Urban Decay Backtalk Vice Lipstick Comparisons (plus a quick review of NYX Slip Tease Full Color Lip Oil in Lowkey)

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Urban Decay's Vice Lipstick in Backtalk, in their Comfort Matte finish, is one of the most popular shades in that huge line. They even made a whole eye and face palette based on it. It's in that dusty pink/mauve/MLBB (my-lips-but-better) family, which is the largest category of lip products in my hoard. Despite its popularity and my personal preference for this type of shade, there's something about Backtalk that's just a little off when I wear it. It's not that it looks bad, exactly, but it also doesn't make my face look better than it did without any lipstick.

I decided to swatch all my lipsticks that are even remotely similar to see if I can pick out any patterns and discern why Backtalk doesn't work for me. And since I was doing that, I figured I might as well post them here for you, in case you want to find/avoid dupes--or in case you can help me answer my question.

Here are the swatches, in no particular order. The first swatch in every photo is always Urban Decay Backtalk.

1. Urban Decay Backtalk

2. Bite Beauty Pepper (Luminous Creme formula)

3. Bite Beauty Matte Crème Lip Crayon in Glacé

4. BareMinerals GEN NUDE Liquid Lipstick in Swag

5. Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Lovesick

6. Make Up For Ever Artist Rouge Lipstick in Rosewood

7. Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche Lipstick in Fig

So of the lipsticks in this selection, besides Backtalk, the only two I don't really like on myself are the KVD Lovesick and Bite Fig. Lovesick is a little cooler, with more pink/purple, than Backtalk, and Fig is much warmer and peachier. (Fortunately Lovesick is also a sample, because since it does that dried-up butthole thing to my lips, I wouldn't want to be stuck with a whole tube. Also, I don't buy Kat Von D products.) I'm not sure I'm seeing a pattern here yet.

1. Urban Decay Backtalk (It's interesting how Backtalk will look different depending on what other swatches you put it next to. The lighting is the same!)

2. Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche Lipstick in Rhubarb

3. Maybelline Creamy Matte Lipstick in Touch of Spice (reviewed here)

4. NYX Slip Tease Full Color Lip Oil in Lowkey (which is very, very similar to Touch of Spice--more on this lipstick below!)

5. Colourpop Lux Lipstick in Angel City

6. Nars Satin Lip Pencil in Rikugien

7. Wet N Wild Megalast Lipstick in Rose-bud

Everything here is much warmer than Backtalk, and it all works well for me, so maybe that's something. Rhubarb is slightly blah on me, but I'm guessing it would look great on people who like Revlon Sultry, which is similar to Maybelline Touch of Spice but slightly less flattering on me (review/comparison here).

Side note: has anyone ever come across a dupe for Wet N Wild Rose-bud? I love the color, but the Megalast formula always dries out my lips.

1. Urban Decay Backtalk 

2. L'Oréal Colour Riche La Lacque Lip Pen in Choco-lacque (reviewed here)

3. Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in Rapture (discontinued, but available in Vice format)

4. Urban Decay Sheer Revolution Lipstick in Sheer Rapture (discontinued)

5. Revlon Balm Stain in Honey (reviewed here)

6. Tom Ford Lip Color Matte in Pussycat

Pussycat looks closest to Backtalk here, and it's also the one I like least on my face, though slightly better than Backtalk. These two lipsticks are both pretty muted (i.e. they have grey added), so that could be a clue. Rapture looks muted when you consider it alone, but next to Backtalk, it's a bit more saturated.

1. Urban Decay Backtalk 

2. Tarte Tarteist Creamy Matte Lip Paint in Birthday Suit (i.e. last year's Sephora birthday gift)

3. LA Girl Matte Lipstick in Snuggle (reviewed here)

4. Burt's Bees Lip Crayon in Sedona Sands

5. Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche Lipstick in Thistle

None of the above is particularly similar to Backtalk, so the fact that most of them work for me isn't especially informative. The exception is Birthday Suit, which is an unflattering beige--I think it's the yellow undertones that set it apart from the superficially similar Snuggle. Come to think of it, though, Thistle is both very muted and pretty cool, and I like it a lot on me. Maybe that's because it's more of a statement corpse-lip, rather than just looking accidentally blah. (I'm wearing it in this Instagram pic, though the lighting isn't great.)

You probably want to see what Backtalk actually looks like on me at this point. (Apologies for the grainy photo.)

Like I said, it's not awful, but a great lipstick will light up your face, and a good lipstick will at least be better than nothing.

I'm not sure what I've learned through this process. I need my MLBB lipsticks to be muted, but not too muted, and more brown than grey, maybe. Or more brown than pink? Thoughts? I have definitely learned that I have way too many similar lipsticks (ok, I already knew that), and that weirdly enough I have never reviewed most of these. Any you'd like to know more about?

