Urban Decay Vice 2 and Anarchy Pallet Swatches and Reviews

The much anticipated holiday pallets are making their way into stores rather quickly. The company that caught my eye the most though? Urban Decay with their Vice 2 pallet and their Face Cases. I personally have come to the conclusion that my collection of make up has enough browns in every finish so I get super excited when something is released  with some really fun colors. Plus ladies, Halloween is approaching quickly and some of these colors in Vice 2 are just what the doctor ordered. So lets get on with it. 

Vice 2

Retails $59.00 at Sephora and UrbanDecay.com

The pallet comes with 20 shadows, all new and exclusive to this Limited Edition pallet. You also receive a double sided brush with this pallet.

First Row

Smokeout is a dark black/grey "satin" that honestly has a hint of duo chrome to me actually with a hint of taupe. Lovesick is a black glitter (if you've ever tried their stardust shadows, it's basically that) that has silver micro-glitter. Shellshock is a beautiful true silver metallic with no glitter. Coax is a pink metallic with hints of gold shimmer. X-Rated is a baby pink shimmer.

Second Row

Prank (even though it looks purple) is a navy blue with green shimmer. Madness is a metallic blue. Strike is a metallic gold. Stash is an olive color with gold shimmer making it look duo chrome as well. Poison is charcoal color with silver glitter. 

Third Row

Radar is a Metallic brown with glitter. Damaged is an emerald green shimmer. Voodoo is a jewel toned purple with shimmer. Betrayal is a light purple with a blue shimmer to it (again very duo-chrome). Derailed is a metallic taupe shimmer.

Fourth Row

Dope is a champagne satin. Toxic is a rose gold shimmer with glitter. Habit is a nude matte shade. Ambush is a metallic brown. And Rewind is a medium brown matte shade.

All of these shadows are incredibly pigmented. Be very aware of the shades with glitter because those have some fall out. I really did enjoy the entire set up of this pallet. It came with a lot of fun shades to give you a bright look, enough dark shades to give you a smokey eye (not exactly a matte black smokey eye but you know) and enough neutrals to make a soft look with it. Not to mention the mirror is huge and stays up on it's own. The brush is nice, I personally wish the fluffy side was a bit more fluffy to allow better blending (like the naked 2 brush) but I'm happy with it over all. If you want to try using shimmers, colors, metallics, or glitters I say go for it. You won't find a dud in this puppy. 

Anarchy Face Case

Retails for $44.00 and I've only seen it sold at Sephora.com

This pallet comes with five shadows, two blushes, one highlight, a 24/7 travel size liner and a travel sized Super-Saturated High Gloss Lip Color in Scandal. Scandal isn't available in the normal line of Urban Decay products and is exclusive to this pallet. The five eyeshadows are also exclusive to this pallet. I think the darker blush used to be part of the line of blushes but has been discontinued (don't quote me on this) but the other blush, and the highlight are also exclusive to this pallet.

It also comes with two full sized mirrors.

The Shadows

Redemption is a charcoal satin with a hint of shimmer. Fray is a matte nude shade. Vaporize is a metallic taupe/grey shade. Provocateur is a metallic muave with chunky glitter. Revolt is a silver metallic with glitter.

Face

Fetish is a mauve/pink with a hint of shimmer. Quickie is a bright barbie doll pink that's matte. Highlight which is the highlight shade is a golden metallic shade.

Pencils

Scandal is a berry colored, deeper pink shade and Perversion is a really dark matte black pencil. 

Does anyone remember getting the Naked pallet when it first came out and reaching into Sidecar and trying to apply it only to realize that was a horrible idea because of all of that chunky glitter fall out? That is exactly what happened when I reached into Provocateur which was super disappointing. Other than that as I said before the shimmers have a bit of fall out, nothing drastic. The colors aren't exactly something to bounce with joy over and they actually weren't the reason I bought the pallet. Work yourself a nice classic smokey eye or a soft romantic eye with this pallet. 

The blushes are really nice but be aware that Quickie is super pigmented so a little bit goes a long ways guys. You can go overboard really quickly with the blushes not to mention that highlight. It's nice that it's a golden color but a little goes a super long way. You don't want to light up like a light bulb.

Now for the reason I bought this pallet. I was super intrigued by this lip shade and as we go into fall/winter it's a perfect bight shade with a hint of darkness because of the berry shade. If you've never tried these lip pencils you do have to sharpen them, and they aren't very moisturizing either. They are pigmented (their lipsticks have better pigmentation) and the staying power is fair. Now Perversion is a really popular black pencil. It's super creamy, and really black. This pencil completely lives up to it's hype of being better than Zero (as someone who has owned zero before) in every way, shape, and form. I'm so happy they finally put it into a pallet.

If you are curious about the pencils like I am, do yourself the favor and just buy yourself the pencils, unless you are super curious about any of these shades it isn't worth the money. Then again I'm not super big on blushes to begin with so maybe that's why this pallet felt a little lacking to me. I'm still going to use the hell out of this pallet though.

Thanks for reading!

