Urban Decay Vice 3!

Hi lovelies!

How was your Thanksgiving? For those of you that celebrate it of course,  I hope you ate tons of food and slipped into food coma's, and for those of you that don't celebrate it I hope your day was wonderful and still full of good food!

My Turkey day was non-traditional this year, my mom and I made Eggplant Parm and Meatballs in marinara sauce. It was delicious!

In today's post I wanted to share with you my swatches and my thoughts on the Urban Decay Vice 3 palette! If you saw my most recent video on my YouTube Channel then you know I FINALLY got my hands on this beauty!

Ever since I opened this palette I fell in love with it. Hell I was in love with it when I saw all the amazing Beauty Youtubers talking about it, and then its all I thought about after seeing it in person in Sephora. Oh the things Sephora does to us! Am I right?

Lets take a look at the packaging.

The Vice 3 comes in this beautiful case that you can either keep your palette in or use as a makeup bag. I plan on keeping this as a carrying case for my palette, especially if I do any traveling I'll feel better about it being protected. Not that I do a whole lot of traveling anyway. The design on the case is just amazing it reminds me of a sunset or something from the 1980's but I can't put my finger on what it is.

And of course the actual palette has the same design which on the metal-ish/plastic casing looks just stunning. I could not stop staring. The Vice lettering is a lime green raised plastic, that I'm not going to lie, I ran my fingers over a few times because of the texture. Call me weird if you must.

The only downside that I found and I think a lot of other blogger did too was that the outside case is fingerprint city. I have a compulsive thing about the outside of the case looking nice and I know its a waste of time cleaning it off every time especially if I use the darn thing every day!

Look at all those gorgeous colors. Seriously you guys I didn't want to touch this palette when I first opened it, I didn't want to mess them up, but I didn't spend the $60 bucks on this just to stare at it.

So I dug in.

You get five columns of outstanding colors. Each of them in their own color family and giving you five potential looks. But I don't always go by that. I go for what I feel .

I'll get this out of the way now since I will be saying it about all the colors in this palette. The texture on these are buttery and smooth and just one circle around with your finger or a few dabs with a brush you will get lots of color. Especially with some of the darker shades like Bondage and Reign. There are a few colors that are too light or powdery, I found those to be Alien (too light), and Truth (too powdery).

Lets look at swatches.

 In the first column you have your matte/transition shades. Like I mentioned earlier Truth was the powdery shade. Obviously as a skin tone shade you don't need it to be pigmented but because its a matte shade its can be powdery so I mainly use it to blend out the edges of my eyeshadow to highlighting my brow bone.

Undone, Downfall, and DTF are great crease shades and transition shades that help when your using a ton of colors in one look.

 In the second row column you have some of the not so normal colors. I have never worn blue or green eye shadow before and yet Dragon is calling my name to be used some how very soon. I think my next afternoon off I'm going to be playing around big time.

 In the third column we have some lovely shades. I've used Vanity in my outer corner already. Its a nice change up to using a dark brown or black. In the palette it comes off pretty vibrant but on the eye its more muted.

 The fourth coloum is all the pinks and reds. Look at them, they are just so ugh unbelievable. I think part of my decision on buying this palette was based of of Sonic, and Alchemy. As you can see Alien (At the top) is that one shade I wish was just a little more pigmented. In the palette it has so much potential, it has this amazing gold shimmer to it just screams 'Oh yes come to mama!. On the eye its barely a sheer wash of color and you don't see any of the gold.  I've used Bondage quite a bit and create a lovely smokey eye with it. My co-workers enjoyed it too.

The last column we have one of my favorite shades Last Sin. Its just this amazing shimmery neutral shade that when you have a dark crease and outer corner it helps blend everything together on the lid. Even wearing this by itself is nice if your going for that, 'wearing makeup, but I don't want to look like it' look. As for the last three shades I haven't delved into them too much yet, I'll get there, I saw a really pretty smokey eye on Pixwoo's YouTube channel Revolver and Defy could be great for!

And there you have it my lovelies, my look and thoughts at the Urban Decay Vice 3 Palette. This Palette retails at Sephora, and on Urban Decay's website for $60. Amongst all the other holiday palettes out there I'm glad I got this one!

I'll talk to you all soon! <3 Nicole

Urban Decay Cosmetics Naked 3 Palette!

Hi guys! Its Monday again, but that means its also new blog post day!!

