Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Day 30. Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eyepencil [Swatches & Review]

Today a post dedicated to my hands-down favorite eyeliner pencils, the Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eyepencil. I have several of these eye pencils, in different states of wear. While swatching and taking pictures I realize that I use some of them a lot more then others.




As you will see, the bulk of the pencils belongs to the 15th Anniversary eyepencil set, but nine out of 15 of these pencils are permanent shades so I thought it would be nice to swatch them all.
I own a total of 13 permanent shades and 7 LE shades, considering all the UD eye pencil from different sets and the two shades I purchased separately.

So, on with the review and the swatches!


Generally these are eyeliner are, in a word, perfect. They are extremely pigmented, and have a soft, buttery consistency that make them easy to apply. Once they are dry, they stay on for the longest time - I occasionally wear them for 12 hours without any creasing, feathering or fading.

This is a very strong point in favor of this product, but on the other hand, it can make it a pain to work with. If you want to blend them or smudge them, you have to work fast. Same thing if you want to use them as base colors under your eyeshadow. In this case I use a eye primer (UD Primer Potion works fine) then I layer a thin coat of color with my UD eye pencil, pat it down and smudge the edges a bit with my finger and finally I pat my powder eyeshadow on top of it.

They are also gentle on the eyes: I have sensitive eyes and I never had any irritation or redness from using these. I try to avoid applying the shades with microglitters on my waterlines, though.  

Since they are so soft it can be a pain to sharpen them. I always felt like I was throwing away a ton of product while sharpening, but I did find a solution that seems to work (it may be just my impression): before sharpening the eye pencils, I put them in my refrigerator for 20/30 minutes, so they are more compact and easier to sharpen.




Let's start with the odd two pencils that do not come from gift sets. These are also two of my first makeup purchases from a couple of years ago. I know, I know, you are supposed to can your makeup after a few months, but these haven't changed consistency, color or scent, they still write like a dream and do not irritate my eyes, so I'll keep them until I cannot anymore!
They are both from the UD permanent collection. Full size UD eye pencils are 1.2g.



These are the descriptions straight from the UD website:
Flipside - Bright Teal
Underground - Metallic Taupe 
Swatches for UD Flipside and Underground 24/7 Glide-On eye pencils
(no flash/flash)

Underground is one of the two shades I keep on my essential kit, ready to use on my makeup table. It's warm brown with a metallic sheen that gives light to your eye without being too cold.

Flipside is a nice teal color, on me it tends to be greener that bluer (as it has shows up in the pictures above). It's the perfect shade to use on your lower lid and waterline to spice up a bit an otherwise neutral eye look!

Let's talk about the shades I own that come from a travel size gift set! This set was a present from my amazing makeup oriented group of friends in occasion of my birthday!
The travel size eyeliner pencil are 0.5g each. The set has 9 pencils:  Ransom, Whiskey, Stash, Mildew, Rockstar, Binge, Eldorado, Electric, Gunmetal.
Let's talk about the shades in these set of which I don't own the same full size pencil.

Swatches for UD Eldorado, Whiskey and Gunmetal 24/7 Glide-On eye pencils
(no flash/flash)


From the UD website:
Eldorado - Gold
Gunmetal - Gray with teeny silver glitter 

UD Gold is not green nor bronze toned, as many supposedly "gold" eyeliner or eyeshadow tend to do. It's rich yellow gold, with a sheen.

Out of these 9, only Whiskey is LE and pops up occasionally in a palette or in a gift sets. And it's pity since it's fantastic shade. It's a matte warm light brown that compliments almost every eye color. I try not to use it much as I am afraid to finish it and never having it again. I do wish they would make it permanent.

Gunmetal is a solid gray color, with barely there silver microglitter. The glitter is not so prone to fall out as it does in other shades, so it works well with me and my sensitive eyes!

Let's talk about the full size UD eye pencils from the 15th Anniversary Set!


The official description from Urban Decay says
Boubon - brown with teeny gold glitter
Stash - Dark green gold
Mildew - Deep green
Perversion - Blackest-black matte
Electric - Bright aquamarine
Binge - Navy Blue
Ransom - Bright iridescent purple 
Rockstar - Darkest eggplant
Zero - Zealous black
 These 9 eye pencils are permanent. The other Limited Edition pencils that came with this set are Stray Dog, Corrupt, Midnight Cowboy, Baked, Asphyxia and Uzi.

