Hi guys, today’s post has been written by my beautiful friend Kate who was very kind to review for us her recent purchase from Urban Decay – The 15 Anniversary Eyeshadow Collection.

My purchase of the UD Anniversary Palette was a bit of a fluke really.

             I’d already drooled over the press releases and American blogger’s reviews and had settled down for the long wait for an Irish stockist. October they said. Then, by pure coincidence, I found myself wandering Debenhams beauty hall on a rare day off. I let myself wander over to the tiny UD counter, and with no s.a being visible i had a bit of a sneaky browse with my friend. Lo and behold, this baby was perched precariously on a table, on top of a mini pile of stock. Our eyes met.. It had to be mine. The sales assistant had reappeared as I cradled the beauty in my arms and explained that Debenhams had rushed the stock in early for their beauty day. No complaints from me, ofc. A quick exchange of 45 euro and it was miiiinnnneeee.

            Although I understand 45 quid is a decent chunk o’ change for most of us, this palette actually does offer some fairly decent value for money. What you get for your cash is fifteen 0.05oz shadows, encased in a beautiful filigree laser-cut box which has a HUGE mirror inside the lid. The real selling-point of this beauty is that all the shadows are completely new and never-before-seen in a UD palette. As any regular UD customer would know, the company put alot of the same shadows in their many palettes so this is a welcome departure. It also has a beautiful mix of both everyday wearable colours and dramatic brights. Also notable are the absence of UD frankly horrible chunky glitter shadows (with the exception of midnight rodeo, but more on that later). In their place we have the super-pigmented beautiful satin and shimmer shades that UD fans rejoice in, mixed in with duochromes and mattes. Here are the swatches, on my pasty pasty arm over NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk, followed by the shade breakdowns and ratings. (I’m an NC15 for reference!) I swatched from Midnight Rodeo (my wrist) to chase and then over to tainted. You can see the shade names in the photo below!

Midnight Rodeo is a coppery/taupe with tiny glitter particles. This is one of those problematic ultra-sparkle shadows we’re always raging about, although the problem is significantly reduced with a decent bit o’ blending!

Midnight 15 is a pale silvery taupe shimmer. Very nice lid color for any warm-based smokey eye.

Vanilla is a pale yellow vanilla colour with a hint of gold. A beautiful champagne satin colour, but NOT a substitute for Virgin (of naked palette fame). This one would be amazing as a highlight for anyone NC/NW 20+, it’s a little bit much for us ultra-ghosts although totally workable!

Flow is a light peachy shimmer. As a lid color on blue or brown eyes? MY GOD, so beaut! This one really shouts bride to me too and would really warm up a typical irish complexion for an easy everyday lid wash colour!

Chase is a medium warm shimmery gold/taupey-bronze (excellent description eh?!). I love this one, another beauty on blue eyes for a simple day look or a super crease colour. It’s ultra-smooth and SO satiny and pigmented, a dream to use!

Tainted is a pale pinky/lavender with a slight gold shimmer. This one actually isn’t crazy pigmented, but in real life it is SO unusual. A truly amaaaze lid ash for anyone with brown or hazel eyes!

Junkshow is a bright fuchsia pink with purple flash. Very cute but with an odd chalkiness, only for the brave but such a nice outer ‘V’ colour.

Omen is a medium lavender with blue flash. This is stunnnning in real life, I’ve been wearing it so much with my dark grey eyes and it’s beautiful, but try it on brown? Wow, seriously.

Evidence is a dark navy blue with light blue sheen. Great pigmentation, this makes for a gorgeous full-on smokey eye.

Deep End is a medium shimmery mermaid-like teal green. Nicer than MAC’s Aquadisiac in my opinion, this one is getting so much wear. Stunning as a pop of colour on the lower lash line.

Deeper is a dark bronze/brown with gold shimmer. Darker and more bronze than Naked’s Smog, this is perfect as an accent colour. ULTRA pigmented.

 M.I.A. is a dark brown with slight sheen. This one leans quite cool-toned, i’m using it a lot to tone down really bright looks.

Ace is a deep steel blue shimmer. Grey is AWFUL on me, and I really took this to be quite Gunmetal-esque. Wrong! This is stunning on everyone and has such a lovely duo chrome.

Blackout is a deep black matte. This is the only one in the palette that wasn’t as pigmented as I would like. However, it was SUPER black and I imagine patted on with a dense shadow brush this would make an amazing base to build a dramatic smokey eye from. As is it, I’ve been using it to set gel liner with and it does the job!

Half Truth is a deep kind of greyed out purple. Pretty for accenting and beautiful with Omen for a purple smokey eye!

Stay tuned for the next post, Kate is doing a FOTD using her favorite shades from the palette!