I'll tell you more right now about one of them. I recently used Ulta points to pick up a lipstick from one of NYX's 700 or so liquid lipstick lines, a newer one called Slip Tease Full Color Lip Oil. It's full color, sure, but having oil in the name is a bit of a red herring. It's not like YSL Tint-In-Oil or most other products called lip oils. It's less drying than most matte liquid lipsticks, sure, but there's nothing that looks or feels oily about it. (There are a few oils halfway down the ingredients list, but a lot of other things come before them.)

Here is Lowkey on my face:

More flattering, wouldn't you agree, than Backtalk? The rest of my makeup is the same, as is the lighting. Here's a lip swatch:

When you see it all alone, it looks like a rosy pink, but in the swatches above (second set), you can see that it definitely has some brown in it when compared to other lipsticks in the same family. The formula is really lovely. It's slightly moussey and thick enough that you can easily and neatly apply it using just the doe foot (not as thick as the Tarte liquid lipstick, though). It's opaque in one coat, but not so pigmented that it risks getting really messy. The finish is demi-matte. It dries down a bit but not completely, so it retains slip and moisture and feels pretty much like a bullet lipstick--yet it doesn't transfer easily. Wear time is about the same as a decent bullet, so you'll probably have to reapply after a meal. Best of all, it doesn't dry my lips out.

This is one of the nicest lipsticks I've tried recently, and probably the nicest liquid lipstick I've ever used. I'd recommend giving it a try if you see a color you like. That's my one complaint: while I love Lowkey (way to be hip to the new slang, kids), none of the other colors really interests me. There's variety, but something about the selection bores me. Bang Bang and Entice might be ok? I think a terracotta orange would be really great in this formula.

I kind of ordered Lowkey blind (you can never trust Ulta's photos for color accuracy), but it ended up working great. It would be nice if I could work out some kind of rules to predict which lipsticks will work best on me. Do you know what works for you when you see it, or do you have to try everything on like I do?

Concealing Redness with Yellow Corrector: Comparison of Urban Decay Color Correcting Fluid and L.A. Girl HD Pro Conceal

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On a daily basis, I don't tend to wear a full face of foundation or other base product. Some days I'll feel ambitious enough to slap on some tinted moisturizer, but it's rare that I use a fuller coverage foundation. Still, I have a significant amount of redness in my skin, especially in the center of my face, concentrated on either side of my nose. I've also been breaking out a lot lately, and that adds to the redness on my chin and forehead between my eyes. I want that shit to be less obvious.

Rather than covering my face with a uniform layer of product, my preferred camouflage is color corrector in the red areas, a liquid concealer under my eyes, and spot concealing for blemishes. Then I set everything with a loose powder, and I'm good to go. It probably takes nearly as much time for this routine as it would to use an opaque foundation, but for me, this is an easier, lower maintenance process. I also tend to like how my makeup looks by the end of the day. I've tried many foundations and I never really like how they wear, though some are better than others. Finally, I just don't love the feeling of foundation on my skin, and I get self-conscious about whether or not I'm rubbing it off somehow. So foundation is something that I tend to only use occasionally.

I've written about using the Urban Decay Naked Skin Color Correcting Fluid to conceal redness before (here). For whatever reason, yellow color correctors, as far as I've seen, are never advertised as targeting redness. In fact, I've never even seen anyone write a blog or Instagram post (etc.) saying that they use yellow corrector for this purpose. But I am here to tell you that if you haven't had good luck trying to cancel out redness with a green color corrector, it's worth giving yellow a shot instead. For me, green correctors tend to add a greyish cast to my skin, while yellow simply disguises the redness. You can see a comparison in my previous post of the subject, where I go into more detail about why I think this works.

(Yellow correctors are usually aimed at improving "brightness," but it's not clear to me exactly what problem this is correcting. If you use yellow for brightness, I'd love to hear about what it does for you.)

What I really want to do here is compare the Urban Decay yellow corrector, which contains 0.21 oz. of product for $28, with L.A. Girl HD Pro Conceal in Yellow, which contains 0.28 oz. for about $3-4 (depending where you buy it). I don't think I need to do any math for you to see the massive value difference there, so I had high hopes that the L.A. Girl option would be a functional substitute, since I use this corrector so much that I go through it very quickly. I'm not eager to drop another $28 on such a small product if I can avoid it.

Swatching the two yellow correctors, you can see some subtle differences. The Urban Decay corrector has a more opaque, whitish base, and the L.A. Girl corrector is slightly more translucent and lacks that white base. I'm not sure these differences are strong enough even to be visible in my photo, but they are detectable in person. Urban Decay on the left; L.A. Girl on the right.

