Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows?!

I spend a lot of time on the makeup board so when this baby was posted I could not conceal my excitement. Urban Decay is releasing a 3rd Book of Shadows in collaboration with Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland. This comes with 16 (renamed? Midnight Tea Party looks suspiciously like Midnight Cowboy) shades and 2 eyeliners (Zero and Flipside?) as well as a UDPP mini (I swear I'll never run out of UDPP now). Pricing is currently unknown, but the palette is supposed to be released on 12/28 on UD's site. I will definitely be snagging one of these if only for the packaging itself.

Urban Decay Box of Potions

Wow, I've really been falling back on posts the last couple of months...anyways, here's a quick little update. I bought box of potions what I think was a couple months back, but as I didn't have any imaging programs installed on my netbook, neglected to post my review here of the products in this kit. The Box of Potions retails for $65 and is available only at Sephora. Each item inside this set is full sized, making this a pretty good deal if you wanted to try out the products in this set. Unfortunately, most of the products in here were misses for me.


Pore Perfecting Primer: This one feels like a much thicker, less slick version of Smashbox's primer. It definitely does minimize the appearance of pores though..mine were pretty much invisible after using it. I don't think my foundation slid off at all when I tested this out, though I did find that my Shu brow pencil wouldn't really apply evenly on top of this..Additionally, I got the worst clogged pores from this product, which I still haven't fully resolved after a month and a half and my nightly cleansing ritual involves cleansing oil, washing my face again after, and toner (among other things). I'll stick to my Smashbox primer for now

Brightening: I should have retested this as far as lasting power goes since I wore a different foundation than I did with the Pore Perfecting primer since my powder foundation has never had super great lasting power, but I really didn't notice any brightening effects with this primer, so I left it alone. It's much less heavy feeling than the pore perfecting primer though, and also less thick. My powder foundation did go on smoothly over this, which was nice, but faded within a few hours, as usual.

UDPP: I accidently opened this when I was grabbing for the lash primer in a rush and got the primer instead, but it's got the newer angled wand. This product has been a staple in my makeup routine for 3 years now, and will probably stay one for a long long time.

Lip primer: I'm really impressed with this one. I tried this with one of MAC's Lustre formula lipsticks (Cute-ster) at around 5:20 AM and by 8:30 when I took my first break, there was still some lipstick left on me..although barely. Granted...I wasn't eating or drinking anything really, so I don't know how it really holds up against that, but MAC Lustres usually last like 20 minutes on me, so it's definitely working. It does seem to mattify the lipstick just a tad though. Once the color wears off, you have to wipe off your lips completely and reapply both the primer and the lip color, or the color won't apply evenly. I kind of felt like this left a slight film on my lips, as my lips felt weird after, but I am sensitive to sunscreens so that may have had something to do with it (this product has spf in it)

Lash Primer: I was not impressed with this at all, but I have stick straight asian lashes that point down slightly. This wilted my curl completely and made it ridiculously hard to recurl them after the mascara was on. It did lengthen a bit, but it gave no volume for me...actually I felt like my lashes looked more sparse after for some reason, possibly because it's not real good with separation on me. I have heard of other people liking this product though, so I guess it's one of those things you have to test yourself to decide whether or not you like it. Personally, I tend not to use lash primers anyways, though I have tried a couple, and I'd say there's definitely better primes out there.

All in all, I returned the set, though I did rebuy the lip primer for my MAC lustres. Price wise, it's a great set, but I personally didn't like the products in it. I'd recommend grabbing samples of the face primers in store if you wanted to test them out, but be warned that the pore perfecting primer can clog your pores.

Anyways, that concludes the review portion of today's updates. Here's a few things that will be coming up as updates in no particular order:
-Swatches of NARS Pleasures in Paris palette (Doucers de Paris)
-Swatches and Reviews of Global Goddess products
-Swatches and Reviews of a few Becca products (Demi-matte shadows, a couple of blushes, and bronzers)
-Swatches of theBalm blushes
-Review with some swatch involvement of Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy
-I also finally got around to ordering more Fyrinnae Inks, so I should end up with all of them except Ninja, since I really don't need another black liner

I also need to catch up on some topics I started but never finished, but we'll see how that goes. My free time's been cut into a lot recently, so I haven't really had the time to test and review products, but I'm working on it.

Urban Decay Book of Shadows Vol II

So I've had BOS2 since a couple days after it first popped up on UD's website, but just never really got around to swatching it. Now that it's finally on Sephora's website, I decided to do so. Book of Shadows II is much nicer than it's predecessor. First off, it only has TWO shadows that contain glitter in them ( Gunmetal and Midnight Cowboy Rides Again). The second part is that it's a far more versatile palette than the first. In my opinion, the colors in this palette coordinate a lot nicer than the first as well. Also, unlike the 1st, it contains 2 mini 24/7 eyeliners instead of those dinky ass brushes the first one came with.

There are 16 shades of eyeshadow in this palette, several of which are exclusive to this palette.
Perversion- not quite black, this shadow has kind of a satin finish to it and is the one somewhat chalky shade in the palette. I also find myself wishing they'd put in a less boring color in this palette since there's already 2 liners in the palette.
Gunmetal- one of the 2 shades that has glitter in it. I'm not sure if you can tell from the swatch below, but I think if you stare at the picture of the palette itself you can kinda see the glitter sparking. There isn't a whole lot of glitter in this though so it's still not as bad as BOS1.
Ecstacy- lilacy purple
AC/DC- a deeper cool toned purple than ecstacy
Nylon- to me, this is a shimmery taupey gold
Sellout- shimmery beige
Mushroom-taupey grey, though this looks more taupey in the pan. This shade is exclusive to this palette and I think is nearly identical in color to UD's cream shadow with the same name. It's also similar to BB Stone, but is more shimmery
Sphinx- cool toned pink
Half Baked- Bronzey gold
Twice baked- dark brown
Midnight Cowboy- shimmery Champagne with TONS of glitter
YDK-warm Taupe

Jinx- shimmering mid toned blue
Flipside-shimmering aqua.
Homegrown-shimmery light green. This one's one of my favorites in this palette
Misdemeanor-Satiny greyed green.

