Oooooooh mama. Alice in Wonderland is my all time favorite Disney movie, so when I saw that Urban Decay was creating a palette and lipsticks inspired by the new release of Alice Through The Looking Glass, I was pretty damn excited. Urban Decay had done an Alice in Wonderland palette around five years ago, but it was when I wasn’t as into makeup so I didn’t even know it existed, haha. This time around, I couldn’t wait to get the palette in my hands!
The Urban Decay Alice Through The Look Glass Eyeshadow Palette is a real beauty. The packaging, of course, is to die for. It is perfectly trippy, weird, colorful, etc- just like the movie. When you open the top, it reveals a mirror and a quote, “I’m not strange, weird, off, nor crazy, my reality is just different from yours.” If you lift up the little flaps that the quote is printed on, there is a pop-up butterfly inside. This is probably the coolest packaging I’ve ever seen- I’m obsessed.
The shadows pull out from a bottom drawer, and I’d say that’s the only thing I don’t like about the packaging (but at the same time, how else could they have done it with the way the rest of it was set up?). There are 20 shadows (all new, too!) that are arranged in columns by character (from left: Alice, Mad Hatter, Mirana, Iracebeth and Time).
I actually swatched and photographed these shadows twice. The first time around, I used an Elizabeth Arden primer underneath the swatches that I’d never used before (just the first primer I grabbed), and some of the shadows seemed to be performing pretty poorly and the primer was balling up underneath them. I had a feeling that it probably wasn’t the best primer, so this morning I re-swatched everything over the Maybelline Master Prime Shadow Base and hallelujah, they were performing a thousand times better!
The only shades that I am a little disappointed in are Gone Mad and Bandersnatch, the aubergine and the deep teal matte. They don’t apply as deep as I’d like and they just don’t have the vibrancy I was expecting, even when built up to be darker. The other 18 gorgeous shades totally make up for them, though! I’d like to note that Dream On applies terribly with a brush, but is pretty beautiful when applied using your fingers.
Also, because there’s so much shimmer in this palette, a lot of these shadows have a fair bit of fall out. I’d definitely recommend using a Shadow Shield or doing your eyes first so you can wipe away the fall out afterwards without messing up the rest of your makeup.
I swatched these by character to make it easier to get an idea of what kind of looks you could create with each color combo. If I had to pick a favorite character color combo, I think I’d say Time.
- Alice
- Looking Glass (a pale pink demi-matte)
- Reflection (a soft peach matte)
- Dormouse (a warm brown matte with floating gold micro-sparkle)
- Metamorphosis (a vibrant periwinkle blue with micro-sparkle)
- Mad Hatter
- Hatter (a vibrant green with tonal micro-sparkle)
- Gone Mad (an aubergine with pink iridescent pearl)
- Paradox (a vibrant orange with gold pearl)
- Cake (a saturated blue-pink with silver micro-shimmer)
- Mirana
- Lily (an opal pink pearl)
- Duchess (a peach with pink shift and micro-sparkle)
- Kingdom (a copper-bronze pearl)
- Chessboard (a medium brown matte)
- Iracebeth
- Heads Will Roll (a vibrant turquoise with gold micro-sparkle)
- Bandersnatch (a deep teal matte)
- Salazen Grum (a metallic crimson) – possibly my favorite shade in this palette. It’s just STUNNING.
- Royal Flush (a pale beige shimmer)
- Time
- Time (a black-navy satin with soft iridescent micro-sparkle)
- Dream On (a metallic purple-silver) – apply this with your finger for the best pigmentation, it’s pretty non-existent when applied with a brush
- Chronosphere (a metallic deep bronze)
- Mirror (a grey-taupe satin)
This palette retails for $60 at Sephora and is limited edition, so don’t wait if you want it! PS- I had to share this gem of a review on the Urban Decay site, because it’s hilarious.
There are five different lipsticks in this collection, and they retail for $18 each at Sephora:
- Alice (a sheer nude with pink shift) – Sheer Shimmer
- Mad Hatter (a bright purple shimmer) – Metallized
- Mirana (a matte berry with tonal shimmer) – Metallized
- Iracebeth (a bright red matte) – Comfort Matte
- Time (a gunmetal-navy with silver shimmer) – Metallized
Iracebeth is easily my favorite (and the most wearable, in my opinion). It’s a gorgeous bright red and I know I’m going to be wearing this one a ton. I was pleasantly surprised by the Metallized lipsticks, they were a lot less in-your-face shimmery than I was expecting them to be. I will definitely wear Mirana and Mad Hatter, though Time is a little outside my comfort zone ;) Alice is a pretty sheer nude shade, and much to my surprise, it actually suits me. Woooo!
Are you an Alice In Wonderland fan?
Angelle Marix says
I am obsessed with Urban Decay. This is a beautiful pallete.
Xoxo,
Angelle
http://www.dashingdarlin.com
Chelsea says
Me too, I just want every single thing they come out with… especially lately!
Zoë says
the swatches i’ve seen haven’t been super great but they were on bare skin and it looks like with the right primer even the more finicky ones look great (and i use primer anyway). i do love that rusty shimmery red shadow the best though !