Here's my bare face right now--as I said, I've been breaking out worse than usual for the past couple of months. I'm working on controlling that, but in the meantime, I'd like to disguise it.

You can see that the redness is concentrated on either side of my nose, but also between my eyebrows, and on my upper lip and chin. I also have mega dark circles that are reddish-purple.

Below I've applied the Urban Decay corrector on the left side of the photo, and the L.A. Girl on the right side of the photo. I've only used it over those red areas mentioned above. (I also put on mascara and brow pencil, as you can tell, because my face hairs are no longer completely invisible.)

I think you can see, despite the mediocre indoor lighting, that it works really well to conceal redness in a natural way on my skin. Can you see any differences between the right and left sides of my face? Personally, I can't see any in the photo, and I couldn't see any in person either. Any visible differences are just because the blemishes in my skin aren't perfectly symmetrical.

Here are closeups of each side so that you can see what the texture looks like on my skin. Again, I don't see any real difference. Both products have a slight tendency to highlight flakiness, but not dramatically, and not to the extent that I'm bothered by it.

Urban Decay:

L.A. Girl:

In these photos, I've used the corrector under my eyes, as well as on other red areas. For everyday use, I skip adding it to my eye area and just use my usual Sephora concealer (reviewed here), which has a slight yellow tint to it. I don't find that layering a yellow corrector under concealer in that area makes a big enough difference to be worth the extra work. I do, however, pat the extra Sephora concealer that's on my fingers after I blend it under my eyes on to the skin next to my nose. Then I spot conceal pimples with Urban Decay 24/7 Concealer Pencil, which seems, unfortunately, to have been discontinued. Finally, I set everything with loose powder.

Here's the final result with all my makeup (hey hey hooded eyelids!):

I like the results. As for other points of comparison between the Urban Decay and L.A. Girl correctors, the biggest difference is the packaging. The Urban Decay packaging is prettier, yes, but I also prefer it in terms of function.

I apply my concealer/corrector with a flat concealer brush (I have this stupidly expensive Clé de Peau brush that I got for free, but anything similar should work). I'd much rather just pick up the product from the UD doefoot than squeeze it out of the L.A. tube into its stupid brush tip. It's harder to control how much comes out of the squeeze tube. I suppose it might be easier to use up the last dregs of the product left in the squeeze tube at the end of its life, however.

In terms of wear time, they're about the same for me. It's not all left at the end of the day, but my face is still less red than it would otherwise be, and the makeup doesn't look cakey or weird.

Overall, since most things are about equal, I'd certainly recommend the L.A. Girl yellow concealer. It's cheap enough that even if you want to just experiment and figure out if yellow corrector will do anything for you at all, you won't be taking much of a risk. But I don't think there's a real advantage to the Urban Decay option, anyway. The slightly more translucent base of the L.A. Girl product also makes me think that it would work better on darker skin than the whitish Urban Decay corrector--though there is probably a limit, because it is still a light yellow.

I was seriously surprised by how well this L.A. Girl HD Pro Conceal corrector worked for me, considering that I had tried one of their regular concealers in the past, and wasn't impressed (reviewed here). But for a product like this that isn't supposed to match skin tone and isn't supposed to create a totally opaque concealing layer, it's fantastic.

Is there seriously no one else out there who uses yellow to cover redness? Hello? Anyone?

Plummy bronze: Urban Decay Vice Lipstick in Accident and Urban Decay Revolution Lip Gloss in Shadowheart

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Can you tell I couldn't come up with a good title? Titles are always the hardest part of any writing. In general, though, I've been struggling a bit with motivation/inspiration to blog lately, even though I've been fully enjoying my beauty products. I think I've figured something out. I usually have some kind of angle to my posts, like a comparison or an analysis, you know? At the very least I'm trying to write about whether or not something is worth buying. But right now I have a lot of products that I haven't written about, but that don't exactly have a hook. So I've been feeling like I have nothing to write about, even though I actually have a ton of shit. It's not that these products aren't interesting; it's just that they aren't gimmicky or controversial, etc. But I'm just going to go ahead and write about them anyway. Why not? We'll look at some pretty (I hope) pictures together and think about makeup and skincare. I definitely still have some of my old tricks up my sleeve, but I'm also going to work my way through my hoard and show you all the things. Does that sound cool?

I'm starting with a lipstick I bought in the fall, Urban Decay Vice Accident, and a gloss I bought earlier in the winter, Urban Decay Revolution Shadowheart. They're an obvious pairing since they're almost exactly the same color in two different formulas and finishes (obviously). Shadowheart has been discontinued, along with the rest of the Revolution glosses, but you may still be able to get it for $11 on Urban Decay's site, which is where I got this tube. It's also been included in their new lip gloss formula, which isn't available yet.

