Urban Decay Vice 2 - swatches and initial thoughts

Another palette I got to play with when my friend visited was Urban Decay's Vice 2 palette.  Whilst I don't have any looks done with this (maybe my friend will oblige and send me some of her look photos *hint hint Rae*!), here are some swatches and my initial thoughts.  All swatches were done with one finger swipe.

Like Vice 1, the palette is a hefty box, which feels like your eyeshadows will be fair safe should you need to take it traveling.  It has a double ended brush, and a large mirror on the inside lid.

From left to right:

Smokeout, Lovesick, Shellshock, Coax, X-rated,

Prank, Maddness, Strike, Stash, Poison

Smokeout was the disappointment of this batch, as it's quite chalky.  It can be built up though.  Strike also looked quite sheer when first swatched, but it's easily packed out, and the resulting colour is richly pigmented.  Coax is probaby my favourite out of the whole palette.  I'll be on the hunt for another pink just like this for myself!

From left to right:

Radar, Damaged, Voodoo, Betrayal, Derailed,

Dope, Toxic, Habitat, Ambush, Rewind

Once again Urban Decay have excelled themselves with their neutral shades.  Radar, Derailed, and Ambush are incredibly pigmented and their texture is buttery soft.  Voodoo was sheerer and more powdery, but again I found that it could be built up easily.  Dope would probably be the first colour I'd hit the pan on, as it's the only real highlight shade in the palette.  Again, the texture on this was beautiful.

I raided my own stash, and pulled out a couple of eyeshadows that were comparable . 

Left: Betrayal, Urban Decay Fishnet (old formula)

Right: Shellshock, Urban Decay Oz (Glinda palette)

The blue duochrome in Betrayal instantly made me think of Fishnet.  However the base colour is more blue-toned, and the blue duochrome is stonger.  The two silvers on the other hand, are pretty much identical.  Oz has some micro-glitter, but as this doesn't translate when swatched, this wasn't really a difference.  Shellshock is ever so slightly softer in texture.

Left: Urban Decay Blackout, Smokeout, MAC Carbon

Right: Lovesick, MAC Black Tied

When placed next to a true black shadow, the brown undertones in Smokeout are more apparent.  I'm not even sure why I bothered placing MAC Carbon next to it, as it's such a poor quality shadow!  Lovesick and Black Tied are very similar.  Lovesick, whilst somewhat powdery, was not as dry as Black Tied.  I also found that the silver glitter in Lovesick translated better.

 Prank, MAC Contrast

The colour of these two shadows are quite similar,  however my swatches show the complete difference in formula.  MAC Contrast can be built up, but I think this picture reveals the difference in quality, showing that just because the colour is similar, it doesn't mean that they are true dupes!

Looking at my swatches again, I'm pretty sure that Ambush is similar to MAC Woodwinked, but unfortunately I no longer have the palette to compare!

Overall, this is a nice palette.  There's a good variety in colours, and it's always nice when a palette contains a good highlight shade.  Urban Decay do eyeshadows very well, and whilst some of the shadows weren't top notch, even the more powdery shades can be built up.  If you have a large eyeshadow collection you may find that you have colours that are very similar to some of them, as they're not particularly unique shades (I'm sure if I had gone through all of my Sleek palettes I would have found more dupes), but if you're looking to build a collection, Urban Decay's palettes are always a good place to start.