Whats Your Vice [2]? | Urban Decay Palette Review & Swatches

Although it's been out for a couple of months I have only just got my hands on the Urban Decay Vice 2 palette, which is my first "colourful" one from them! I knew I wanted it ever since i missed out on the first addition last year.
It's a bit sad that Urban Decay doesn't ship internationally, and I wasn't sure where else I could get one without going through a mail forwarding service, so when I posted about it on Instagram one of my US followers who I've "known" for a few years offered to buy it & send it over for me, I was so happy!
Of course afterwards I found the website www.tarazz.com.au which is basically is a mail forwarding service from Sephora so the prices are different to what you'd find through Urban Decay, and then I didn't realize it was actually on Beautybay which I've used a fair few times!

I'll start out with the packaging... I absolutely love the design of this case with the hard, sturdy plastic cover with the gorgeous shades of purple & the raised diamond UD logo. It has an easy press button where the case glides open gently, unveiling the 20 gorgeous shades & the huge mirror which occupies the entire space of the lid, which balances the palette when it's open so it doesn't inconveniently tip over.

As always, the palette comes with a dual-ended brush. It has a flat shader on one side and a blending brush on the other, but I don't find them dense or sturdy enough to pack on the colour. However I prefer to use the flat shader for highlighting and precision blending, but the blending side is probably more stiffer and smaller to apply colours directly into the crease.

This palette features a variety of jewel-toned shades amongst the not-so-average neutrals which I find are very complimentary against each other. It consists of mainly shimmery metallic shades, some with glitter accents & flecks of shimmer against a satin base, which can be easily blended out if not careful. There are only two matte blending shades and one highlighting shade which may be a bit limiting but it works as that is not the focus of the palette.

The finish that I prefer in the palette are the metallic eyeshadows, they are definitely the most pigmented and the colours are so eye catching! If you are not used to colour, of course this wouldn't be as appealing but you could start with a hint of colour on the lower lash line or as an eyeliner.
I also thought that I would have plenty of dupes in this palette... I certainly have many similar colours with Inglot & a few other palettes but nothing is ever too similar now, isn't it?? :)

Swatches
All swatches are done without a base but of course will show up differently, the different flecks and textures in some colours would have stood out.

unforuntately the colours don't show up as bright as they are IRL!

[First two rows, top-bottom, left-right]
Smokeout: Dark Chocolate brown bordering on black; Satin
Lovesick: Intense black with silver glitter that tends to be blended out easily; matte w/ micro glitter
Shellshock: Intense metallic silver, with loads of pigmentation; Metallic
Coax: Cool toned pink; Shimmer
X Rated:  Cool toned light pink; Satin
Prank: Dark navy blue with a teal shimmer,which unfortunately blends away too easily; shimmer-matte
Madness: Cool toned medium blue; Frost
Strike: Muted yellow-gold; Frost
Stash: Olive-brown with gold shimmer; Shimmer
Poison: Black with dark green undertones; Shimmer

Radar: Medium-Dark Brown with gold glitter, minimum fall out despite a chunkier texture; Metallic
Damaged: Emerald- Forest Green, ; Shimmer/ Metallic
Voodoo: Cool, Mid-Toned Purple with slight purple glitter, a bit dryer so not as pigmented; Metallic
Betrayal: Duo-chrome purple that shifts to blue; Metallic
Derailed: Medium Brown-Taupe, very pigmented & smooth application; Frosty / Metallic
Dope: Light peachy pink, good for highlighting; Satin

Toxic: Coppery Gold-Pink; Frosty/ Metallic 
Habit: Light Beige Nude, good for blending out crease colours; Matte
Ambush: Everything I wanted Radar to be, it is a Medium-Dark Bronze & is very creamy; Metallic
Rewind: Neutral Brown, good for applying lightly in the crease as a transition colour; Matte

Depending on where you get the Vice 2 palette from, it is between $59 (US) to $72 (AU/ EURO sites) which still makes the eyeshadows only around $3.60 each! But then if you'll only use a couple of the shades then it wouldn't be worth it! (But trust me, you'll want to use them all!) My favourite colours would have to be Madness, Radar, Betrayal & Ambush. Another thing is this palette is very fall/autumn coloured, so I probably wont get as much use out of this summer as I'd like to!

Obviously my final verdict is that I love this palette, what do you think of it??
xoxo