Review with swatches: Urban Decay After Dark palette

When it comes to eye shadow, Urban Decay is my ultimate. I’d often bought the singles but after getting my mitts on their Naked 1 palette a few years back when I visited my li’l sister in France that was it for me. I fell crazy in love and have been repurchasing four of its shades over and over again ever since as I wear them almost every single day.

Since then, I’ve gotten to play with several of their palettes and, in my personal capacity, I’ve always considered them ‘nice to haves’ but not essential. New limited edition Afterdark (R850, Urban Decay stores and Foschini For Beauty*), however, is an absolute winner.

A collection of ten jewel-toned shades (seven new and three old faves), it’s aimed at night owls but if you don’t mind a shimmery finish there’s nothing to stop you from creating a day time eye.

What I love about this palette in particular is that it contains more shades that I’ll actually wear than those I won’t. In fact, the only one I’ll probably never get into is Supersonic as it’s a bit on the red/pink side and that’s a colour I avoid in general for my eye area. The colours, however, are so flattering I find I can wear many of them all on their own as a simple wash. I also love that each shadow is shimmery but not glittery (I don’t wear matte or glitter) and blends so seamlessly you’re often not able to tell where one ends and another begins.

From left the right: Paralyzed, Fringe, Lounge, Backfire, Druggie, Off Duty, Sinful, Supersonic, Scene and Alter.

They also build fan-freaking-tastically. (Don’t know what I mean by ‘build’? You know how sometimes you lay down a shadow and then if you put something on top of it you can’t really see it? Not with these guys. They’re so pigmented you can layer a lighter shade over a darker one and it shows up plain as day.

Anyway, I put together a bunch of looks over the weekend but really struggled with lighting (can these clouds just go away please?!) so I’ve only got four to show you but know that there’s so much you can do with Afterdark. You’re only limited by your imagination.

First up, chocolate eye!

I used Scene over my entire lid, put Off Duty in the crease and slapped a little Alter on my brow bone before blending.

Now here’s a super easy amethyst-inspired look…

Druggie over the entire lid, Backfire in the crease and then we blend, blend, blend.

Something even easier?

This is a simple wash of Lounge. It looks great with a super bright lip.

Lounge is a tricky shade to describe. It looks khaki in the pan but has this reddish-green shift to it, depending on how the light catches it. If you apply it as a light wash, as per above, the end result could best be described as ‘weimeraner’. You know, like the dog.

Last but not least, how mooi is Fringe?

I swept it over my entire lid and used the teensiest amount of Sinful on my brow bone. It actually looks better with Scene, which is more of a rose gold, as a highlight but that pic came out blurry. If I get time I’ll reshoot it.

In all, if you’ve found your holy grail neutral shadows and looking to get a little more colour wonderful, know that Urban Decay’s Afterdark palette is very lustable gem.

Love, love

Leigh

*I see Foschini for Beauty hasn’t loaded this onto their site yet but it’s coming soon and will definitely be in stores before 1 June. But I’ll get in touch with the PR later today to see if I can find out exactly when.