Beauty: Urban Decay Moondust palette review

Urban Decay never fails to provide pure eyecandy when they launch a new product, and the Moondust palette had every beauty junkie in the land sitting at the edge of their seat to get their fingers into those sparkly pans and swatch away. 

There aren't many glitter eyeshadow palettes around, and for good reason: glitter is notoriously difficult to work with if you don't want your entire face covered in sparkly bits, and not everyone has frequent opportunity to incorporate glitter into their daily makeup. However, I already own Urban Decay's Moondust in Solstice and can vouch for the brand's claims that the fallout is minimal. Plus, I am a sparkle junkie, and fall always gets me in the mood for some witchy outfit and makeup vibes: the Moondust palette fits perfectly into my life right now. 

Let's find out if the palette is as magical as it seems to be at first sight!

First of all, both the palette and the packaging itself is stunning, giving you true value for money. The casing of the palette is textured like glitter, and the sunken lettering reflects like a mirror. The closure is magnetic, keeping your precious sparkle protected in the sturdy packaging.

I love how gorgeously the colours on the back of the box shift to reveal the colour effects these eyeshadows are supposed to deliver for you. The colour representations on the back of the box aren't 100% representative of the moondusts found in the pan, though. Lithium looks completely different, for instance. But we'll get to that in a sec!

Ah, the colours. First impressions: REALLY digging Element and Magnetic, as you know I'm a sucker for reds and purples in eyemakeup.  Lightyear and Vega also look gorgeous, definitely striking shades. But since these colours are so multi-dimensional, they only show their true colours when swatched:

From left to right, we have Specter (a silvery light pink), Element (a rusty red with some pink and copper tones in there), Magnetic (a brownish purple base with blue glitter), Lightyear (a cool green with green glitter), Granite (a grey with silver glitter), Lithium (a bronze with champagne gold sparkle), Vega (a bright medium blue with very fine glitter, giving it a metallic look like Vega), and finally Galaxy (a stormy grey with teal shimmer). 

When I swatched these, Magnetic sort of disappointed me (I think the purple base is a bit... muddy?), and I dislike that Granite and Galaxy are sort of similar. The rest of the shades, however, are not just Moondust: they're stellar.

Some colours are sheerer than others, but all of them are surprisingly pigmented: You definitely don't just get some bright coloured sparkly bits when you use the moondusts, they all sit in a saturated base that you can build to opacity by applying them wet (as Urban Decay suggests) or, my preferred method of application, by using a glitter primer like Fyrinnae's Pixie Epoxy and then patting on the eyeshadow with a finger.

Best thing I noticed about these, however, is that they actually apply perfectly well even if you don't use a primer. They easily grab a hold of your eyelid and stay put throughout the day, although you do get fallout of course. Fallout happens whether you use a primer or not, but it's fairly minimal. I did find that there was more fallout than with my Solstice moondust.

And don't let the glitter intimidate you if you're just a casual makeup lover! There's so many possibilities with these products, from the statement to more subtle but still fun looks. I created four looks to demonstrate the versatility of the Moondust palette.

First, a galaxy cat eye:

For this look, I first created a smokey cat eye, and then I used a small, angled brush to pat on Element, Lightyear, Vega and Galaxy next to each other creating a sort of dark rainbow on top of the black. Surprisingly easy because you it doesn't matter if you make things a bit messy, the black will make the glitter pop anyway, creating a stunning effect.

Second, a full on glitter smokey eye:

For the smokey eye, I applied Element all over the lid with some rusty red orange matte eyeshadow smoked out in the crease, and I finished with a thick line of Granite on the lower lashline. Again, super easy and just stunning!

Third, my favourite out of the bunch, a grungy mermaid look:

Here I wanted to experiment with layering the Moondusts (something they're great for). I first applied a light layer of Lithium over the entire lid to create a muted base to pull all of the colours together. Then I dabbed on a bit of Magnetic in the outer corner, and Lightyear in the inner corner. Just using your finger to dab a tiny bit of the Moondusts on your eyelids is basically the easiest makeup technique ever, and you still get an effortless, gorgeous gradient of glitter. Love it!

Finally, a simple look to demonstrate that you can also create more subtle effects with this palette:

Here I used Specter all over the lid, and a tiny bit of Granite in the outer corner, as a base for a cat eye. Specter is hard to capture in pictures, because as the light hits it, the glitter particles sort of catch flame and reflect warm pink, making this look deceptively simple with a twist that catches the eye.

The more I use this palette, the more I love it. The duochrome quality of the pigmented base with the glitter allows you to create eye looks with an amazing amount of depth without any effort. I do wish there was a wider range of shades in the palette (switch out Granite for another duochrome pastel, perhaps?). Apart from that, this is a total home run for all the glitter lovers out there.

The Moondust palette retails at €50 at Ici Paris XL. Seeing as the individual Moondust compacts are €20, you get a lot of bang for your buck. Must have for the upcoming holiday season, or for fellow wannabe glitter witches.