Urban Decay Ammo Palette First Impressions and Review

I'm not dead I swear...

Nearly a month worth of unanticipated irritations that I could not have possibly prepared for. Up there on the list was a town wide blackout, where I had no power for nearly a full day in the brunt of winter in Upstate, NY, where we go to work if they're calling for snow that measures in feet and sub-zero temperatures. Like -20F plus windchill. So not fun.

But I'm back with a review. Yay!

Urban Decay Ammo Palette

Urban Decay Ammo Palette Back

The Ammo Palette from Urban Decay, can we just take a moment here and admire this gorgeous packaging? Mosaic purple skull! 

Now, before we really get into the nitty gritty of this review, when I saw this palette online and then in person at Ulta Beauty, it was the packaging that caught my attention. I LOVE and I do mean LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Skulls. Any skulls. If it has a skull on it, I want it.

 But! You should be proud of me, I resisted the urge to pick up this palette just because of the packaging alone and I tell you what! It was hard. 

 After weeks of staring at this palette, I finally broke down and decided that the next chance I had, I was going to get it. Since Valentines Day and my birthday were and are coming up, a gift card or a surprise trip to Ulta Beauty are generally one of the things I do receive, either way the Ammo Palette was coming home with me.

Well...for Valentines Day the husband got me both. The palette that I had been eyeballing and a gift card (I see a Haul post in the near future).

So we've established that the packaging is awesome, even the cardboard holder is pretty darn sturdy too. It also conveniently tells you what shadows and other things you get in the palette. What you actually get are ten eyeshadow shades, a travel size eyeshadow brush (which I have miss-placed so no picture) and a travel size eyeshadow Primer Potion. 

Shadows Starting from Top Left: Smog, Mildew, Oil Slick, Chopper,
Maui Wowie, Shattered, Polyester Bride, Grifter and Sin

Unfortunately, out of all ten shadows you don't have any matte shades. I can live with that. The colors look beautiful in the pan and even swatch nicely on your fingers. Even inside, the packaging is nice, the design that's on the cardboard holder is actually what the inside of the palette looks like. You have all ten shadows lined up in rows of five and below them is the little slot for the eyeshadow brush, which I have again miss-placed. The palette also has a mirror and for obvious reasons I didn't photograph. It's a small mirror, great for travel and it doesn't feel cheap at all.

I used the travel brush a few times, before it was miss-placed. It's an okay brush, but I found it to be rather stiff and hard. It wouldn't be something I'd purposely grab for at all, but nice to have I suppose if you had nothing else. I'd rather use my Real Techniques brushes or some other ones I have from Essence.

Urban Decays original primer potion. Everyone raves about this product and I find that this primer works with almost every eyeshadow I have in my collection. The only shadows I found that creased to high hell with this primer are the Amazonian Clay Eyeshadows by Tarte. Other than those, it works amazing. And the travel size will last you a while, you don't need very much of this product. It's a good primer, enough said.

Top Row

As you can see, these swatched amazingly and these were done without a primer underneath. These are the first shadows by Urban Decay I've ever owned, I've heard so many glorious things about the pigmentation and overall quality of their shadows. I wasn't disappointed. These are so pigmented that it's insane.

Smog- is a coppery, smokey brown color. It's pearly with some micro glitter, but it's so silky and has hardly any fallout if you remember to tap your brush. This one is probably my favorite out of this entire palette.

Mildew- is a light mossy green color, another pearl finish with micro glitter. It is a pretty green, probably a shade I wouldn't use often, if at all. Maybe I'll go out of my norm and play with this color a little more. It has the same texture as smog, so I'd assume that it would have very little to no fallout with proper brush tapping. 

Oil Slick- is a black glitter shadow and by glitter I mean disco ball glittery. I do love this color, but holy molly fall out central! Even with proper tapping of my brush, glitter just falls all over your face. Luckily I always do my foundation after my eyes are finish, but man. The glitter fallout isn't too bad throughout the day, but there is a little bit, so be forewarned. The last thing is that it feels nice on the eyes, but in the pan it's a bit powdery where you do have the blow on it to get rid of the flaked bits from dragging your brush through.

Last Call- is a pearly finish dark rose color. It appears much darker in the pan than it swatches. It does have micro glitter in it as well, but another one that doesn't have much fall out. This was one I thought I wouldn't really like, I don't wear a lot of reds or rose colored shadows, but this color is quite stunning when used in the outer corner of the eye. It's on the warmer wide in color, another reason I thought I may not like it much, but I love the effect it plays with my blue eyes.

Lastly for the top row is Chopper. It's a neutral brown pearly glitter shadow. This is another one with the amount of glitter that is in it, has a decent amount of fallout when applied to the eye. The glitter flakes all over your face. Again, foundation last ladies, when using the glittery ones.

Row 2

Maui Wowie- fun name to say, but meh. I'm not too crazy about the color. I guess its suppose to be a taupe, transition type color, but it looks a bit too yellow on me. It's one of the ones that does have the fallout issue but this one out of the entire ten, even with the fallout issues is my least favorite. Don't have much to say about this one, other than I'd pass on it.

Shattered- is a light powder blue pearl finish shadow and for some reason showed up for green in the picture. No fall out issues, but another color I wouldn't use or haven't found a use for yet. I have blue eyes, so wearing blue shadows washes my eye color out. It appears much more vibrant in the pan, than actually transfers onto the lid, but these shadows are build-able, so you may be able to achieve the vibrancy if it was layered enough. It'd be a shame to not find a use for this shadow, since it is so nice, we'll see. 

Polyester Bride- is a frosty white glitter shadow and another one that the fallout of glitter is a bit of a pain. I love this color for the inner corner of the eye. But the amount of glitter is...too much. Once the glitter is finished flaking off, it is a really pretty pearly shadow.

Grifter- another holy hell fallout glitter shadow. It's a gorgeous lilac purple. So soft and pretty, once most of the glitter again flakes off when its applied. I've used this shadow quite a bit, despite the glitter issue. It's just too pretty to be annoyed with. 

Finally, we have Sin. Sin cool neutral brown. It's a nice transition color for Chopper or a nice all over lid color. A pearl finish and one of the shadows that doesn't have much fallout. 

Final opinions...I do love the Ammo Palette, but I wished I loved it more. The five ultra glitter shadows have a ton of fallout. I can forgive it, maybe if I use them wet, the fallout issue may become less, since I do like most of the shadows that are like this. The other five pearl finishes are amazing, even if there are a few that I may not use, but because they are good shadows, I'll make them work somehow. The palette is 34.00USD at Ulta Beauty and you do get your moneys worth in products and a good range in colors. I'm kind of on the fence about this palette, though I believe if it wasn't for the packaging I'd probably be less in love with it. So personal feelings aside due to packaging love, I'd have to say, save your money and invest in a different palette by Urban Decay or settle for buying the full sized shadows that don't have a ton of glitter in them. 

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Until next time, 

Stay creative.