The beauty noobz guide to make up (part one brushes)

Recently I was online and talking to a friend of mine who was asking me about make up. She started off by asking me if I subscribe to birchbox or ipsy. For those of you who don't already know both of these are companies where you subscribe to a monthly fee and they send you beauty products every month. Birchbox from what I know has a lot of hits and misses, everything is sample sized but it does have a shop to buy the full sized products. Ipsy also does the same thing but they ask you what kinds of things you like to use and dislike using and depending on that send you an array of items to try every month.

After we talked about them (I do currently subscribe to Ipsy) she started picking my brain about make up, different types, and what works best, but she also confessed to me that she did have brushes but didn't know what to with all of them. So I got the idea to break it down right here. I'm going to be using the make up brushes I got while I went to make up school. They are 15 brushes and all have a unique use, however, go with what you feel. If you want to use a fluffy brush for a light contour down the sides of your nose go right ahead. This is just to give you a general idea and get you started.

1. Foundation Brush

The foundation brush is usually used for even application of moist products this includes your primes, moisturizers, and liquid foundations. Now most people enjoy using make up sponges, or face brushes for this task. The key to the even application is that if you start to develop a patch of skin that looks as though it has too much product, take your fluffy face brush and buff it out. By buffing it out in a circular motion you spread the product and no longer have a big blotch.

2. Powder Brush or Face Brush

This brush is usually used for powders. Anything that you want all over your face or applied in a concentrated amount. For example, powder foundations, setting powders, translucent powders, or something like a skin finish that is more sun kissed and bronze. However, if you want a more concentrated application of blush I found that these brushes work well for that. 

3. Angle Brush

The angled brush is usually used for powders, you can use them for blush, contouring the cheeks, forehead and chin. I've also found that they can work well with more liquid products like when you contour the face with a darker foundation or a liquid bronzer. They can also be used to apply highlight.

4. Concealer Brush

The concealer brush is usually used for patting on your concealer. However this is sometimes flawed since it may be harder to blend out with the brush as opposed to your finger, but most likely more sanitary. This brush can also be used to lay down primer, and to this day if my brushes aren't clean and all I have is this brush I'll pat down eye shadow with it. (That's a bad habit)

5. Firm Shadow

Brushes like this one are really kind of tough. You wanna get in pat down your product and really move along because that thing will start to hurt if you start to windshield wiper motion with it. It can be used for a really concentrated amount of color, or to apply glitter. Also works really well for applying a cream base to eyes.

6, 7 & 8. Eye Shadow Brushes

These pick up lots of color, and they also pat on like a dream. If you want an allover color these brushes are the way to go and they range in size usually for whatever comfort level you have. I have big eyes that are too small to comfortably use the large eye shadow brush on myself. However, the smaller one does the same thing and fits comfortably to my eyelid. You use 'em for eye shadow, any shimmer or sparkle you'd want to add on top of anything really.

9 & 10. Fluffy Brushes.

Fluffy brushes also come in all shapes and sizes. Some people prefer them bigger, rounded, coming to a point or thinner, they make them in all different shapes and sizes for you guys. The point of a fluffy brush is to blend. Usually you use the blending color in your crease to help make your eye shadow not look like it have very harsh lines. You don't want people to be able to clearly tell where your eye shadow ends and your under brow highlight begins. You want it all to blend. You can also use these without a product. By swiping a clean brush upon an area you can soften the amount of product applied. 

11. Pencil Brush

These brushes are usually used to apply color under the eye. Lets say you want to smoke out some black eye liner under your eye, you pick up shadow on this brush and sweep it back and forth. (Be careful though, if the brush is too big for your eye it can get into your eye.) it can also be used to smoke out pencil (or still wet gel lines) on your upper lash line. You don't want a harsh black line on your upper lash line, pick up a matte brown shadow and smoke out the top line.

12, 13 & 14. Liner Brushes

Now with these they also come in all shapes and sizes. These brushes can be used to apply powder to the eyebrows, apply eye shadow as an eyeliner or apply gel liners. Some people prefer the angled liner, especially when you are trying to wing out your eyeliner. The flat liner also works extremely well for winging out liner. (I'll teach you how to do that with the different liner brushes soon) Or some, myself included prefer the old long liner brush, which is usually harder to use for people new to make up.

Last but not least...

15.  Lip Brush

These little guys are used for lip products. Lipsticks, lip glosses, lip stains, you name it and you can use a lip brush with it. Now you don't need to use a lip brush (unless you are doing make up on other people) but the lip brush helps with the colors that are harder to keep in the lines. There are lipsticks shaped differently, or just too dark that stain so it's sometimes best to just fill in your lips with the brush.

Well for now that's all. Hope you liked it. Feel free to comment or ask any questions you still have.

Also don't let price fool you. You don't need high end Sigma or MAC or Crown Brushes to make something beautiful happen. There are plenty of brands that are great and way more affordable. Try EcoTools, ELF brushes, (Crown Brush usually has a sale once every two months on Hautelook.com) BH cosmetics has great brushes, Real Techniques works well also. So look around and find what works for you.