(Side note: It looks like Urban Decay changed their loyalty program so that you don't get free shipping until the second tier, which is too bad. But if you're going to shop from their site anyway, I think it's still worth joining to get the birthday gift, etc. This is my referral link, which gives you 10 points.)

Accident is one of the metallized Vice lipsticks, with a plummy brown base and gold shimmer. The brown is on the neutral side (is neutral a side?), but it will probably look different depending on your natural lip color, since it's just a little sheer. Shadowheart looks a bit redder in the tube, but is also a brown base with gold shimmer, though not nearly as metallic as Accident.

Why did I buy a gloss the same color as a lipstick I already had? I DON'T KNOW.

Here, swatches! Accident on the left, Shadowheart on the right.

See how similar they are? Shadow heart has a little more red in it, but it's very close.

It's interesting how Accident doesn't look very reflective in a swatch, like it does on the lips. Arm swatches can only tell you so much. Let me show you.

Here is Accident on my lips:

Like I said, it's a bit sheer, so I apply a layer, blot, and then apply a second layer. I haven't had any trouble with bleeding or settling into lip lines. The wear time is decent, and it doesn't look ugly as it wears off, though it's certainly not an unusually long-wearing lipstick. It's extremely comfortable, just like almost every Urban Decay lipstick I've tried. (The exception is Sheer F-Bomb, reviewed here.) It feels lovely--I'd go as far as to say it's a actually moisturizing.

Here's my whole face. (Excuse the terrible reflections on my glasses. I've yet to find the right lighting for selfies in this apartment. If I go out on the balcony, I end up squinting and frowning, but inside in front of a window this happens. I'm working on it. Maybe I should get Lasik for purely blogging purposes.)

I think that the pink in my lips enhances the plum in this lipstick a little, and those purplish undertones help it to be more flattering on me than a true brown lipstick would be. The gold shimmer gives Accident a glossy look as much as a metallic finish. It's a really fun and unusual lipstick, but totally wearable for pretty much any occasion. Here's another photo of it in warmer indoor lighting.

Shadowheart was a little disappointing, because it looks more shimmery and opaque in Temptalia's photos. I also have the Revolution gloss in After Dark, which is so opaque that it's almost a liquid lipstick, so I had high expectations.

In the photo above, I've applied a pretty heavy layer of Shadowheart, and you can see that it's still pretty sheer and a little patchy. It doesn't look bad from a distance, though (below). The gold shimmer is extremely understated. It's a nice gloss in a great color that I didn't have--it just doesn't have the impact of Accident. It is, however, just as comfortable and moisturizing as the lipstick.

See? A pretty gloss, for sure. Using Too Faced's Lip Insurance (reviewed here) helps a bit with the pigmentation, and Shadowheart also looks great layered on top of Accident.

As you can see, I've now fully embraced the brown lipstick life. I'm enjoying both of these, though if I had to choose, obviously I'd go with Accident. It's a really special lipstick in my overflowing collection. Shadowheart has been included in the new Urban Decay lip gloss selection, though, so maybe they've amped up the shimmer and pigment. Here's hoping!

Shadow Swatches: Miscellaneous Eyeshadow Singles and Quads from Stila, L'Oréal, Tom Ford, Butter London, Revlon, and Urban Decay

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I didn't buy anything during the Sephora sale, did you? 20% off just isn't very exciting for me. I mean maybe if there was something I was definitely planning to buy anyway, it would be better to get 20% off than no discount at all, but there wasn't. Plus I have a bunch of Ulta points to use on frivolous shit.

Instead of shopping, lately, I've been playing with what I already have, including these eyeshadows which I realized I'd (mostly) never written about on my blog. Rather than doing a full review of them, I thought I'd just take some swatch photos and say a little about what I like or don't like about each. Not all of them are currently available, but I hope you enjoy the pretty pictures anyway.

The swatches below were made with a brush over primer (Black Radiance eyeshadow primer, reviewed here). If this were a proper review, I would have swatched them with and without primer for your information, but I just really wanted to show you the color and finish clearly. You can still tell which ones are shitty even over primer, anyway.

Oh, and I took way too many photos, which probably all look the same, so here's a cut.

Do I Need This? Color Correcting (with Urban Decay Naked Skin Color Correcting Fluid in Yellow and NYX Incredible Waterproof Concealer in Green)

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Welcome to the latest installment of my Do I Need This? series. In these posts, I offer my experience and opinions about whether or not I think a product or technique is worth it. Obviously, you don't really need ANY beauty products, so the answer to the question is always going to be no, to some extent. But is it going to change your life (or face)? Is it going to make things easier? Are you going to notice any difference at all? That's what I'm getting at. You may disagree with my verdict, because we all have different bodies/faces/brains/desires, but I'll try to offer a starting point, at least.

