Urban Decay Gwen Stefani Eyeshadow Palette

The Urban Decay Gwen Stefani Eyeshadow Palette has been featured on so many beauty blogs over the last few months that I didn’t really know if I should add another post to the mix, but I decided to go ahead as I’ve had a few people search my blog for it and I think my opinion might be a little different to the majority of the reviews I’ve read.

Now I’m not a big Gwen Stefani fan, but I am a huge Urban Decay fan so I knew I had to buy the Urban Decay Gwen Stefani Eyeshadow Palette £40 as soon as it launched.

Sure enough I purchased it on the Feel unique website on the day it launched and I couldn’t wait to try it. Firstly the packaging of the palette is gorgeous, with a beautiful gold white and black design, with a brass-like plaque on the top. The palette is relatively compact and it contains a nice mirror within the lid which is always handy.

The Urban Decay Gwen Stefani Eyeshadow Palette contains 15 eyeshadows; 12 of which are completely new shades and three are from the existing Urban Decay range so there shouldn’t be too much of an overlap if like me, you’re an Urban Decay palette fiend.

The shadows within the palette were all supposedly handpicked by Gwen herself, and she helped name the shades too which I really like as quite a lot of celebrity collaborations are just products with a celebrities name stamped onto it, but I really do feel like Gwen had a lot of input with this palette.

– Blonde (pale beige w/pink iridescent shift)
– Bathwater (pale beige w/gold pearl)
– Skimp (pale nude satin)
– Steady (medium rose w/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 w/iridescent floating pearl)
– Pop (pale coral w/iridescent sparkle)
– Harajuku (metallic blue-pink w/iridescent micro-shimmer)
– Danger (deep metallic royal blue w/blue micro-sparkle)
– 1987 (bright metallic yellow-gold)
– Blackout (blackest black matte)

I love the pigmentation and texture of Urban Decay eyeshadows, but I really feel like the consistency of the shadows within this palette aren’t on par with their usual formula – they feel quite dry and chalky in comparison and the pigmentation is the amazing quality you’d expect from Urban Decay.

Quite a few of the shades are very similar, and when on the lids they just blend into one; especially Blonde, Skimp and Stark. The bottom row was the most disappointing in terms of pigmentation and blendability and in all honesty I feel that Danger and Harajuku really don’t belong in this palette as you never see Gwen wearing shades like these for a start, and they just don’t really fit in with the colour scheme of the palette.

I do get use from the Urban Decay Gwen Stefani Eyeshadow Palette as let’s face it, I spent £40 on it but I can’t say I honestly love it and I’m not sure I could recommend it as I feel that £40 could be better spent elsewhere for better shadows.

I’d really recommend reading Lucy Loves review for a different opinion on the palette too. Due to my disappointment with this palette I passed on the Blush Palette within the collection, but I did buy one of the lipsticks which again I was disappointed with but I’ll blog about that very soon to explain why.

I think Urban Decay do the best neutral shadows, but this palette just wasn’t up to scratch when you compare it to the first three Naked Palettes, and even the two Basics Palettes but I’ll still buy new Urban Decay Palettes as I love the brand so much.

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