Monday, September 26, 2011

Urban Decay Holiday Nail Kit 2011 Swatches and Review

This year's holiday collection from Urban Decay is heavy on the sparkles, just the way I like it. There's the Stardust lipglosses, the Starlight glitter body art kit, the sparkling flavored body powders (which technically aren't new, but the packaging is different), and now the 2011 Holiday Nail kit. In my humble opinion, this is the best nail set they've done since the resurrection of Urban Decay nail polish.


The back of the tray they come in has a little description and ingredients. The polish is three free. The packaging also coordinates with the Book of Shadows IV with those little butterflies.

The shades are:

Barlust. This is a rich, velvety-looking brown shimmer, but it's not just a plain brown. It has all kinds of multicolored particles in it. You may need to enlarge the pictures to see it, but the dominant colors I see are gold, green and red.


Gunmetal. This shade was in the Apocalyptic nail kit from 2009. It's a soft, fuzzy looking grey with some brown tones in it. This year's seems to have less brown in it, but I haven't done a side by side comparison to be sure. Could just be by eyes playing tricks on me. The finish is slightly frosty so be careful when applying to avoid crooked brushstrokes.



Hot Mess. This is a bright but saturated magenta glass fleck. It's extremely sparkly because it's packed with tons of glass fleck particles and the jelly base really lets them shine through. There's even a slight pink and gold duochrome to the polish at certain angles. You can see it on my nails and in the bottle in the second picture.


Mars. A green glitter foil. This is a blue-toned deep emerald green. The finish is a foil base with a sprinkle of silver microglitter that sits on top of the foil and adds visual texture (but lies completely smooth). It's like when you see the first snowflakes of winter on the boughs of the pine trees.


Wrecked. A dark, vampy plum wine creme. Not the most unique shade, but still sexy.



Ziggy. A really shiny multicolor glitter. The most dominant color I see in the mix is gold, but I also see pink, green, blue, purple and silver. When the light hits it, the silver and purple colors come out (you can see a good example of that in the second picture). Otherwise, it looks mostly gold to me with pink being the second most noticeable overall color. Really fun color. Ziggy played guitar...

The formula on these was better than the formula in the previous sets, but still pretty similar. They're still a little thick, but have much less of that 'three free' thick texture that was present in the past sets. I had no real difficulty applying other than the slight thick texture in some shades (Wrecked and Barlove were the thickest). These are mini sized polishes so you really do have to load your brush more than you think you should, but once I got used to the amount of polish I needed for each nail, application was pretty normal. Dry time is on the long side.

I really do think this is the best set they've done. Every color is gorgeous, the formula is improved and I just overall really enjoyed all the details of the kit. Mars is especially nice to see in this kit. Barlove and its tiny multicolored shimmer is also much appreciated by me. The only thing I really didn't like about this kit is the Gunmetal repromote. I would have rather seen one more brand new color instead of one I already have. I know I say this EVERY SINGLE TIME I talk about Urban Decay nail polish, but... A Toxin re-release would have been cool, too. I'd even settle for Id. No one makes colors like that anymore. Ah, well, now I'm starting to ramble...


This limited edition set of six mini (5ml / 0.17fl oz) nail polishes is $28 and available now from Urban Decay.

(This was sent to me for review.)

31 comments:

  1. Amazing polishes! I just loooovee Ziggy :D

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  2. Ziggy is my favourite from the bunch! Looks great on you, Scrangie! :D

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  3. The colors are pretty, but I doubt I'm going to buy the set. I think a Toxin re-release would be great though.

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  4. Oh my goodness! I am in love with that brown. In love! I need this for Christmas! Are you listening, Santa? The other colours are lovely too, but that brown! *dribble* xx

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  5. Oh dear. I will most likely TRY to get this somehow, these looks soooooo gorgeous! Why oh why won't UD ship intl. ;(

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  6. Pretties!!!! We had the summer kit here in France, so I can sincerely hope to see those beauties in my Sephora - fingers crossed -
    Thanks for the swatches

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  7. I've been debating whether I want to buy it or not... I'm secretly hoping I can score it at the end of the year on sale for $8 or something, heh! But they're gorgeous nonetheless

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  8. I love every single shade. You're right, this is the best they've ever done yet!

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  9. Gorgeous colors. How does Ziggy compare to OPI Sparkle-icious?

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  10. Unfortunately they don't ship to Canada :( Guess I'll have to try my luck on eBay.

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  11. Mars & Hot Mess are my favorites. I want this set. I skipped last years.

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  12. wow Ziggy!!!
    How many coats do you have on for ziggy?

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  13. You make me want to buy EVERY polish you swatch! Your swatches are that amazing!!

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  14. Sarah, I'll have to find my bottle to double check, but they seem similar to me! Don't think they're an exact match, but the color scheme is definitely similar.

    ptitemeve, I have three coats on there :)

    Thank you everyone :D

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  15. Ziggy looks a bit like RBL Locavore, but with more gold.

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  16. Fab collection! I wish they were not so expensive for the little bottles

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  17. O.O I think my eyes almost popped out when I saw Ziggy. That is one gorgeous glitter! These are all really great, though I am feeling meh about Gunmetal. It would have been amazing to have another glitter in there.

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  18. How similar is Barlust to OPI's My Private Jet?

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  19. I love Urban Decay makeup wise, but I've never tried their polishes, but I'm thinking I should now :)

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  20. That glitter one!!!!! *faint*

    xoxox

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  21. The first time I've seen the promo pics I fell in love with this set *___*
    Now I'm sure it's beautiful, more ziggy reminds me a RBL glitter, but I don't remember the name of that. :)

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  22. pretty but not enough to tempt me away from the upcoming essie, OPI or color club upcoming winter collections...the glitters and flakies of the aforementioned have me begging for the release dates!

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  23. Dang! Mufasa! Wrecked IS hawt! That is unbelievably shiny, too.

    Scott

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  24. Ahhh I love Ziggy!! Too bad it's a set, that's the only one I really love. But maybe it's close enough to one of my Burlesques from OPI. But if they ever release it alone--even as a mini--I'd swipe it up fast!

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