Color correcting seemed to have a moment about a year ago, so as usual I'm coming along after the moment has passed to talk about it. It's weird to me, though, that color correcting could be a trend. When done right, it should be completely imperceptible, and how can that be trendy? It's like setting powder or concealer or moisturizer being temporarily trendy. I don't know. Anyway, a million and one color correcting products and palettes came out last year, and a few more, including the Urban Decay version here, are still popping up.

The idea of color correcting is that if areas of your face, or even your entire face, are "discolored," you can apply the opposite color to neutralize the discoloration--in theory. I put "discolored" in scare quotes because it's not like there are wrong skin tones, exactly, but if, for instance, your face is redder than your neck and that bothers you, there are ways to adjust that.

Do I need to color correct?

Short answer: The technique definitely works, but you might need to experiment to find the right color for your particular issue.

When Red Isn't Red: Urban Decay Vice Lipstick in Sheer F-Bomb

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Look! A real review! I've been bogged down in work stuff and cat nursing (which you can read a little about here if you missed it), but I'm settling into more of a routine now, so I've finally found time to write more than a couple of sentences.

Remember when I had too many sheer red lip products? Probably not, but I did. Because I had so many, I gave some of them away. And then a few of the ones I kept went off, because I have too much shit, and I got bored with these reds for a while. In the end, I was left with just Revlon Balm Stain in Romantic, which is a formula that I love (and one that seems to last forever without going bad).

In theory, I like Romantic. It's easy to apply and easy to wear, and the warm, slightly orangey red is pretty. So I've kept trying to love it, but there's something just a bit off with my complexion when I wear it. It makes my face a little sallow or sickly or something, so I'll end up looking in the mirror a couple of hours later and grimacing.

I decided ultimately that I needed a new sheer red, because the right one can liven up a look without being too dramatic or competing with my eye makeup like a fully opaque red might do. Yes, I know I could just apply an opaque red in a sheer layer or mix it with some balm, but I was feeling impractical and lazy. In the end, I should have used something I already had, because my new lipstick was a bit of a letdown.

I ended up buying Urban Decay Vice Lipstick in Sheer F-Bomb, which is described as "sheer, classic red," toward the end of last year when I had a $10 credit burning a hole in my Beauty Junkies account. I hesitated a bit before getting it, because in close to half the lip swatches you see when you google it, it looks more pink than red. Makes sense, right? Light red is pink, after all, and if you sheer out red over pink lips, you're going to get pink-red, logically. But I still hoped for the best.

Well, you can guess what I got. Though the bullet (above) looks completely red, but on my lips it looks like a fuchsia pink.

I mean, that's not really red at all, is it? My complexion seems to enhance the pink in it much like it does with Revlon Cherries in the Snow (reviewed here). In the swatches below you can see that Sheer F-Bomb is closer to Cherries in the Snow than to any of my other reds.

Left to right: (1) Urban Decay Sheer F-Bomb, (2) Revlon Romantic, (3) NYX Matte Perfect Red, and (4) Revlon Cherries in the Snow.

And here's Sheer F-Bomb compared to Stila Convertible Color in Poppy, which is more opaque (and which I never wear on my lips, because I find it too drying).

You can see at the top of the Sheer F-Bomb swatch, where it's thicker, it looks red. Just like the bullet. I can't build it up to that color on my lips, though.

All is not lost. If I layer Sheer F-Bomb over Romantic, I get the neutral true red that I had in mind all along. Mind you, it's less than ideal to own two lipsticks that aren't great on their own, but at least I have something that I like here. (I don't mind a sheer pink, but I own enough of those already, and that's not what I was looking to add to my hoard with Sheer F-Bomb.)

Red! And of course I can adjust how warm or cool it is by adding more or less of one of the two lipsticks.

As for the formula and performance of Sheer F-Bomb, I'd say it's fine. Decent. It's nowhere near as lasting as a Revlon Balm Stain, though it does leave a light pink stain behind. It's also not as moisturizing as I've found most other Urban Decay Vice (and Revolution) lipsticks to be. Very slightly drying for me, in fact. It's a notch or two higher on the pigmentation scale than a Revlon Balm Stain. Oh and I hate the shotgun shell cases of the Vice lipsticks. So edgy. Blah.