Chelsea says
Without primer, I find that a couple of the matte shades don’t perform very well.. however the metallic shades are still beautiful without!
Krystal says
This collection absolutely looks beautiful. I’ve had some hit and miss shadows with Urban Decay before so I’m not surprised that some of these shades are the same way. I would still love to try this and it would be a unique addition to my collection!
Chelsea says
Definitely worth it still!! Love this palette :)
Amy says
Alice on the lips looks remarkable! The pink really comes out.
Chelsea says
I was so surprised that I actually liked it. Usually super nude shades like that are terrible on me, but it’s really pretty!
Sarah says
I’m not really a fan of the overly big packaging and the slide out tray, but the shadows themselves look nice. Seeing that they are grouped by character helps make more sense of the layout, but it’s still so chaotic looking.
Chelsea says
If this wasn’t more of a collector’s palette than anything for me, I would hate the way it’s packaged as well… but because I’m totally in it for the fact that it’s Alice, I appreciate the interesting packaging! Definitely a chaotic layout, but it’s Alice in Wonderland, so I really expected nothing less hahah.
Julie says
I really want to try some of the darker lipsticks, they look nice. That review is amazing… sometimes I hold my MAC lipsticks close and frolic too.
Chelsea says
Hahahahah you would ;) The purple would look amazing on you!
Katherine says
I really want to see Alice on you, because Rachhloves applied it, and it looked surprisingly pink. I really love the collection, but I don’t think I need anything from it (damn being an adult and having to make these “responsible” decisions”). Love the pictures, and that GIF is perfect.
Katherine || The Green Bows
Chelsea says
If/when I have time in the very near future, I may edit this to have on the lip swatches! I’ll let you know if I do :)
Amy / BRATTYB says
OMG! I need to get my hands on Time!!!!
You just had to go an open my eyes to this beautiful collection, didn’t ya! :P
Great review though & awesome swatches!
xox
Chelsea says
Hahah, sorrynotsorry ;) Thanks so much! xo
Eithne @ Tea & Nail Polish says
The packaging on this is great but I am not feeling the colours. So many feel like dupes of their other colours.
Chelsea says
Fair enough! I only own one Vice palette, so I don’t have a ton of bright colors in my collection in general. I’m glad to have this one :)
Nancy says
Hahahhaha! I am DYING at that Sephora review!!!
Chelsea says
SO good right?
Jen says
I’m a huge Alice fan, so this whole collection temps me! Everything about the palette truly is magical- thanks for the lovely swatches! xo
http://www.vibrantbeautyblog.com
Chelsea says
Me too, there was no way I could resist this collection! xo
Kelly says
Your review is amazing and I am so glad you swatched them with primer (and thanks for doing it twice)!
xx Kelly
Sparkles and Shoes
Chelsea says
Haha no problem! :)
Christina Truong says
Such an amazing palette! And that packaging, oh my love! Every packaging needs to look like this :)
Chelsea says
Right?! Love it!
Curiously Carmen says
Ahhhhh! I am a big fan of Urban Decay, especially the Naked palettes. This palette is so pretty!!!!
Chelsea says
Same here. I just want eeeeeeverything UD!
Lipstick on the Lake says
Ugh, that palette is so beautiful! I keep telling myself I don’t need it … but… those swatches though… Gorgeous! Great post!! :-)
Chelsea says
Hahaha, tempting, isn’t it? :)
Cindi says
Ooooh I want this. Look how pretty! Ugh, no I don’t need it. I have cosmetics I haven’t even opened yet. I can’t help it —> Compulsive shopper and makeup hoarder. Trying not to look at how pretty that is… covering my eyes and clicking away. My wallet will thank me later. Blue lipstick, intriguing. Not that I could pull it off, but it is pretty swatched.
Chelsea says
Hahaha… we all feel this way sometimes! Gorgeous palettes like these are dangerous ;)
Renee says
The palette looks gorgeous!!! (plus your pictures are stunning!!)
I’m not so sure about the lipstick colors though… a little to out there for me.
Chelsea says
Aw thanks! The lipstick colors surprised me, other than the blue I find them very wearable :)
Nikki says
Urban Decay eyeshadow palettes are always super fun ! I love the quality of the eyeshadows and the variety of looks possible.
Chelsea says
Yes and yes!! Totally agree.
katie says
The swatches look beautiful but a little out of my comfort zone! I think I’d only wear about half the eyeshadow shades, although the packaging is so beautiful I think it’d be worth it x
http://www.beautyfromkatie.blogspot.com
Chelsea says
Totally fair! I used to be the same way. It’s only in the past few months that I’ve become more comfortable with brighter colors!
Sharlynn Ng says
Absolutely love the packaging of this palette and how the shades are laid out inside. However shade wise I’m not a huge fan, I’m not instantly draw to this set of colors although they all look great. I’m always more into cool tones or shimmery neutrals. Looking forward to your looks with this!
Chelsea says
I always go for neutrals as well, so this is a step outside my comfort zone- but a good one! I need to play more with color :)