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