UD 24/7 pencils:
In theory, these are a great idea to put in a palette, but unfortunately, these products were not winners for me, even over UDPP
Zero- Black eyeliner. This one's not a true black and smudgy as all hell. By the end of the day I looked like I'd been punched
Bourbon-warm brown.

Eyeshadow Primer Comparison- Lumene, UDPP, and Smashbox

A somewhat belated topic here, but today's topic is eyeshadow primers; more specifically, a comparison between Lumene's eye base, Urban Decay Primer Potion, and Smashbox's new photo finish eye primer.

I feel that all 3 are decent primers and all have their pros and cons.

First up is Lumene. Lumene is a nice primer that was found in drug stores like CVS for $10 and came in a nice little squeeze tube, which is a step up from Urban Decay's craptastic packaging. As you can see below, it's slightly yellow toned before you spread it out. However, once smoothed into the skin, it dries clear/nude without any problems. It's got a bit more texture than UDPP, so I like to use this primer for loose shadows and pigments as I get better pigmentation from this base than with UDPP. My eyeshadow lasts all day without creasing, although it does fade a bit by the end of the day.

Next up is Urban Decay's Primer Potion. This baby retails for $17 in it's regular size and is currently being sold in an XL size for $22. This is my favorite primer out of the 3. It is neutral toned when first applied and dries nude/clear. Eyeshadows are intensified when applied on top of this primer, and it also makes an excellent base for your brow powder. Eyeshadows last all day without creasing with this primer, though again I get some fading. The downside to this primer is that eyeshadows become a bit harder to blend on top of this primer, but this problem is easily fixed by dusting a nude/base color over your lid.

Last up is Smashbox's Photo Finish eye primer. This one was my least favorite out of the 3. IT retails for $20, more than either Lumene or UDPP, with only 0.02 oz in the tube...MUCH less product than UDPP has. I decided not to return this right away and give it a try, but unfortunately I decided that I prefered UDPP over Smashbox, though the smashbox is still a decent primer. Smashbox's eye primer is the darkest and warmest of the 3 primers and does not dry clear on my skin. On darker skintones than mine though, it probably would be pretty nude/clear. It did intensify colors and lasted all day without creasing, but fading still occured for me. Additionally, I felt that it made cooler toned and neutral toned shadows a bit warmer. It does have two pros over UDPP though; shadows are still easily blended over this primer, and it does not seem to be as drying as UDPP. nevertheless, it was not for me, and went back to the store right after these swatches.

Primer comparison before smoothing out. Lumene is a creamy yellow, UDPP is a neutal cream, and Smashbox I'd say is about a NC30 or so.

Smoothed out: I'm ot sure if it's visible here, but the Smashbox did not dry clear. It's a bit warmer than the other two primers. Lumene may have a slight yellow cast to it, but is clear for the most part. UDPP is completely clear on me.

For the eyeshadow swatched over the primers, I used Urban Decay Last Call..a red-magenta shade. Lumene intensifies color a bit, but not as much as UDPP or Smashbox. Again, the Smashbox changed the color a bit, but as Lst call is a warm based color to begin with, the change may not be all that apparent.

One more pic for color comparison:

Urban Decay Primer Potion in Sin

After many long years, Urban Decay has come out with a colored version of their eyeshadow primer in the same color as their popular eyeshadow in Sin, a peachy champagne color. When it first came out as an Sephora Beauty Insider exclusive last month, it was $1 more than the original formula, but now that it has hit the shelves in retail locations, the original formula and the new primer in Sin both cost $17 pretax. The new primer comes in a bottle that is of the same size and general design as the original primer, but the bottle is in a deep champagne color with a gold lid instead of the regular light purple color and silver lid. (Unfortunate since I, like many others were really hoping Urban Decay would get around to changing its horrendous packaging). Both are shown below, with Sin being the bottle on the right.

The Sin primer potion as stated above, is a peachy champagne color. When you first pull the wand out of the tube, it appears to be a fairly metallic shade, but once spread out on the skin, it's less scary and the shimmer is much more wearable. To me, it seemed like it was a cream eyeshadow in an inconvenient tube with a wand more than anything else as it works almost exactly the same as a cream eyeshadow-the more you build it up, the better color you get. It's one of those products that are great if you're running late and need a quick wash of color under some eyeliner, though it really doesn't excite me much. It does keep my eyeliner in place at any rate. (that may not be the most difficult thing though since I wear gel eyeliners, which are waterproof and fairly budgeproof already) I tested one of my MAC pearlglide liners on it today though, and unfortunately, I'm not sure it kept it from fading...too bad. On the plus side, it did keep my eyeshadow from creasing, and I didn't feel that it made eyeshadow as difficult to blend as the original formulation. I don't feel like it has the same power as the original formula though.

Swatches done below on NW25 neutral skin under somewhat warm indoor lighting. The original formula dries clear/nude

As a test I also swatched a grey shadow on my arm over both the original formula and Sin PP. I feel like Sin made it a smidge warmer color wise, though I'm not completely sure it shows up here. Lighting is a bit cooler this time.

Overall, I'd say I like this product ok, but I probably will not be repurchasing it as the original primer potion works much better, is more versatile, and is the same price. Consequently, because the price of the regular primer potion has gone up again, this blogger may not be swatching eyeshadows on top of UDPP for a while or at least as often (at least until I have to pull out the stopper).