Hey guys! So, for my birthday (May 3rd) I got the Urban Decay Book of Shadows IV palette! And since it was of Hautelook, it was only $24. I was amazed! $40 off? Yes please! Anyway, so beware that this is going to be a very long, photo-heavy post, so I'm just going to jump into it:
(With Flash)
(Without Flash)
Blue Bus. So, I'm not leaving the pan pictures fully cropped, because I find that the colors around them are actually far more accurate than they are when I focus on them, so when you're looking at a color, consider all of the photos that it's in. Anyway, this is a blue with very, very strong purple flash or duochrome, so it actually appears more purple than these pictures show, contrary to the name. It's a frost finish, so it does take some building up to reach full opacity, but it felt very smooth and wasn't hard at all to pack; it'll just take a few layers.
Gunmetal. The swatch picture is of Gunmetal from the Book of Shadows on the left, and from the ever-popular Naked Palette on the right. As you can see, the BoS is darker and a little smoky-er, but it's also a little smoother than the one in the Naked palette. The shimmer, I suspect, (because this is a swatch post; not a review one) won't show up on the eye much, but it has a stunning shimmer to it.
Cobra. Ugh, I hate these uneven pictures! Anyway, Imagine the pictures a little murky-er and more yellow with a lot more gorgeous golden shimmer. It's soft and pigmented, and I'm sure that some of the shimmer will show up on the eye. Would make a stunning green smokey eye look!
Baked. It's a little more orange than in these swatches, very frosty, and the perfect 24 karat gold. Or at least it's the exactly color of my single 24 karat gold necklace. It's very soft, very pigmented, and only a little darker than half-baked, but I guess that's why they're related, huh?
Bender. Forest green frost. Nothing spectacularly unique about it. It's probably the most powdery shadow in the palette; it picks up product super easily. Would look gorgeous, and it's easy to use, it just isn't unique. But I'm fine with that; there's plenty of unique colors in this palette. Well, not unique to Urban Decay palettes, but unique if you don't collect Urban Decay Palettes.
Gravity. It's time to try defying gravity. I think I'll try defying gravity; and you can't pull me down. Ehrm. Anyway, Gravity is more vibrant and red toned than it shows in either picture. It's very soft and has both shimmer and glitter. It almost has a smokiness to it, and it's gorgeous.
Lost. I find lost to actually be rather similar to Bad to the Bronze by Maybelline, one of their color tattoos. It's just an average, frosty, medium brown. Slight frosty toned, a little on the dark side, very smooth, very pigmented. Sure to be pretty much a problem-free, easy eyeshadow.
Hijack. This is the one color that is pretty different than it is in the pan. In the pan, it looks like your typical mermaid-y teal; pigmented, shimmery, and vibrant. Well, it's not. It's so much more interesting. It takes on a smokey blue with a tinge of green accented by glittering pools shimmer. It looks exactly like the nail polish Crystal, by Zoya, but without the golden glitter, or Noel by Zoya. As completely stunning as this color is in the pan, this color is so unique, interesting, drop-dead-gorgeous, and soft. Love, love, love.
Midnight Cowgirl. Sigh. As with nearly all light frosty colors, the frost obscures an interesting factors that may have been in the eyeshadow, making it a nondescript pearl color. Yes, it has glitter, but most of that rubs off. It does have a slight buttery tone to it, and it is pretty, it's just irritating that this palette has five light shimmery colors that all end up looking pretty similar on the eye.
Sin. Okay. I can't really pretend that either of these pictures are accurate. Once again, in the swatch photo, the one on the left is from the BoS palette, and the one on the right is from the Naked palette. Both colors are a much more obvious pink-based champagne color, rather than the beige in both of these pictures. What the swatch photo accurately displays is that the BoS Sin is a little bit greyer, and perhaps a hair darker, but either way, they're extremely similar, and won't look different on the eye at all. You could use on on one eye and the the other on the other and no one would know.
Midnight Rodeo. I noticed that Midnight Rodeo is very, very similar to sidecar in the Naked palette, so I decided to do a comparison of them as well. Both are completely stunning colors, but very problematic, due to fallout issues. Sidecar is a little lighter and a little pinker, whereas Midnight Rodeo is a little more of a taupe. Sidecar is smoother. These colors are some of my favorites, but they just don't work very well on the eye. So sad.
Crystal. These pictures simply do not do this color justice. It probably won't be nearly as pretty on the lid as it is in the pan, but it's certainly beautiful there. It has a silvery-grey base, with perhaps a touch of lavender, and then bright turquoise shimmer. Not the most pigmented, but it's an amazingly gorgeous color, and if I can get it to work on the lid, I will wear it all the time!
Bust. Probably the least frosty/shimmery color in the palette. And by that, I mean that it's a frost. A diverse, subtle, frosty taupe. I suppose it's a little bit more brown than in the pictures, but there's not really much to say besides that.
Missionary. It's a little more of a pinky-tan than these pictures show, though it's very similary to Sin, and very similary to the frosty light colors that I was talking about earlier. Looks kinda interesting in the pan, but it's nondescript and unoriginal on the eye. Still a nice color, though.
Skimp. A buttery light shimmer. Once again, looks like a normal inner corner highlight, but hey, I guess you can never really have enough of those, right? You do use them everyday after all. Or at least I do. This one is a particularly pretty one for warmer looks too...
Zephyr. Did I mention how much I love these names? Well, I actually only like this one because it's the name of one of the gym badges in Pokemon. "I got the Zephyr Badge! Pi pikachu!" And all that. Anywho, this is the most obvious inner corner highlight out of all of them. Very pale and frosty; slightly yellow toned. Kinda whatever, but nice and buttery none-the-less.
Do you need this palette? Well, no, you don't but I love it, and I haven't ever used it yet. I can see myself every color. It's important to point out that there are no matte colors, as it typical of Urban Decay, but I don't really mind. I love shimmery colors anyway, and they still have a variety of finishes within that denomination. My favorite colors are Gunmetal, Cobra, Hijack, Sin, Crystal, and Bust. I do wish that they had some darker neutrals, rather than all of the colors that I'll probably use exclusively as inner corner highlights. I think that this is for sure worth $24 and even more than that. Especially considering that this palette comes with a primer potion, mascara, and eyeliner and the weird electronic stuff that I didn't even mention.
If you want a more in depth review about any of the products once I've used them more, or a look including any of the shades, just give me a shout! I'm already thinking of ideas...
Do you buy Urban Decay full price, or wait around for the often times that it comes on Hautelook?
