Urban Decay The Glinda Palette: Review & Swatches

Now that Oz the Great and Powerful is out in theaters, I figure I should do the review of one of the collaboration palettes with Urban Decay before it's no longer available. Urban Decay came out with two versions of a limited edition palette for the different witches, and I have The Glinda Palette. They both are lovely palettes, but the overall colors of The Glinda Palette spoke to me more than The Theodora Palette. You can buy these wherever Urban Decay products are sold for $49. It comes with 8 shadows (couple of the shadow pans have 2 colors in it), a 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil, and a Super-Saturated High Gloss Lip Color. The eye shadows in the palette are the new formulations and it is encased in the "Build Your Own" palette, so you can easily pop the shades out and put new ones in.

To continue with the review and see swatches, click the link.

First and foremost, as with most Urban Decay palettes, you get a lot of bang for your buck.  Especially since these are new shades (minus the eye pencil) that hasn't been released in other palettes- something UD does tend to do a lot.  So for all you economic buffs out there continue reading the breakdown. If math makes your eyes glaze over, skip to the next paragraph. If you bought these individually it would cost an arm and a leg.  Each single eye shadow is $18, the lip color is $19, a 4-pan (not 6) build your own system is another $18 (maybe a 6 pan will be $27?), and a full sized eyeliner is $19-for the mini we'll say it costs $12. That makes the grand total value around $166 for the highly discounted price of $49.  That's less than third the cost, so ya it's totally worth it. Now that I have gotten my nerd on....

The palette is a nice metallic case that's sturdy and well suited for travel. The cardboard box around the actual palette gives you all the details you need on the innards (shown in picture above), and there is a card to "get the look" of Glinda the Good Witch played by Michelle Williams in the movie. The recommended look is pretty, but I always prefer making my own. In any case it's available to you if you like it. The palette itself has 6 interchangeable slots and a place for your 24/7 eye liner.  You can switch the eyeliner out as well since the size included is the standard size of all the UD smaller/travel size eyeliners.  So feel free to customize the entire palette to your liking! The only thing that doesn't nicely fit into the package is the Lip Color.



Going on to the actual quality of the product, it lives up to the renown UD name.  I haven't tried any of the new formulation eye shadows, so I can't compare to those, but these are great.  The shadows are all buttery, and richly pigmented. There are a variety of finishes in this palette, but there are no matte colors.  This is definitely your shimmery/fairy-like palette with an added pop of color. Many of the shades are duo-tone with gold or full on glitter. (I'll describe the actual color in the swatches section.) Also true to UD quality, the glitter eye shadow has quite a bit of fall out.

 The 24/7 eyeliner glides on smoothly without any tugging,
and is opaque in one swipe. It's soft enough that you can smudge the liner if you want, and it's long lasting as well. I've never tried the Super-Saturated Lip Color before, but I've always wanted to. It glides on smoothly, stays put, and it's not drying.  It's almost "slightly" mositurizing. It's comfortable to wear. Like many products like it, it's a jumbo crayon type product that you just draw on your lips with for highly pigmented color.  This was the only product that I preferred the Theodora version. But that's just personal opinion.





Swatches

The eye shadows included in the palette are: Tornado, Aura, Magic, Illusion, Oz, and South. Both Aura and Oz are split in half and have two shades in one. The top row consists of Tornado, a deep, metallic, eggplant purple. Aura has an iridescent electric blue half and a red/yellow iridescent half. Magic is a mid-tone bubblegum pink with gold duochrome. All swatches are on bare skin without any primer.

Tornado, Aura (2 middle shades), and Magic

Close up of the 2 Aura shades and Magic to be able to see the iridescence and gold undertones.

Aura (2 shades on left) and Magic

The bottom row of the palette has Illusion, a light peach with gold undertones. Oz has half gold metallic with antique gold chunky glitter, and the other half is metallic silver with fine silver glitter. The glitter in the silver half of Oz doesn't have any noticeable fallout and it isn't very obvious on the lid. The gold half has lots of fall out, so I suggest using a creamy base to try to keep the glitter in place as much as possible. South is a taupe with a very slight hint of olive undertones.

Illusion, Oz (2 middle shades), and South

Th following swatch shows the peach aspect of Illusion, the chunky glitter in the gold half of Oz, and the slight olive green nature of South.

Illusion, Oz (2 middle shades), and South

The 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Rockstar is darkened eggplant purple that appears almost black when applied. It's a color that has been included in some past palettes, and the only product that's not new in this palette.

The Super Saturate High-Gloss Lip Color in Glinda is a high-shine peachy nude with a slight hint of pink. It's a very wearable nude that can be easily applied without looking in the mirror. Even though it is a light color, it mutes down the natural pink tones in my lips.  

Bottom Line: If you read through my economic lesson, you'll know that The Glinda Palette is totally worth the price. The products are all nice and of high quality that can be worn on a daily basis. The only exception is the fall out from the gold shade of the Oz eyeshadow. There's plenty of looks that can be achieved with this palette, so I say go out and get it before it's gone.  On a side note if you're one to prefer more earth tone/neutral shades I suggest The Theodora Palette.