It may be that if your lips are less pink than mine to begin with, you will get a lip color out of Urban Decay Sheer F-Bomb that's closer to how it looks in the bullet. Then again, the swatches on my arm are quite pink too. If you've been dreaming of a sheer version of Cherries in the Snow, you've got it--but you're probably better off not being as lazy as I am and just sheering out your favorite red lipstick yourself.

In conclusion: sheer red lipstick is tricky.

Are you into sheer lip colors, or are you strictly all about the opacity?

Urban Decay Revolution Lipsticks back on UD site for $10

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Things have been hectic at work, so I haven't had time to post much lately, but I hope to write something more substantial soon. In the meantime, I thought some of you might be interested to hear the Urban Decay has put their Revolution Lipsticks back on their website for $10 (in the Sale section). I guess they hadn't sold them all last year when they went on sale all over the place! It looks like most of the shades are still available (cream, matte, and sheer), so if you missed out before, now's your chance. I would recommend the two I have: Rapture and Matte After Dark.

I'd recommend signing up for their Beauty Junkies program if you're going to shop the site, because it's free to sign up and you get free shipping/returns on all your orders, plus a good birthday gift. (I wrote more about the program here.) They are also giving double points on purchases right now.

Mega Urban Decay Vice Lipstick Swatch Comparison + Dupe Search (and a partial lipstick inventory)

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Urban Decay managed to hook me with that 24-shade sample pod thingy that everyone and their mother got last year. There's no way I would have given Rock Steady a second glance if I hadn't tried it on--and there's no way I would have bothered to try on what looked like a basic dark red--without that sample. But it turned out to be one of the most flattering lipsticks I've ever put on my face. You know those rare colors that seem to just light up your complexion? And harmonize seamlessly and look somehow natural even though they really aren't at all? Rock Steady is that, for me. But I was sure that in all my reds and burgundies and berries, I had to have something that was a dupe, or close enough. So I decided to do some comparison swatches.

And then I thought, what the hell, I should just go ahead and compare the rest of these samples to all the lipsticks I have. That could be fun. (As you may suspect, this has now become one of my longest posts ever, so buckle up. Or settle in. Or something.)

To do that, I had to pull out all of my lipsticks (both bullets and liquids) and pile them on my bed. Then I had to divide them into color categories: reds, rose/mauve/MLBBs ("my lips but better"), nudes, pinks, berries and fuchsias, corals and oranges, vampy shades and purples, and browns. Once they were all laid out like that I couldn't help but count them. 57! That's too many. Ugh. Mind you, that number includes minis as well as a bunch that I don't wear but have been stuck in a drawer for swatching. It doesn't, however, include anything in a pan, like my So Choix samples.

(Um, and I've bought a few new lipsticks since I finished swatching these. But no more money will be spent on lipstick in the foreseeable future.)

I didn't count individual categories, but by far the largest were the MLBBs and the reds. The MLBBs make sense, because I wear them more than anything else. The reds on the other hand . . . how did that happen? I guess it's in part because I think I should wear red more, and in part because when you get a freebie lipstick, it's almost always red. (And here I am writing a post a post about coveting another red lipstick.) The smallest categories were nudes, browns, oranges, and pinks. Like pinky-pinks, not berry or fuchsia or magenta.

On to the swatches! Not everything in my hoard has been swatched here, because I chose things based on how similar they were to the Urban Decay samples. I'm not going to review these lipsticks, Urban Decay or otherwise, unless I feel particularly compelled. I didn't swatch Urban Decay samples if I had nothing comparable, like Big Bang, which is basically a clear base with lots of pink glitter in it. Also, the swatches here are meant simply to compare colors and, to some extent, finishes. You shouldn't draw any conclusions about opacity or anything like that based on my photos alone, because I swatched the UD samples with a q-tip in most cases, but the others were applied directly from the bullets.

My main purpose here was to see if I had any dupes in my hoard, but as you'll see, there weren't too many. Nevertheless, I hope this will still serve as a useful point of reference for some of you, because you may be able to see how these things compare to lipsticks you already own. It was a valuable exercise for me.

Since Rock Steady was where I began . . . it's where I'll begin. As you can see, I actually didn't have anything quite like it. It's a dark red wine with a bit of berry in it. On my lips, it looks like strawberry jam. Rock Steady (cream finish) and Gash (cream finish) are quite similar, in fact, with Rock Steady being just a touch brighter. If you are not a makeup person, then all of these variations of red probably look pretty close--but (a) I chose the ones I had that were most similar to compare, and (b) you are probably a makeup person if you're reading this. You know, then, that red lipstick is a bitch and so slight variations can mean the difference between perfectly flattering and totally off. For instance, the "universally flattering" Nars Cruella (5) looks awful on me.