The first three shades are the brown, neutral shades: Stray Dog, Corrupt and Bourbon.
Swatches for UD Stray Dog, Corrupt and Bourbon 24/7 Glide-On eye pencils
(no flash/flash)

Stray Dog (LE) is a grey toned brown with a metallic sheen. Corrupt (LE) is another cold toned brown with a gray tint, with a sheen. Bourbon (P) is a warmer, green toned brown with micro glitter that tends to fall out, especially if you want to smudge or blend out the color. It's still a gorgeous shade that I use often, but I try to be careful not to overdo it, because of the glitter.

The next three shades are Midnight Cowboy (LE), Baked (LE) and Stash (P).

Swatches for UD Midnight Cowboy, Baked and Stash
24/7 Glide-On eye pencils (no flash/flash)

Midnight Cowboy is a beige-pink color with a gold sheen. It works wonders on the inner corner of the eyes, as highlight color or to line your eye to appear more awake. The base color almost invisible on my skin, only the gold actually shows up so it's perfect to give light to my eyes.

Baked is a bronzy-brown color. It's very rich and intense, blends easily. I use this shade when I am late instead of applying my MAC Rich Ground Fluidline, which is redder and bronzer.

Stash is one of those shades that performs perfectly well but I never reach for. It's a green with golden shimmer, but it just not for me. It looks more a brownish green to me, and the gold seems to show up only in right light conditions. If I am going to use a green eyeliner I am gonna use Mildew, which comes next.

Next are Mildew (P), Perversion (P) and Electric (P).

Swatches for UD Mildew, Perversion and Electric
24/7 Glide-On eye pencils (no flash/flash)

Mildew is grey toned moss green, with slight gold sheen thrown in.
Perversion is the blackest matte eyeliner pencil you are ever going to find. It's fantastic: dark black, optimal color pay off, apply easily. If you want to find a fault, it may have a too soft consistency and it may take a bit longer that the other UD eyeliners to dry.
Electric is a light bright blue with incredible pigmentation and lasting power.

Binge (P), Ransom (P) and Asphyxia (LE) are the next eyeliners on the list.

Swatches for UD Binge, Ransom and Asphyxia
24/7 Glide-On eye pencils (no flash/flash)

Binge is a dark navy blue, with a satin finish. It's not UD best eyeliner as I think the pigmentation is a bit off, weak. It's not that it's a bad eyeliner, it's just that I think it's not up to the extremely high UD standards.

I don't do purple toned makeup often, but when I do I am glad I have Ransom. It's fantastic shade, versatile and surprising: when it's near a purple-red color the iridescence takes those tones, when near blue, it becomes an intense blue toned purple. Please, see here to see it in action near blue eyeshadows.

Asphyxia is one of those shades that makes me curse the existence of Limited Edition collection. It's a pink-lilac shade with multicolor micro glitter. I love this eyeliner. The glitter falls out when blended, but the shade packs such a punch with its blue tone shimmer! I try not to use it often, as I don't want to go without, ever.

Last three shades of this set are Rockstar (P), Zero (P) and Uzi (LE).

Swatches for UD Rockstar, Zero and Uzi 24/7 Glide-On eye pencils
(no flash/flash)

UD defines Rockstar as a "eggplant" color. I don't know. It's definitely dark burgundy,  but it's so dark and grey-ish that without strong lights it looks like a reddish light black. It's one of those shade that leaves me kind of perplexed and I end up never using it.

Zero is a solid black liner. It's the second eyeliner pencil I keep in easy reach on my table. It's a perfect day black liner: not too dark but long lasting. Perfect both on the lashline and on the waterline.

Uzi is a medium dark gray with silver micro glitter. Still not sure about this. I have not used it enough to have an opinion. I should try to switch between this and Zero, but the glitter sort of prevents me from doing so.


Another UD shade I have is Oil Sleek, which came with the UD Fun Palette. It's medium size and contains 0.8g of product. It's "Black with teeny silver glitter" according the UD website. I won't say it's a dud, but almost. The glitter falls off constantly, the application is patchy and the pigmentation is not good enough.



Since Urban Decay has two other black eyeliner pencils, I swatched them together so the difference between the three becomes clear.

Swatches for UD Perversion, Zero and Oil Sleek
24/7 Glide-On eye pencils (no flash/flash)


While Perversion and Zero have solid color payoff, Oil Sleek is patchy and its glitter is not homogeneously distributed but clumps together. There are worse black glitter eye pencils than Oil Sleek out there but there sure are better ones too!

This post is long, but I hope it's informative and useful to you!
Thank you for reading!

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