So you guys will remember about a month ago I bought myself three lovely Urban Decay lipsticks from an eBay seller. Urban Decay are refreshing their product range and packaging at the moment, and a lot of the current stock is therefore available at a discount on their American site and from resellers over here (but not yet from their nominated sellers Debenhams and House of Fraser, boo). I bought these three shades for £4.75 each including shipping from eBay seller ClickFragrance http://stores.ebay.co.uk/clickfragr
If you don’t know Urban Decay, in a nutshell, it’s a high quality cosmetic brand marketed with a sense of humour to come across as sexy and edgy and 18-25 friendly. Shade names like Asphyxia, Blunt, Uzi and Grifter set the tone. The looks are bold, but pleasantly, the cosmetics are easy to use and perform well by comparison to similar priced brands like Benefit, and are much easier to “get right” than slightly cheaper offerings from Revlon and L’oreal.
So, I shared some pics with you when I opened the boxes, but I thought it was a good idea to actually live with the things for a little while to give you a balanced opinion of them.
See my previous post for lots of product pics http://beelovesbeauty.com/2011/12/17/urbandecaylipsticks/
As you can tell from those, this brand takes their packaging/marketing/detailing very seriously, and there’s no question when you use it whether you’re using a hip, edgy item. GOD I’M EDGY it says FUCK I’M GOTH BOOTS AND PIERCINGS APPROVED. It’s up to you whether you like this or not. Personally I think it’s neat, but it is obviously a gimmick. Just being called “Buzzkill” can’t make a lipstick a good lipstick, right?
First Up – swatches in fairly ugly daylight on my hand.
From top: Voodoo a red toned pink with a tiny bit of shimmer in it.
Buzzkill, a middling pink that is quite sheer in texture
and third, Trainwreck, a blue-pink leaning toward fuschia, also quite sheer but less so than Buzzkill.
Urban Decay describe their lipsticks by their own set of criteria, e.g. Buzzkill is described as Creme and Full coverage, but I would disagree with both of these. Their lip products do vary but I’ve never seen one that is full coverage or a cream texture by comparison to offerings from L’oreal or Rimmel, these kids don’t know the meaning of these terms, man. That said, UD lipsticks fall into an area rarely inhabited by other lip brands, bold, interesting, and unintimidating. These shades are bright and exciting and relatively long lasting, but they’re actually pretty hard to smear over your face accidentally, or get a worn-out patch in the middle. They’re almost like a fantasy version of a “beginner’s” lipstick, transform your look without the risk of looking like a dick? YES PLEASE. If you hate sheers, there won’t be much in UD’s range for you, but I think they might turn you around if you gave them a try. they’re so reliable. They’re my “Go-to guy” you know?
So this is Buzzkill, close up. I haven’t (don’t know how) photoshopped any of the pics of me so there are old piercing holes and incipient wrinkles and all sorts, enjoy! Buzzkill is an easy, work-day pink. similar to my natural lip colour and easy to wear.
Buzzkill in action. All three have the UD characteristic lip product scent. It’s sweet, I can’t quite put my finger on it, perhaps it is slightly aniseedy? It’s a round smell, and warm, very much more like food than chemical or perfume. It’s a strong scent though, if you didn’t like it, it would be a dealbreaker, as it is persistent enough that it’s like it or forget it, you know?
More Buzzkill. Accessories from the Miss Selfridge online sale. If it weren’t Sunday afternoon, this would be me made up and ready to go out, but as it is, it’s just me posing for you!
Next up, Trainwreck. I’ve used the “Envious” lipliner to get the maximum out of this look, it’s a very similar shade. As you can see it’s a blue toned colour, bolder and less “work safe” than the first, with a more reflective finish.
In context. It’s a flattering shade for my skin tone but it’s an attention grabber. As Eddie Izzard might say: “A night-time look” 
Not for the faint hearted, but I’m bold as brass nuts so I love it.
ACTION SHOT: here I’m pretending to be about to say something snooty so you can see the unexpected benefits of wearing a blue-toned lipstick, I think it makes my dodgy-coloured British teeth look their best. Zinging the smiles around when wearing this colour 
Jutting my chin the hell forward for you here in a bit of natural daylight. Oh baby – it’s bold.
Finally: Voodoo. It’s a coral red, I guess. It’s another naturalish colour but not as much like mine as Buzzkill. It’s unusual – I can’t quite describe it except that, the other two colours are cool toned, and however flattering they are on me, there are some makeup looks that just don’t rock with a blue pink, this is when I’d call on Voodoo.
Here it is in action. I look furious. I don’t know why as I’m not furious. I’m happy inside!!
When I bought the lipsticks I also picked up this lipliner, hoping it would do for all three, as the lip liners I have in pink already are just so ugly. I don’t know why but cool toned pink lip liners are near impossible to find unless you want the “I drew on myself with a purple permanent marker” look. Warm toned pink liners look awful with cool shades on cool skin, like, soreness. Sooo..
Well, it is a match for both Buzzkill and Trainwreck, and it does what it says on the side – glides on. As you can see from the close up on the used tip, it’s soft in texture and this stops it dragging, but obviously necessitates more frequent sharpening and uses the whole thing up faster. I got it for £6.99 from an eBay seller which is a good discount but still an expensive item. Justified as the only pink lipliner I’ve ever loved, but somehing to consider.
Here is the Envious lipliner on its own. It’s very easy to use and lasts well for a soft pencil (though 24/7 is a bold claim, you’d have to reapply fairly often for all day/night performance, plainly, it’s not a long lasting staining formulation)
So, after all that, what’s the verdict?
Pro’s :
Great flattering colours
Easy to use and hard to fuck up
Pretty “cool” packaging
Available at sub-£5 at the moment
Cons:
Strongly sweet scented
Not creamy or opaque despite the description (although I’ve used UD before so not a surprise)
Usually a pricey range
Not a long lasting “stain” formulation.
As you can probably tell, I love these cosmetics, but it is a matter of taste rather than absolutes. I think either you’re into the UD vibe, bold, scented, got their own way of esoterically describing things, naming colours after drugs and weapons, or you’re not into the vibe and you won’t like them. If you’re not sure, I’d recommend giving them a go, because they could well win you over, especially as you can get the range cheaply at the moment.