1. Urban Decay Vice Lipstick in Rock Steady; 2. Urban Decay Vice Lipstick in Gash; 3. Bite Beauty Scarlet (reviewed here); 4. Maybelline Creamy Matte in Divine Wine (reviewed here); 5. Nars Cruella; 6. Urban Decay Bad Blood; and 7. NYX Matte Perfect Red.

Comparison Swatches of Urban Decay Naked Skin One & Done in Light and Medium Light

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Despite having a couple of perfectly functional tinted moisturizers (recently reviewed), I had a moment of irrationality recently and bought a tube of Urban Decay One & Done from the UD website. I'd got a sample of it in the Medium Light shade with a previous order. I liked how easily it applied and how natural it looked on my skin, despite the fact that it was clearly a shade too dark. But really just a touch too dark when it was sheered out, so that I was actually able to wear it somewhat plausibly without looking like I was wearing a mask. I reasoned that the next lightest shade, Light (which is also the lightest shade in the range), ought to be perfect.

Well, wrong, so I wanted to post some quick swatches here in case any of you read this because you have a similar skin tone to mine. I lined it up with some other products that are a better match for me.

Left to right: UD One & Done in Light, UD One & Done in Medium Light, TheBalm Balm Shelter in Lighter than Light (reviewed here), Maybelline Dream Pure BB in Light (reviewed here), Nars Sheer Glow Foundation in Gobi, and Sephora Bright Future Gel Serum Concealer in Buttercream (reviewed here).

You can see that Light is still much too dark and orange for me. In fact, I'd say it's barely any lighter than Medium Light, it's just more peachy, while Medium Light is more yellow-brown.

It's partially my fault, because usually things labelled Light don't work for me, and I need Fair or the equivalent. But then the Maybelline BB is an exception to that rule, so I thought I had a chance here.

By the way, just in case you thought the label on the One & Done box might provide an accurate representation of the product's shade, let me disabuse you of that notion:

If I had used the box as a guide, I wouldn't put the blame on myself at all, because that sticker looks like a pretty good match for me.

Since we're on the topic of Urban Decay, although I wouldn't advise you to buy this particular product without swatching it in a store first, I thought I'd point something out about their website. One of the current samples/GWP they're offering is the mini-pan of the Fireball eyeshadow that Sephora was giving away a while ago (swatched here). It contains quite a bit of product, and it's a gorgeous duochrome, so if you were contemplating a purchase anyway, now might be your time. Remember you can get free shipping/returns if you sign up for the Beauty Junkies program. I wrote more about the program in this post.

(P.S. I finished my grading. Cookie please?)

20% off + free shipping from Urban Decay today and tomorrow

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Normally 20% off isn't really an interesting enough sale for me to post about, but 20% off with free shipping is decent. If you sign up for their Beauty Junkies program, you always have free shipping on the Urban Decay site. Use code UDADDICT to get the discount.

I also had enough points in the program for a $10 kickback, which you can combine with the discount, so I bought a Vice lipstick in Sheer F-Bomb for $5.49 shipped. I've been wishing I had a nice, sheer red. All I have are slippery glosses and opaque reds--which I know I could sheer out with balm, but then they get slippery too. I also have Revlon Balm Stain in Romantic, and I love the formula, but it looks really orange on me. So here's hoping Sheer F-Bomb will be the answer to all my dreams.

Urban Decay deals and free stuff (plus another duochrome!)

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HauteLook has 28 shades of the discontinued Urban Decay Revolution Lipsticks for $9.97 each. I highly recommend Rapture and the matte After Dark. I was hoping that they'd have Tilt, since I missed out on that one in the sales during the spring, but since they don't appear to, I will probably sit this one out. (Ulta has marked them back up to $21 for some reason.) Shipping for beauty products from HauteLook is about $6 and you usually have to wait a couple of weeks for your order to ship.

Since I got the order pictured above in the mail yesterday, I figured I'd make this post completely Urban Decay-themed. I got everything shown there for $10. It's actually just 4 items, but still! From upper left going clockwise: travel-size Perversion mascara, eyeshadow single in Sideline, blush sample card, and 7 eyeshadow samples cards with a primer sample.

The way to do this is to sign up for Urban Decay Junkies program, which is free. By doing so, you get free shipping on every order, and you get a free eyeshadow single of your choice (regular price $19) during your birthday month with any full-price order. That includes travel-size products, so I picked out the Perversion mascara, which I've had samples of before and really liked. One of these mini tubes lasts me at least three months, which is when you're usually advised to toss mascaras (though I rarely adhere to that rule). Anyway, I get about as much use out of it before it dries up as I do a full-size mascara. The free sample cards were added to my cart when I checked. And let me repeat: free shipping!

