Let’s talk about the limited edition Urban Decay Nocturnal Shadow Box Palette today. In this palette they decided to collect all the hit colors by the brand.
The cardboard box has a mirror and a dual-ended eye brush.
It opens up 180 degrees. The design is superb, as usual. The palette is travel-friendly since it won’t take up too much room in your beauty bag.
In the palette they gathered 12 hit shades of different consistencies and finishes, which are great for a day makeup looks as well as for the evening smokey eyes.
General information:
The weight of each pan is 0.5g (0.01 oz)
The palette expires within 24 months
Made in the USA, though the brush is made in China.
Close-up
Swatches: ABC Gum, Midnight Cowboy Rides Again, Baby, Half Backed
ABC Gum - is a light peachy shade that is great to apply over your lid to set eyeshadow primer.
Midnight Cowboy Rides Again - light glittery and very complicated duochrome eyeshadow with rather big particles of shimmer. It somehow resembles the previous shade. This one was also included in the limited edition Gwen Stefani eyeshadow palette.
Half Baked - it’s a classical golden shimmer base shade that can be found in many eyeshadow palettes by UD like Naked or Naked 2.
Riff, Delete, Fireball, Backfire
Riff - this is my favorite blending shade. It’s of warm undertones yet it doesn’t look simple. It’s difficult to find words to describe this shade: orange-brown with golden glitter yet matte in texture.
Delete - it’s a very intense dark brown shade. It’s ideal for cutting the crease. It was also present in the VICE 4 eyeshadow palette.
Fireball - this shade was why I wanted to buy this palette so much! After I looked at the swatches of this shade and read the rave reviews, I desperately wanted to buy this shade for my collection. It’s a peachy duochrome metallic color that is bright yet gentle. It looks stunning over the darker shades.
Backfire - this shade is very unusual. It seems that it gets into skin and that’s why it looks especially advantageous when blended out. The nicely milled shimmer created a very beautiful cool lilac shade that I’m in love with!
And the last quad:
Lounge, Armor, Heroine, Blackout:
Lounge - the most popular duochrome shade in the beauty world. Many brands have almost the same shade in their collections - Inglot, MAC, LimeCrime, NYX, Wet'n'Wild. The shade is really insane. It’s so complicated that I don’t know how to describe it right. I see it as an emerald shade on a brown-red base. I like using it for the smokey eyes. The blending is so easy that it seems that the color blends out itself. It could also be found in the Afterdark limited edition palette.
Armor - this is the shade I fell for in the Naked Smoky eyeshadow palette. It’s a cool-toned gray metallic shade which is ideal for accents.
Heroine - seems to be the most complicated color in the palette. It’s a cool-toned satin blue that is so deep that it seems almost black. It’s good for a smokey eye makeup, though the fall out is insane.
Blackout - black matte shade that is good for darkening the crease and making the shades more intense and bright. This shade one-upped the Half Baked as it was used in the legendary palettes most of all:
Naked 2, Shadow Box, Gwen Stefani
Total looks:
All the shades in the palettes are soft and easy to get onto the brush. They are well pigmented and the color payoff is also very good. The UD eyeshadows have a poor track record of falling out. Yeah, that’s true. But don’t forget that they are pressed pigments, so the fallout is rather logical here. I usually do my eye makeup first and only after that start doing skin. The staying power of these eyeshadows is very good, even though I always apply them over a primer.
From time to time I change the way I apply the eyeshadows but most frequently I apply them dry and wet.
I truly recommend the UD Nocturnal Shadow Box. It’s a cool palette, even though I’ve tried many eyeshadows by UD.
