I liked the Urban Decay Troublemaker Palette when it came out for $39 last fall, but it’s on sale for $19 now! Are you kidding me?! I love it at that price, which is how much it is now on sale (as we speak at Sephora and the UD website). I think it’s a great “going out” palette, and you get hella serious bang for your buck at that price.
When you open it up, it looks like there are nine shades, because there are nine pans, but there are actually 10, because two shades share Clash, the center pan. It’s split between black and white, and I don’t quite understand the rationale behind that because the black gets into the white, and the white gets into the black, but both of them are useful, so I can live with it, especially at $19.
The palette also comes with a miniature Troublemaker Mascara, which excels at thickening, but is just OK at lengthening and curl hold (I usually end up layering it underneath a separate lengthening waterproof mascara).
Now, the three warm-toned brown mattes in this palette are what bump this bad boy up to bad-@ss level. None of them are overly orange-y or reddish, which are big trends right now, and all three are eminently useful day/night colors. The lightest one actually reminds me of MAC Bamboo, while the mid-toned one looks like MAC Soft Brown, and the dark brown could almost pass for MAC Brown Down dupe.
They’re colors that I know I can wear in the daytime and at night. Even at 2 o’clock in the morning…not that I have much cause to wear eyeshadow at 2 in the morning (anymore).
There are also four metallic jewel tones that double as sparkly, shiny eyeliners. They feel a bit chunkier than the browns and exhibit a bit of fallout — more than the browns (which don’t have any fallout) — but at the sale price, I’m OK with that.
So, like, if you’re going to a party, this palette makes it really easy to put an eye look together. You can blend one or two of the browns on your lids, then line your lash lines with any of the metallics.
There are some nice options here to play with shadow intensity, too, especially with the jewel tones in tandem with white-black Clash. In the top pic, I’m wearing the green shade, Bankroll, layered on top of the black shade in Clash.
Basically, applying the metallics on top of the black shade makes them look richer, darker and deeper, and applying them on top of the white shade makes them look brighter.
This is a pretty good sale on a pretty flexible palette. I mean, the browns are great, but the metallics coupled with white/black Clash take it to the next level.
It’s useful, and it’s on sale!
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Hello. What lipstick are you wearing here?
Hi Mel,
I’m wearing two shades from the NUDESTIX Love Me Nudes (Natural Edition) Lip + Cheek Kit I reviewed last week. I did a layer of Retro first then topped it with Tay Tay!
You know your mother is beaming with pride, reading this. You found a great sale! 🙂 I second Mel’s question above – love the lipstick, even though it looks like it required lining. HAHA!
Hi Kim,
It’s an easy peasy lip actually! I layered two shades from the NUDESTIX Love Me Nudes (Natural Edition) Lip + Cheek Kit I reviewed last week. I did a layer of Retro first then topped it with Tay Tay. Since the pencils are chunky it was fast and super easy.
I love it – and those were two of my faves. Retro for the color and Tay Tay for the finish. I definitely need to move them up on my list. 🙂 Thanks!
You’re welcome. The kit is a really great deal and I think you could have a lot of fun with it!
Have you started packing for your trips?
I haven’t. I’m definitely a “night before/morning of” kind of packer. We just found out that we’ll have to leave for hockey on Thursday night because we have a very early Friday game (and, of course, the last Sunday game) so I’ll be rushing a bit more. But my flight isn’t until the evening so I’ll have the day to get everything ready. 🙂 And the boys’ HS team won the Sectional Finals last night so they’re also moving on. So exciting for them. There are 12 Seniors on the team so it’s great to see them have this success. It does make all the running worthwhile, when you see how happy they are!
Several UD lipstick shades are also on sale, but selling out quickly!
Hi Amanda,
Thanks for the heads up. Did you grab any shades?
The shared pan is truly odd, especially with colors so different. I guess you need a really tiny brush with them.
Or an angled brush.
This is a great little palette. I hemmed and hawed quite a bit and then it went on sale. Also, I didn’t think about layering over the white and black so thanks for mentioning that–probably pretty obvious to everyone but me!
Somebody needs to invent something that will make nice reds and orange colors without using carmine. I have had to pass on the Nakeds3 and the Heat palettes because those beautiful colors that would look so perfect on me all contain carmine! Why, UD, why?
Hi Kellly,
If I ever find a red or an orange without carmine I will let you know!