Urban Decay Theodora Palette

Last weekend, I found the Urban Decay Oz The Great and Powerful palettes in stock at Sephora in France. These were retailing at €43 each, versus US$49 in the US and £35 in the UK. As I had 10% discount voucher, it worked out to be about S$64. They are not available in Singapore yet.

This is the Theodora palette, a character played by Mila Kunis in the upcoming Oz movie.

The sleek metal case is nicely slim, compact and easily portable, unlike the earlier Box of Shadows in their various incarnations. The movie name is in raised embossed lettering on the lid.

The lid flips out to almost 180 degrees and has a generously sized mirror under it.

Nestled inside are six eyeshadow pans, featuring eight brand new shades. It's always a plus when a brand comes up with new shades instead of recycling the same old bestsellers. I wish Urban Decay had included a new shade of the 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencil, instead of Zero which has been in many previous sets. I think this is the third or fourth Zero that I own, and I'm not a fan of it.

The eyeshadow pans can be easily lifted out of the case. These are made in the USA while the eye pencil is made in Germany.

The palette leans heavily towards neutrals, with three matte/satin hues in the top row that are good for shading and as the base shade. The bottom row is more interesting with a rich shimmery deep brown, a metallic black and dirty gold, and a green duo.

Spell

West

Broken

Jealous

The palette also comes with a Super-saturated High Gloss Lip Color in Theodora, a bright shiny cherry red, that is made in Germany. This is intensely pigmented so I applied a coat to my lower lip and then pressed my lips together to transfer the color to the upper lip for a more muted, smudged effect.

I love the striking red shade which lasted well over four hours of wear and has no distracting gritty shimmer or glitter particles. However, after a couple of hours, my lips started to feel dry. After removing it, my lips were parched and in sore need of lip balm.

Using Too Faced Shadow Insurance, I applied West along the upper lashline, Bewitch in the crease, the lighter half of Jealous at the inner corners and in the crease, the gold half of Spell along the lower lashline and in the middle of the upper lid, and Broken over the browbone area.

Aside from being easy to blend, the shades lasted well through nine hours of wear without creasing or fading. The lighter green shade in Jealous gives a lovely glowy effect. I was expecting some fallout from Spell but didn't notice any. There was some fallout from West though, but this was easily cleaned up.

Urban Decay has a gifted knack for producing eyeshadow palettes that pack in great value along with reliable quality. Despite the fact that I already have an arsenal of their palettes, I still could not resist purchasing Theodora, partly because the red lip pencil looked so enticing. The Super-saturated lip pencils usually retail for €18, while the eyeshadows are €17, the case is €17 and the full size eye pencil is €16. So the value of Theodora works out to be around €145 for a highly wearable set of colors. For more reviews of Theodora, do check out Xsparkage and Phyrra (also here).

Other products used: Coffret D'Or Silky Fit Liquid Foundation OC-B, Lunasol Under Eyes Base 01, Paul & Joe Highlighting Powder 002 and Cheek Color 08 Candy, Canmake Nobimori Mascara and Lower Lash Mascara, Addiction Eyeliner Pencil Sleepless NightsK-Palette Lasting 2Way Eyebrow