REVIEW: Urban Decay Vice 4 Eyeshadow Palette


Hey everyone!

The Vice sequel that everyone has been eagerly waiting for has finally hit stores today! As an avid collector of Urban Decay eyeshadow palettes, I was so thrilled that I had actually placed my order on Sephora.com even before it was launched in Singapore. But due to having too much on my plate recently (woes of being a final-year undergrad), I wasn’t able to post a review until now.

Unless you’ve already made up your mind about getting it, you may want to read on to find out more about the palette before you put your money on it!

Urban Decay Vice 4 Eyeshadow Palette

Urban Decay Vice 4 Eyeshadow Palette

Loaded with 20 never-seen-before eyeshadow shades, Vice 4 delivers darkly gorgeous colours inspired by the hues of an oil slick into a palette filled with rich, deep jewel tones. It comes with an extra slim case that doubles as a cosmetics pouch like Vice 3 and similar to all its predecessor, a large mirror that fits nicely against the lid as well as a double-ended Shadow and Crease brush are included along with this palette.

Urban Decay Vice 4 Eyeshadow Palette

Urban Decay Vice 4 Eyeshadow Palette (US$60 / S$88)

Urban Decay Vice 4 Eyeshadow Palette (back)

Urban Decay Vice 4 Eyeshadow Palette (back)

Urban Decay Vice 4 Eyeshadow Palette

Urban Decay Vice 4 Eyeshadow Palette

Urban Decay Vice 4 Eyeshadow Palette (case)

Urban Decay Vice 4 Eyeshadow Palette (case)

The design of the palette gets better with each upgrade (although I’d very much prefer the lid to open on its own with just a push of a button à la Vice 1 and 2). Described as a dimensional web of broken-down facets layered over a matte black lid, the palette is an art on its own as it reflects the bold and edgy personality of the brand. The pop-up purple-ombré jagged lines that fronted the palette is made of rather flimsy plastic so be careful not to place anything heavy on it, or risk damaging the delicate overlay.

Urban Decay Vice 4 shades

Urban Decay Vice 4 shades

Urban Decay Vice 4 Swatch (click image to view in landscape mode)

Urban Decay Vice 4 Swatch (click image to view in landscape mode). And oops, please ignore the typo error for Crowbar!

Shades included in Vice 4 are:

Bones (oyster satin w/pearl), Grip (taupe matte w/iridescent micro-glitter), Deadbeat (black satin w/iridescent micro-glitter), Beat Down (deep metallic violet w/blue micro-glitter), Pandemonium (metallic plum w/iridescent micro-glitter), Framed (light neutral matte-satin), Fast-Ball (metallic peachy pink w/pink micro-glitter), 1985 (metallic fuchsia w/fuchsia micro-glitter), Underhand (burgundy-brown satin), Harlot (metallic lavender), Discreet (soft dusty mauve matte), Grasshopper (metallic emerald w/green micro-glitter), C-Note (frosted green w/micro-glitter), Arctic (bright teal w/tonal sparkle), Robbery (deep metallic brown-gunmetal), Bitter (reddish brown matte), Flame (bright orange w/gold micro-glitter), Low (brown matte w/iridescent micro-glitter), Crowbar (black w/golden metallic pearl and micro-glitter) and Delete (deep chestnut brown matte-satin).

Every shade here features the Pigment Infusion System™, which according to Urban Decay, is a proprietary blend of ingredients for rich, velvety, blendable color that lasts and guarantees little to minimal sparkle fallout. Indeed, they blend like a dream but I wouldn’t say the same for the sparkles. Low and Crowbar, for instance, have the tendency to fall out during application and it can be a real pain removing them without destroying the rest of my makeup! So if I had to use these two shades, I’d definitely do my eye makeup before everything else.

On my lids: Framed, Bitter, Delete, Underhand and Beat Down

More light is reflected on the left // On my lids: Framed, Bitter, Delete, Underhand and Beat Down

As with other Urban Decay eyeshadow palettes, Vice 4 has a vast majority of shimmery shades. In fact, only 4 of them (Framed, Discreet, Bitter & Delete) are full-matte with no glitter nonsense. With the exception of Framed which failed to show up well against my arm (and hence making it a great choice for the base colour), all of them have pretty decent colour payoff with a buttery yet slightly airy consistency. But as much as I favour mattes over shimmers, the latter have definitely performed better this time around in terms of application for they had mostly silky texture and fantastic pigmentation.

A quick side-by-side comparison with its predecessors

A quick side-by-side comparison with its predecessors

This is probably the most amateur-friendly Vice palette because clearly, there are more neutral than bold colours to work with here. Blue hues are evidently lacking in this latest Vice as more pans were given up for the greens.

Already own a Vice palette but not sure if you should get this one? Here are some swatch comparisons with similar shades from Vice 1, 2 and 3 to aid in your decision making!

Light Neutrals

Light Neutrals

Iridescent dark neutrals

Iridescent dark neutrals

Shimmery browns and greens

Shimmery browns and greens

Browns

Browns

Iridescent purples

Iridescent purples

Purples

Purples

Shades with a golden hue

Shades with a golden hue

Iridescent pinks

Iridescent pinks

Blues

Blues

Greens

Greens

Still on the fence? I’d say go for it! Apart from the fact that these colours are not really dupeable, there is also a good mix of vibrant and dark colours in this palette.

Urban Decay Vice 4 Eyeshadow Palette

Urban Decay Vice 4 Eyeshadow Palette

So ladies, what do you think of this Vice palette? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Urban Decay Vice 4 Eyeshadow Palette is now available on URBANDECAY.COM and in all local Sephora stores.

4 thoughts on “REVIEW: Urban Decay Vice 4 Eyeshadow Palette

Leave a comment