appropriate name for the shade, once people start getting aggravated). Every time. No exceptions. You need more space for your UD eyeshadows, and have to buy 4 palettes? Congrats! You now have 3 backups of "Walk of Shame."

Finally, the price. The UD website flaunts the deceivingly-bargain price of $18 for the palette, but that is JUST for the palette. You get "Walk of Shame," the palette, and a mini Good Karma brush. Each eyeshadow that you want to buy after that is $18, which puts the price of the palette at $108, $126, if you want to replace "Walk of Shame" with a shade of your own (you're still going to get "Walk of Shame," but you can always pop it in one of the other frames and replace it with a shade of your choice).



Coming from a company that has made its name for amazingly-priced palettes, this seems like a huge step back. You'd be better off trying to find the shades you want in existing palettes than buying them individually for the sake of being able to put them in a palette. 

Honestly, this is not something to get overly excited about. Most of the main selling points for this palette seem more gimmicky than authentic benefits, and there is just no way of justifying spending $126 on a palette with 6 eyeshadows when UD makes $50 palettes with 12 eyeshadows in them.

What do you think?




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