You also earn points for purchases and other things like posting reviews, referrals, and connecting your social media accounts. The points can be redeemed for $10 and $20 rewards toward purchases on the site. It's a pretty good program. I don't know if I'll make many other orders, but it's worth signing up for the birthday gift alone.

Finally, swatches of Urban Decay Sideline, since of course I chose a duochrome as my free eyeshadow. It's a peachy gold with a green shift. The green is really vibrant in person, but for some reason it doesn't come across strongly in my photos.

[Note: I also took new photos of the Maybelline duochrome Color Tattoo for my recent duochrome eyeshadows post. They still don't show it in all its true glory, but they are an improvement.]

I Heart Duochromes: Eyeshadow Edition

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(From top left: e.l.f. Baked Eyeshadow in Enchanted, Wet N Wild Comfort Zone palette, Maybelline Color Tattoo in Seashore Frosts, Makeup Geek Ritzy, Makeup Geek Typhoon, Prestige Total Intensity eyeshadow in Bewitched, Urban Decay Fireball, City Color Mousse in White Gold, and Blend Mineral Cosmetics PIG3.)

I have documented my love for shifty pigments before, such as in my Color Club Oil Slicks post. (Those were actually multichromes, not duochromes, as are a few of the eyeshadows here.) I love duochrome everything just because it's so damned beautiful--but duochrome eyeshadows have the additional benefit of being great for quick and lazy eye looks. The way the color changes depending how the light hits it means that I can blend a single eyeshadow from my lash line into my crease, and it will look like I put in more work than I did. (This works with some non-duochrome shimmer eyeshadows, too, like Maybelline Bad to the Bronze, reviewed here.)

I originally planned to post this round-up of all my duochrome eyeshadows a couple of years ago, but I had such a hard time photographing the Maybelline Color Tattoo in Seashore Frosts that I set the whole project aside for a long time. I've decided to just go ahead and post the photos I have anyway, because enough already! I'm not a perfectionist. The complexity of the paler multi- and duochromes was very difficult (for me, at least) to capture in a photo. All of these eyeshadows really need to be seen in person to be fully appreciated. Anyway, by now I have several more shades to share, so maybe the wait was worth it!

None of my duochromes, with the exception of the LE Color Tattoo, are especially obscure. I know that indie cosmetics makers offer a lot of other options, but I still haven't got too far into indie makeup (a single Makeup Geek order and a Life's Entropy order aside). My hesitancy is in part because I don't have the patience to stalk things that are put out in small batches, and I am also not confident that I can tell which indie companies are reliable and which aren't. Nevertheless, if you want to collect all the duochromes, indies are probably the way to go.

The rest of this post consists mainly of photos (so many photos of eyeballs)--it's not meant as a review. More of a celebration. For that reason, I've swatched all of these eyeshadows over primer, with my finger, which is a technique I've criticized recently because it can make powder products look smoother and more pigmented than they really are. I'm trying to show the color shift as clearly as possible, rather than to compare the performance of each eyeshadow. But if you have questions about any of them, please feel free to ask!

Swatches! I only got the little sample pan of Urban Decay Fireball after I had photographed the other swatches, so it's pictured separately.

Left to right: Wet N Wild Comfort Zone, Prestige Total Intensity eyeshadow in Bewitched, Makeup Geek Ritzy, Makeup Geek Typhoon, Maybelline Color Tattoo in Seashore Frosts, Blend Mineral Cosmetics PIG3, City Color Mousse in White Gold, and e.l.f. Baked Eyeshadow in Enchanted.

Urban Decay Fireball

Here is what is happening to the Urban Decay Revolution lipsticks

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Refinery 29 has a post all about the newly formulated and repacked lipsticks from Urban Decay, including 74 new shades in 6 finishes. They will launch in June. If you didn't like the flat/round shape of the Revolution lipsticks, you might like the more traditional bullets in the new ones. They will also be slightly cheaper, at $17 each rather than $22.

If you were a big fan of the Revolution formula and are worried about the change, most shades are still available for 50% off ($11) on the Ulta website (regular, matte, and sheer). They seem to be all or mostly sold out from Sephora and Urban Decay's site. Ulta also has free shipping with a $35 purchase right now (no code), which makes it less painful to order form them. Plus there are three free minis that you can add to your order (via Nouveau Cheap): a Dr. Brandt mask, a BareMinerals mascara, and a Redken hair "cleanser." Just add them to your cart with the purchase of something else and they will be free.

ETA: Macy's has an even larger selection still in stock, if there's something you want that's missing from Ulta.

I had made up my mind that I didn't need any new lipsticks, but now that I know for sure these are going away, I am tempted again. I was thinking about Rapture, 69, and After Dark. Anyone have any opinions about those shades? Or others that are worthwhile?