Urban Decay Vinyl and Perversion

Hello, all! My insomnia is working to your advantage, as I've decided to take advantage of my winter break and try to add a couple more posts!

Urban Decay is one of my all-time favorite beauty brands; I started using them as soon as I started dabbling in makeup when I was in junior high. Since then, they've changed their packaging and formulas, but I still adore them. They do a great job of staying modern and edgy, providing both really great, high-quality basics as well as unusual, eye-catching (but still flattering) colors. Although I am neither a vegetarian nor a vegan, I admire their position regarding animal testing (they are adamantly against it), and the fact that they go out of their way to keep their products vegan when it is viable to do so.

I picked up both of these colors back when Sephora was doing their Friends and Family promotion, so I got a 20% discount off the published prices; $19 for the Lip Junkie Lip Gloss in Perversion, and $22 for the Lipstick in Vinyl. You can also find these products from the Urban Decay website (who I have ordered from and have never had a problem with) and Urban Decay counters at Macy's.

So. Here are some photographs of the beautiful product packaging. Urban Decay has a metallic purple and gunmetal theme for these two lip products' packaging, and the lipsticks have little daggers on the ends. I've never had these break off even though I cart them around in my purse, but I have read about others having this happen. The packaging for the lipsticks is heavy and bulky, but very beautiful; it feels luxe while still remaining playful. The packaging for the lip gloss has improved since their last design; those had seams that tended to burst (yes, I was an unfortunate victim), so when they released this line, they rectified that and made the entire tube molded out of one piece. However, as you'll see in pictures further down, the applicator for the lipgloss is angled with a hole for the product to squeeze through. I hate these; it seems unsanitary, and the bulky applicator does NOT lend itself to a smooth, precise application. The gloss tends to get all over and needs to be smoothed out so it doesn't look patchy, unless you squeeze it onto your finger or another applicator and apply that way.

Perversion and Vinyl

 When you twist the lipstick up, you can see "Urban Decay" printed into the product; very cute. It looks like a darkened fuschia-plum with shimmer in it like this.

Vinyl

Lipstick and cap 

 Perversion looks like a black that leans purple with lots of glitter in the tube.

Here are the colors swatched; on the left is Perversion swatched sheerly, then a thicker daub of product.  On the right is a swipe of Vinyl. You can already tell that Perversion leans much more purple on the skin than in the tube, and that Vinyl looks much more like a fuschia-purple than in the tube, making both of these colors more wearable than they look at first glance.

 Here's just Perversion; you can see the great glitter in this shot! There's silver and teal glitter in there, which is unexpected but not too crazy on the lips.

Perversion Lip Gloss

 And here's Vinyl. You can see the shimmer finish here; it's in between a frost and a creme, very wearable and young.

Vinyl Lip Stick 

Ok, these are all blurry. Grr! Oh well, you can still get an idea of what the colors look like on... I did a few different "lip poses" to try to get the light to reflect off the product differently, so hopefully you'll be able to get an idea of what the finish is. The colors change quite a bit on my naturally pigmented lips.  These next few shots are just vinyl. It turns out to be a very pretty bright mauve with a purple sheen on my lips; fun and bright without looking shocking.

Vinyl

 The finish of this lipstick is great! They have a slightly off-putting smell and taste (I blame the vegan factor!), but it doesn't bother me after I've had the product on more than 30 seconds. The lipstick doesn't feel heavy, and it's not drying, though I don't find it particularly moisturizing. It applies smoothly, and it's buildable, so you can wear it sheer or heavy. For reference, I applied it heavily in these photos. I don't find it feathers or settles into lines at all on me.

Pouty Vinyl... mwuah! 

 And here's a full face shot, just to help put the color into context. I personally find it disconcerting to get lip shots without a full-face view, sometimes the color looks really different on a full face!

Vinyl on my lips 

In these next shots, I've layered Perversion lip gloss over Vinyl. I love how this cools the color down, deepens it, and adds some of that luscious sparkle! I wear this at night, or during the day when I'm feeling bold; it's really versatile!

Perversion over Vinyl

Pouty Perversion over Vinyl

Perversion over Vinyl on my lips 

In these next photos, I've just got Perversion lip gloss on by itself; it's billed as "sheer black sparkle" on the website, but this looks more like a really really cool-toned dark purple with sparkle to me. Over my natural lip color, the effect isn't nearly as "goth" as the shade in the tube might suggest. This color is great on its own, and so much fun to layer with... It's not a super slippery gloss, nor is it too sticky. I haven't noticed a flavor to the product other than the generic "vaguely sweet" that so many glosses have, but the scent is a very strong, sweet mint. I'm not a fan, but like the lip stick, it's not a deal-breaker for me since I like everything else about the product so much, and forget about the scent after I have it on for a couple of minutes.

Perversion

Perversion

Perversion

These products are both gorgeous on their own, but also look beautiful when layered together. This lip is equally wearable with a simple cat-eye as with a smoked-out gunmetal eye, and looks fresh and unexpected either way; a great, wearable alternative to a bright lip. The colors are great on their own, too! Yeah, I'd change the scents if I could, but the colors are to die for, the packaging is cute (I always get suckered in by the packaging!), and the products wear great. I'm afraid the pictures aren't doing these justice, but hopefully I've made you curious enough to go out and play with these on your own, or inspired you to come up with some funky lipstick/gloss combos of your own!