Urban Decay Build Your Own Palette: Breathless, Bordello, Last Call, and Chopper

In April, during Sephora's VIB event (wherein members receive 15% off everything), I picked up a custom Urban Decay palette. Now, let it be known that if there was no discount, I wouldn't have picked this up here — the retail price is significantly lower in the US (I went to NYC a few weeks after buying this), and Urban Decay's pre-assembled palettes (e.g. Naked, Naked2, Feminine, Dangerous, Fun) give you way more bang for your buck. But I wanted to be able to choose my own shades because there are shades in the pre-assembled palettes that I wouldn't reach for often, if ever. Let it be known that putting together a palette does not save you any money, either; the palette comes separately and is only a means to keep your single eyeshadows together in one place. I prefer to have the singles in a palette because it creates less clutter (and, let me tell you, when you have 400+ eyeshadows, there is a lot of clutter), and that's really the only reason I bought the palette along with the eyeshadows.
Breathless Build Your Own Palette
Single eyeshadows (clockwise from left): Chopper, Bordello, and Last Call
Single eyeshadows removed from their containers
The palette that I picked up includes one eyeshadow, Breathless, which contains 1.5 grams of product and retails for $22 CAD (or $18 USD). The palette is a metal tin with a black plastic insert on the inside to fit four single eyeshadows; the palette itself comes in a pale lavender colour featuring a graffiti-style heart design in shades of black and purple, with Urban Decay's name and logo in the centre. As far as I know, this particular palette is exclusive to Sephora. I picked three more single eyeshadows to put in the palette; all of Urban Decay's single eyeshadows are packaged in silver plastic pots with a design that is meant to mimic a New York City subway token, except with Urban Decay's logo in the centre. Each eyeshadow can be popped out of its plastic container to fit into the palette, giving you the choice to keep them as single eyeshadows or pans (a very handy design — I have spent hours de-potting MAC's eyeshadows!). Each single eyeshadow contains 1.5 grams of product, and retails for $22 CAD (or $18 USD).
Clockwise from left: Breathless, Bordello, Last Call, and Chopper
Breathless, Bordello, Last Call, and Chopper

Breathless is a medium cool taupe-brown with soft gold shimmer in a satin finish. This is a palette-exclusive shade. The texture is soft, silky, and finely-milled, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is lighter and less grey than Urban Decay Bust, less mauve than Urban Decay Midnight Rodeo, less brown than Urban Decay YDK, slightly lighter and more brown than MAC Satin Taupe, and less reddened than MAC Sable.

Bordello is a medium rose-mauve with gold shimmer in a metallic finish. This is a permanent shade. The texture is soft, silky, almost buttery, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is darker and much more pink than Urban Decay Midnight Cowboy Rides Again, much more pink than MAC Shale, and less pink than Inglot Pearl #399. 

Last Call is a medium-dark pinked burgundy-plum with a pink shimmer-sheen in a metallic finish. This is a permanent shade. The texture is soft, silky, almost buttery, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is much more purple than MAC Cranberry, brighter and more plum than MAC Star Violet, darker and more plum than MAC Plum Dressing, and much lighter and more purple than Inglot Pearl #452. 

Chopper is a medium warm copper bronze with a gold shimmer-sheen in a metallic finish. This is a permanent shade. The texture is soft, silky, almost buttery, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is softer and more copper than Urban Decay Baked, less gold than Urban Decay Half Baked, lighter and less orange than MAC Amber Lights, darker and more bronze than MAC All That Glitters, and more bronze than MAC Honey Lust.

I have always been a huge fan of Urban Decay's eyeshadows, and these shades just add to the love. Every single eyeshadow I've ever used from the brand has a gorgeous texture — incredibly smooth, soft, buttery, and richly pigmented — and these are no exception. I was surprised that I could not find an exact dupe for Bordello and Last Call, so I'm incredibly glad that I got those. Breathless, which is exclusive to this palette, is one of the more widely flattering taupes I've come across, a notoriously fickle shade. And I've been using Chopper almost everyday (it's sort of replacing MAC's All That Glitters for me this summer). Despite the higher price tag to build a custom palette, I actually find that it's more worth it for me because I know I'll use all the shades (I think I use like, half of the shades in the Naked palette). In fact, I am so impressed with these that I built another custom palette when I was in New York (review is forthcoming). My only gripe is the huge price difference between Canada and the US... but it's something us Canadians should be used to by now, and thusly, I will only buy Urban Decay when I make my way south of the border.