I apologize for my post going up so late, but we all know real life can get in the way. I so wish that blogging was kind of my full time job.. I love it so much!

Today I bring you a post that I have been putting off because I think its my favorite one yet, and if you saw the title then you already know where this is headed.

Back in March I placed a Sephora order and bought myself the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette. I did this after much consideration of other eye shadow palette from other companies. I literally did research for months on what palette I wanted.

How important is doing research on a beauty product you want to purchase?

So in the end I'm pretty sure that I made the right decision, I have used this palette almost every day since I got it and now after a couple months of using it I want to tell you what I think.

 
First off, the packaging... I have said over and over I am a sucker for anything rose gold... and this makes no exception. I love that its a metal case that snaps shut so you don't have to worry about it opening up during travel. Its slim so it will also travel nicely as well. Its not as thin as my LORAC Pro Palette but its compact enough. I like that this palette has a texture top to it, I think it adds a little something extra that we don't always see.

All these shadows for the most part are warm rose toned shadows. I'll be the first to admit I never wore much pink eye shadow when I started playing with makeup with I was a kid. I always thought it washed me out. Turns out I was just using to pale of a pink.

Formula wise these are all soft and easily blendable. I found them all really easy to work with except Dust which is a little too sheer for me. 


Lets take a look at swatches:  All swatches are photographed in sunlight with no primer underneath.

Here we have the first three shades, Strange, Dust and Burnout. Strange is a shade I use most definitely for highlighting. Its not a complete matte, more of a satin finish. Dust is a very light shimmery pink, its a nice color but too light for me and it doesn't really show up on my eyes. Burnout is slightly darker than Dust, and I love using this as an all over lid color and blend it out with a nice light brown in the crease for a wearable look for work.

Next up we have Limit, which is one of the two only matte shades in this palette. I like using it as a transition color when I'm working with some of the darker colors. Next is Buzz again a medium pink that is kind of like Burnout but a little less pigmented, I still like it as an overall lid color. Lastly in this set is Trick. Trick is one of my favorite colors in the palette. Its a warm peach, color that is super shimmery/glittery and its just looks like foil on the lid, ( at least for me it does). I would beware the fallout with Trick, when I tap off any excess I can see the glitter go everywhere!

Now we are getting to the darker side of the Naked 3. We have Nooner, Liar, and Factory. Nooner is the only other matte shade in the palette. I like to use it as a crease shade when I don't want a smokey eye or to use a brown. Its a nice change of pace when I need a different look. Liar is a rose gold shade that I just can't believe I never used earlier.

I can successfully say I have used all the shades in this palette at the time of this post! I have aways been fearful of darker colors for fallout and the fact I suck at blending darker shadows without getting it everywhere.

Factory is a mid tone brown shade that I used on my outer corner most of the time.

Finally we have the last three shades, the ones that are the most pigmented, Mugshot, Darkside, and Blackheart. Mugshot and Darkside are darker brown shades that have a pink undertone to them, once again I use these as outer corner colors and in my lower lash line. Blackheart is a really dark brown with red shimmer running throughout. The red shimmer doesn't transfer to the eye as well though. That doesn't bother me so much but if its something you look for you can always add red glitter on top to bring it out more.

You can see even without primer these shadows can pack a punch, but sadly they don't stay long on my lid without primer. When you purchase the Naked 3 ( It retails for $52 at Sephora, and $54 on Urban Decay's website) you also get a four pack of UD Primer Potion samples. You get original, Sin, Anti-aging, and Eden which is a long wear primer. You don't necessarily need the UD primers to get the shadows to strut there stuff. The Hard Candy long wear primer does just fine.

You also get a double ended brush with your purchase. It's just as adorable as the palette. One side is a small paddle brush the other a larger fluffy blending/paddle brush. The smaller paddle brush is not my favorite, it's stuff and I have a hard time packing on color. The fluffier end however is amazing for blending out color and placing color in my outer corner! 

Overall I love this palette, I get pretty much everyday use out of it, and I never get tired of pairing it with other eye shadows I have. The price point is a little iffy for me. I never spent $52 bucks on make up before. I can see why now though, you definitely get what you pay for!

If you are looking to purchase the Naked 3 you can do so at Sephora stores or online and I'm sure they have it at Ulta, and also on UD's website! I hope maybe this review swayed you on whether or not you wanted to purchase it or not!

I'll talk to you all on Wednesday! <3 Nicole