Urban Decay Book Of Shadows Vol. III review and pictures

So here it is, Urban Decay's newest Book Of Shadows, volume 3 (in fact it's number 4 since they also published the Alice in Wonderland one, but hey who's counting?). It's called UD hearts NYC and it's all about New York City. To be honest with you, I don't like the design at all, I find it pretty ugly, especially the faces, but then you don't even have to look at it since the eyeshadows are - as usual - in the drawer below. I bought the first Book Of Shadows because of the pretty pop-up design it had, didn't even know much about Urban Decay back then, only discovered how good the eyeshadows were afterwards, but this time I bought it for the eyeshadows. Read more of my review and see pictures (including swatches) after the jump! So on the inside, you have this pop-up scene of New York with skyscrapers, yellow taxis and people, a small mirror that you will most probably not use as the palette is way too heavy to carry with you and who doesn't have a proper mirror at home? The cool thing about it is that it lights up when you open the lid, so the two big skyscrapers on the side of the mirror are backlit, and also a couple of other buildings in the front too. The light switches on after a short while, or is it just mine? In the drawer below you find what's so great about this palette: 16 eyeshadows, 2 travel size eyepencils and a travel sized Primer Potion. The eyeshadows included are:

• Perversion (permanent)
• Uzi (permanent)
• Loaded (new and exclusive to this palette)
• Kush (new and exclusive to this palette)
• Midnight Cowboy Rides Again (permanent)
• Last Call (permanent)
• Rockstar (new and exclusive)
• Money (new and exclusive)
• Haight (new in the UK, was Sephora exclusive in the US before this palette)
• Maui Wowie (permanent)
• Smog (permanent)
• Bordello (new and exclusive)
• Radium (new and exclusive)
• Snatch (repromote from Show Pony/Preen palette, possibly permanent?)
• Suspect (new and exclusive)
• Psychedelic Sister (new in the UK, was Sephora exclusive in the US before this palette)

Also included are two travel size 24/7 eyeliners is Zero and Ransom (both are big favourites of mine) and a travel size Primer Potion. The palette retails at £30, currently only available from www.debenhams.com, but will be in stores from 6th September. It is an extremely good value palette considering that you get 16 eyeshadows (0.8 g each) which are although smaller than the eyeshadow singles (1.5 g each) would cost you over £100 to buy as the singles retail at £12.50 each (I've adjusted for the weight). Also there are 9 new and exclusive shades in this (7 for the US, 9 for the UK) that you cannot buy as singles, plus you get the eyepencils and the primer potion. Brilliant! Of course most (all?) of the permanent shades have been featured in other palettes (BOS 1, 2, AIW, Ammo, Show Pony/Preen, etc.), so you might already have them, but even if you get just 9 new shades, it's still well worth it. I would've liked it if they hadn't included Midnight Cowboy Rides Again because it's got the worst fallout in history as it's so glittery, and it's been in pretty much every palette lately, and also Perversion could've been left out as I don't use matte blacks and this is the third time it's been included in their Book Of Shadows. Other than that I'm pretty happy. Looking forward to using the new shades, there are some really pretty ones in here, my favourites include Radium, Psychedelic Sister, Kush, Money, Rockstar and Haight. See more photos...

Top row: Perversion, Uzi, Loaded, Kush Bottom row: Midnight Cowboy Rides Again, Last Call, Rockstar, Money

Top row: Haight, Maui Wowie, Smog, Bordello Bottom row: Radium, Snatch, Suspect, Psychedelic Sister

Ransom, Zero