The Most Fun Eyeshadow Palette
Over the past week I’ve geeked out about the Urban Decay Game of Thrones Vault packaging and marveled at the lip products inside. But I saved my favorite elements for last: the Eyeshadow Palette ($65) and the 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencils ($22 apiece). As with everything else in the collection, these items are currently sold out.
The eyeshadow palette contains a mixture of mattes, shimmers, and metallics, and each house-themed section has a shimmery “transformer” shade (the round pans along the right side). There are only three mattes, so if you prefer matte shadows, this palette might not be for you. The palette boasts a good variety of cool and warm colors in earthy and jewel tones.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate the gorgeousness of this palette?!
The palette contains 20 eyeshadows, divided into four house-themed groups: Night’s Watch (not really a house, says this nerd, but fine), Stark, Lannister, and Targaryen.
Here’s another full palette shot, for good measure.
Here’s one more shot of the palette along with Jon Snow’s Longclaw and Arya Stark’s Needle eyeshadow brushes (I wasn’t kidding when I said I took a ton of photos of the Vault!):
The Houses
Let’s take a closer look at the four houses of the eyeshadow palette. Up top we have the icy Night’s Watch-themed shades, followed by the earthy, rich House Stark tones:
The last two sections are the golden-and-red tones of House Lannister and the glittering purples, golds, and pinks of House Targaryen.
Eyeshadow Swatches
Naturally, I swatched each house individually. Here be Night’s Watch swatches (say that three time fast). From top to bottom: Take the Black, Frozen North, White Walker, Free Folk, and Hardhome.
Frozen North and Take the Black stained a little, especially Frozen North because it’s so very pigmented. Frozen North and White Walker are definitely my favorite shades of this house. White Walker looks like a very pastel blue shimmer in the palette, but on my skin it reads as a sheer opal. So beautiful!!
House Stark swatches from top to bottom: Nymeria, Weirwood Leaves, Winter is Here, The Sight, and Winterfell.
I’m loving these jewel tones! Nymeria is a good transition shade, and the shimmers in this house are just to die for. The Sight is not quite as pigmented as it appears in the palette, but it’s still a lovely forest green. Weirwood Leaves and The Sight make for a particularly pretty color combo.
Next up are House Lannister swatches from top to bottom: Red Keep, House Lannister, Casterly Rock, Lannister Red, and King’s Landing.
Warm eyeshadows aren’t really my jam, so this is my least favorite grouping of the bunch. That said, I do like these colors more than I expected (which seems to be an ongoing theme overall with The Vault!). Casterly Rock is an excellent shimmery bronze, and I don’t hate Lannister Red on my eyes nearly as much as I thought I would. I usually steer clear of reds and pinks on my eyes because I think they make me look sick, but I’m down with this shade. I need to try topping it with King’s Landing and see how that looks!
The last set of swatches is House Targaryen. Top to bottom: Stormborn, Dothraki, House Targaryen, Bend the Knee, and Bay of Dragons.
UGH THESE SHADES ARE FABULOUS. The Targaryen colors totally give me Norvina vibes (a palette I bought and then returned because it irritated my eyes, which these do not). Look at that lovely peachy-gold shift in the House Targaryen shade! And the light pink-lavender shift in Bend the Knee! Stormborn is a very soft shadow to the touch, as is Bay of Dragons. I think Stormborn is my favorite shade in the entire palette. It’s such a pretty medium purple for brown eyes; I probably love it because it leans more blue than red. Gold and purple are an excellent color combo, so Stormborn and Dothraki are wonderful together. I think I’ll rock House Targaryen shadows at least one of the days at Awesome Con this weekend!
As per usual with Urban Decay shadows, there is some fallout…especially with the shimmers and glitters. In my opinion, the transformer shades and the glitters are best applied with a finger to minimize fallout. Doing your eyes first when using this palette is a must so you can clean up and do the rest of your face after!
Most of these shades make thematic sense to me except for the House Targaryen set. Book readers will know that Daenerys is described as having silver-gold hair and violet eyes, which isn’t quite how she appears in the show. So the Stormborn shade is probably not far off from how George R.R. Martin envisioned her eyes. I’m not sure how Urban Decay settled on the other shades for House Targaryen, though. To my recollection we’ve never seen Dany wear these colors, nor do they feel very “Targaryen.” But I love the shades, l so I should stop nerdpicking. 😛
24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils
Honestly, when I ordered The Vault, the eye pencils were almost an afterthought for me. But when the collection arrived and I opened the box, I got super excited about these eye pencils! JUST LOOK AT THESE:
A glamour shot of the eye pencils….from left-ish to right-ish: The Night King, Winterfell Snow, Lannister Gold, Dragon Smoke.
It’s hard to create nice eye pencil swatches! I’m not great at drawing a straight line, hahah. Anyway, here are the swatches, from top to bottom: The Night King, Winterfell Snow, Lannister Gold, Dragon Smoke.
The 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils have a pretty soft formula (easy to apply, great for blending) but Winterfell Snow is extra soft and the tip broke off as soon as I started to swatch it. So that pencil requires a very light touch. That shade reminds me of the white-opal eyeliners that everyone, including myself, was wearing back in the mid to late 90s. So I love the nostalgia factor of Winterfell Snow!
I actually love all four eye pencil shades; it’s hard to pick a favorite but I think I might have to say the Night King. I’m very into teal right now!
And Now This Post Has Ended
Do I regret spending $250 on a giant box of makeup themed around my favorite TV show? Absolutely not. Like I said, I haven’t had this much fun playing with makeup in a long time. These colors are totally encouraging me to experiment and step outside my typical neutral comfort zone. When you’re so excited about a show like Game of Thrones, it’s hard not to want to dive into an epic makeup collection like this one. Especially when the show is about to end…it makes me want to buy all the Game of Thrones stuff I can get my hands on.
Are you planning to buy any of the Urban Decay Game of Thrones makeup collection when it launches on Ulta.com and Sephora.com later this month?
This post is not an ad, nor did I receive the products for free in exchange for writing about it. I bought the collection on my own and am simply excited about it!
