Urban Decay Vice 2 Eye Shadow Palette For Holiday 2013

By the time I turned 17 in my senior year of high school my friends already knew that I loved experimenting with makeup and creating interesting looks ("interesting" being a keyword here. They weren't necessarily good). I used to do everyone's makeup during sleepovers and such, and already developed my lifelong love for matte blue eye shadows. For my birthday that year two of my closest friends banded together and got me a beautiful birthday gift that included a massive eye shadow palette with twenty colors from neutrals to bright in various finishes from matte to 80s frost. Looking at the new limited edition Urban Decay Vice 2 palette for Holiday 2013 I'm reminded of that beloved palette. Of course, Urban Decay textures and finishes are miles ahead of my old birthday palette (some of the mattes in those days were incredibly hard and obnoxious to blend, while Urban Decay makes beautiful silky mattes). Modern shimmer and even micro-glitter look very different on skin than the pearly finish of yore, so with this mix of neutral colors and matte eye shadows next to the bright and eye-popping, the possibilities are many.

The palette includes a large mirror and a fluffy double-ended brush (synthetic) that I relegated to my concealer drawer. I prefer dense natural brushes for eye shadows, but have to say that I really like the blending performance of this little Urban Decay brush, and since I also used it for the swatches I can tell you that it is effective for placement. As for the colors, I could do without the pink and purple ones, but there's enough blue, green, and brown in Vice 2 to get my creativity flowing. The texture is excellent for both mattes and shimmers. The glittery ones have a tendency to share their glimmer with skin, clothes, and felines that get too close, but if you're an Urban Decay glitter fan you already know that. Applied over a primer these eye shadows have a phenomenal longevity and vibrancy.

Urban Decay Vice 2 palette includes:

Smokeout (dark brown-black satin. Ideal for a good ole' smoky eye)
Lovesick (black matte with iridescent micro-glitter)
Shellshock (a very metallic silver)
Coax (medium metallic pink with golden iridescent micro-sparkle)
X-Rated (baby pink satin)
Prank (dark navy matte with blue pearly particles)
Madness (bright metallic blue shimmer w/blue micro-glitter. Gorgeous and very Dior-like)
Strike (antique gold shimmer with silver micro-glitter)
Stash (deep olive green shimmer with iridescent micro-sparkle)
Poison (charcoal satin with iridescent micro-sparkle)
Radar (metallic brown shimmer with iridescent micro-glitter)
Damaged (bright metallic emerald shimmer)
Voodoo (metallic purple shimmer with iridescent purple micro-glitter. I might not wear it but I can't stop staring and swatching)
Betrayal (bright purple violet satin with blue shift- almost duo-chrome)
Derailed (medium metallic taupey-brown shimmer. Will be used to the bottom of the pan)
Dope (warm champagne satin)
Toxic (metallic copper-pink shimmer with tonal micro-glitter)
Habit (light nude matte)
Ambush (metallic brown satin)
Rewind (medium brown matte)

An extra swatch comparing all three black(ish) colors- Poison, Lovesick, Smokeout:

Bottom Line: pretty and surprisingly practical.

Urban Decay Vice 2 Eye Shadow Palette ($59) is a limited edition item from the Holiday 2013 Collection. It's available at Sephora, Ulta, and urbandecay.com. The product for this review was supplied by the company.