Urban Decay Electric Palette Review

This is overdue, so I'm postponing my Palette Parade check-in to tomorrow.

After so many years of Naked, we have all been looking forward to Urban Decay getting back to their brightly colored, grittier roots and giving us some color. As soon as this was announced (or leaked, depending on how you look at it,) people were itching to get their hands on it. I picked it up as part of Sephora's Chic Week early access and jumped it in line in the aforementioned Palette Parade. 

Urban Decay is calling this one a pressed pigment palette. To be honest, I can't tell if that's to excuse the chalky quality of the red and pink shades or because of the FDA warning those same shades carry. FDA Warning?! Nothing too alarming - several red dyes and pigments that are approved in other countries are not yet approved for use in the United States. The warning reads, “Warning: Slowburn, Savage, Jilted, and Urban are not intended for the immediate eye area.” For most people, it shouldn't be a problem. If you've ever had an allergic reaction to red or pink dyes or cosmetics, you might want to skip this one. The risk here is irritation, nothing more. 

Let's talk about the packaging a little bit. I'm not excited about the space consuming round pan palette. I'm also not excited about the plastic packaging - I much prefer either metal or cardboard packing. Even Too Faced seems to be moving to metal palettes, so this one feels a little cheap in-hand. However, if you look at that third picture again, you'll see something you don't see with the Naked palettes - the mirror stays at the angle you place it at - you can actually use it without holding the palette or trying to hover over a flat surface and get decent lighting.

The included brush is nearly identical to the ones included with the Naked palettes. Honestly, I wish they'd include eyeliner instead of brushes, since the brushes are not anything I'd want to get stuck using.

Swatched over Urban Decay Primer Potion, indoors with "true-white" lighting

Left to Right: Revolt, Gonzo, Slowburn, Savage, Fringe, Chaos, Jilted, Urban, Freak, Thrash

These are really hit and miss and I hope they offer some of these shades individually. 

Revolt (Urban Decay says: bright metallic silver shimmer w/silver glitter) isn't really all that dense or bright. It seems to look most like a silver glitter. It does wonderfully over a silver cream base and can make a white base sparkle but can't really stand alone as anything but a glitter.

Gonzo (Urban Decay says: bright turquoise matte w/ floating tonal pearl), really flails with texture. The mattes, in general, in this palette seem to be chalky. Urban Decay described them as 'velvety' - so I was expecting something at least closer to Sugarpill's super-bright mattes. 

Slowburn (Urban Decay says: bright red-orange matte w/floating pearl) continues the matte problems. If you have Sugarpill's Love+, you can skip this one, it's not as orange as they would have you believe.

Savage (Urban Decay says: bright hot pink matte), was one that I was really looking forward to and have been struggling to use. It's chalky. It doesn't like to blend. It doesn't like to apply evenly - it's the worst of pigments (I usually buy loose) and pressed shadows (hard to get just a little bit to work with.) I'm very disappointed.

Fringe (Urban Decay says: bright metallic teal), is one of the stand-outs of this palette. It's beautiful, it's smooth, it looks metallic without looking glittery. This is an incredible color and I really hope they offer it as a stand-alone.

Chaos (Urban Decay says: bright blue matte w/floating tonal pearl), back on the matte fail wagon. I have Sugarpill's Royal Sugar and this doesn't hold a candle to it with regard to ease of use, smooth application, and blending ability. 

Jilted (Urban Decay says: bright metallic fuchsia w/blue shift) - photos do not do the blue shift justice. This is absolutely stunning and I hope I can buy this in single pans sometime soon.

Urban (Urban Decay says: bright metallic purple), seems like it has a blue shift as well. Another stunning metallic and I'm glad we finally have a namesake color for the line - I've wanted cosmetics the color of that purple tissue paper they put in your orders since it started appearing. 

Freak (Urban Decay says: bright green w/gold shift) has no gold shift that I can see but that doesn't prevent this from being amazing. I've used it as an inner corner highlight and as a lid shade and it really pops no matter where you put it. This has made best friends with my pencil brush. 

Thrash (Urban Decay says: bright lime green matte w/floating gold pearl) looks a little sickly on my skin, I'm sorry to say. I think this is the shade I'll struggle the most to use. It has some of the texture probelms of the other mattes and, again, I don't see the gold pearl. 

Swatched over Urban Decay Primer Potion, outdoors

Left to Right: Revolt, Gonzo, Slowburn, Savage, Fringe, Chaos, Jilted, Urban, Freak, Thrash

I feel like you can see the texture issues in the sunlight better. We've had a lot of sun in Seattle over the last several days and I was hoping to get a more indirect sunlight photo but I had zero weather cooperation. My neighbors aren't complaining - they've all dragged out the grills. 

As you can see in the sunlight photo, the metallics are smooth, opaque, and gorgeous. The mattes are spotty and uneven. Some of that can be attributed to these being pigments without a smoothing base but I feel like both MAC and Sugarpill have provided us with loose matte pigments that behave a lot better. Revolt really is a nice glitter but nothing more, which I find disappointing. 

All of that said? I really feel like Freak, Urban, Jilted, and Fringe save this palette from the returns pile. These shades are brilliant (as in color,) smooth, and fairly unique. The red shades have been reported by a few bloggers and vloggers to cause staining - I experienced this on my fingertips when I swatched them directly but with a layer of Primer Potion, I haven't had any trouble with it otherwise. 

Let's get real for a second about that pigments bit - I really don't see your average person using these for much other than eyeshadows. The shades don't lend themselves well to other daily-wear uses. Urban Decay claims you can use them as temporary hair color, which while technically true seems like it would be difficult with the palette in the way. Pressed pigments are harder to use as eyeliners or mixing colors. I really think Urban Decay should have thought more about their average customer when they put this one together; we've been waiting a long time for Urban Decay to come back from Naked and pack a punch that reminded us of the "Does pink make you puke?" campaign they launched with. It's a lot to live up to, sure, but I think they could have delivered with an all-metallic palette, given the metallic shades presented here.

Is this palette worth picking up? I'm happy with my purchase. If you are thinking about purchasing, I'd visit an Ulta, Sephora, Macy's to swatch it or pick it up directly from Urban Decay so you can return hassle-free - it is pretty hit-or-miss, so I feel like it doesn't quite deserve a full recommendation. It's a permanent addition to Urban Decay's collection, so I would probably wait for a sale, coupon, or other deal. At $49, each of the pans works out to $4.90 - even the less amazing shades are worth that. If you break the price down to just the pans I feel like are something you can't get anywhere else, they're still $12.25 each. A respectable price point for decent-quality pigments or shadows. With Sephora's Chic Week sale, I paid $41.65 for this palette ($3.47 per pan.) Otherwise, this palette is $49 at beauty.com, Sephora, Ulta, Macy's, and UrbanDecay.com.

Tomorrow I'll post up my Palette Parade check-in with looks from this palette. If folks are interested, I'd be happy to do comparison swatches with Sugarpill shades I have on-hand.