Urban Decay Build Your Own Palette: Easy Baked, Psychedelic Sister, Gravity, and Loaded

Since my first Urban Decay custom palette, I've been on kind of an Urban Decay rampage, wherein I just want to build all sorts of custom eyeshadow palettes. Now, I realize that 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. So, while I was in New York City in April, I decided to take advantage of the lower American retail price and lower sales tax, and put together another palette.
Single eyeshadows (clockwise from top): Easy Baked, Psychedelic Sister, Gravity, and Loaded
Single eyeshadows removed from their containers
This time around, I picked up the empty Rebound palette (as opposed to the Breathless palette, which included one eyeshadow), which retails for $10 USD (or $12 CAD). The palette is a brushed metal tin with a black plastic insert on the inside to fit four single eyeshadows; the palette itself comes in a white floral tattoo-style design outlined in rainbow shades, with Urban Decay's logo in the centre. As far as I know, this particular palette is exclusive to Sephora. I picked four 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 $18 USD (or $22 CAD).

Clockwise from left: Easy Baked, Psychedelic Sister, Gravity, and Loaded
Easy Baked, Psychedelic Sister, Gravity, and Loaded

Easy Baked is a light warm golden beige with light gold shimmer-sheen in a frosted finish. This is a permanent 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 bronze than Urban Decay Half Baked, lighter and less gold than Urban Decay Blunt, darker and more golden than theBalm's Devilish Danielle, and slightly darker than MAC Ricepaper.

Psychedelic Sister is a medium-dark brightened red-toned purple with iridescent violet shimmer-sheen in a frosted 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 warmer and more red-toned than Urban Decay Gravity, brighter and warmer than Urban Decay AC/DC, less iridescent and more muted than Inglot Pearl #439, and brighter and cooler than MAC Nocturnelle.

Gravity is a medium-dark brightened cool-toned violet with silver micro-shimmer in a frosted 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 cooler and smokier than Urban Decay Psychedelic Sister, brighter and less grey than Urban Decay AC/DC, brighter and more frosted than MAC Purple Haze, and brighter and cooler than MAC Satellite Dreams.

Loaded is a dark teal-green in a frosted 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 darker and more green than Urban Decay Hijack, more teal than theBalm Jealous Jordana, darker and less brown than MAC Club, and darker and more teal than MAC Humid.

My obsession with Urban Decay is still going strong! 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 know, at first, you're like, "Why do you need both Psychedelic Sister and Gravity?" But they're actually very different in execution, with Psychedelic Sister looking brighter and warmer, and Gravity looking cooler and smokier. And why get Easy Baked in a sea of jewel tones, you ask? Because it's one of those shades that looks good with everything and it's softer than MAC Ricepaper, which is what I wanted since Ricepaper can look too bright, especially as a highlight colour. Finally, Loaded — the undisputed must-have of the bunch. There is such a richness, such a depth in that shade that makes it so unique. I could not find a single dupe for it that wasn't more teal or more green or more duochrome, etc. My only gripe with these 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.