Urban Decay Theodora Palette - Bad Witch?

I was hoping there wouldn't be anything released for a while that was limited edition that I couldn't resist.

Darn you Urban Decay!!!

I ordered both Urban Decay Oz palettes as soon as they became available on Sephora.com. I tried convincing myself to only pick up one, but there were colors in both that I really wanted, and I have no will-power.

Today I'm going to talk about the Theodora palette, which retails for $49, and can be found wherever Urban Decay products are sold.

I love the design on the exterior of the palette. It is perfect for the movie. I also like that the palette is metal and is in the customizable palette format. I have to wonder if this is Urban Decay's response to all of the complaints about how expensive their customizable palettes are. This way, people can start out with a full palette for a reasonable price and switch out colors as they see fit later on. I'll be talking about the customizable palette a little more later in this post.

This palette includes six shadow pans, and two of those pans have two shades, making for eight shades total. I know some people are disappointed that this palette contains so much brown, but I like how basic most of the colors are. They also got with Theodora's look from the movie.

From left to right: Broken, Beware, Bewitch, and West

Broken is a slightly yellow cream color with some sheen to it. Thankfully, it isn't as yellow as Foxy. I would say that the sheen is similar to the sheen in Virgin.

Beware is a warm-toned, matte brown shade. I love matte browns for the crease, so this is probably the color that I'll use the most in this palette.

Bewitch is a cool-toned, satin brown shade.

West is also a cool-toned brown with a bit of a plummy undertone. Compared with Bewitch, it has more of a metallic finish and is slightly darker as well.

From left to right: Spell shades and Jealous shades

Spell is the first dual shadow shades. It has a satiny black with multi-colored shimmer (with green and gold being the most prominent, which you can see in the second swatch picture. The other half is a metallic gold with gold shimmer and some glitter particles. This gold is the only shade in the palette that makes me nervous about fallout issues, but I haven't tried it yet on my eyes. I just don't reach for golds this intense very often.

Jealous consists of two satiny green shades. They have the same yellow-green tone; one is just a few shades darker than the other.

The palette includes a mini size of the 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencil in Zero. I'm sure there are plenty of people who are disappointed that they didn't include Perversion instead because it is a more intense black. Perversion intimidates me, so I'm okay with having Zero. Having a different color would have been nice since I have too many black liners to begin with (including full sizes of Zero and Perversion), but I understand that a black liner goes with the look they are trying to create with the palette.

24/7 Glide On Eye Pencil in Zero

 The last part of the palette is a Super-Saturated High-Gloss Lip Color in Theodora, but I believe I read on Urban Decay's Facebook page that it is the exact same shade as the permanent color F-Bomb. It's a gorgeous bright red shade. The color itself is creamy and pigmented. I'm a big fan of pencil lip colors, so I was thrilled about this addition to set.

Along with the products, Urban Decay also included a look card explaining how to get Theodora's look from the movie. I haven't tried it out yet, but I love this addition. It's great to know how they intended these colors to be used together (most of them anyway...they don't use all of the colors from the palette for the look).

Packaging Problem and Excellent Customer Service

I chose to review the Theodora palette first because I had some disappointing problems with the palette itself, but I also had a wonderful experience with Urban Decay's customer service.

When I got my Theodora palette, I realized that both Spell and Jealous were not locking down properly into their slots.

Here's what I mean:

The front edge of both colors keeping popping up so the casing doesn't sit flush with the palette. It seems to be some combination of a problem with the casing for the pan and the palette itself because switching pans around leads to some sticking down and some popping in the original slots and in other slots.

To show the difference, here is how a pan should look sitting in the palette:

Needless to say, I was disappointed in the flaw. If I pay $50 for a palette, I expect it to function correctly. It was also frustrating because it isn't easy for me to exchange products at Sephora, since I live over an hour away from one.

I contacted Urban Decay through their Facebook page about the problem and was told to email their customer service, which i did on a Monday afternoon. After not receiving a reply two days later, I sent a quick follow-up email, and I received a quick response. Even though I didn't purchase my palette through UrbanDecay.com,Urban Decay sent me a replacement palette. It took several emails back and forth because they required proof-of-purchase, pictures (which I ended up having to send 3 times counting the initial lost email), etc, but by Friday everything was cleared up and a replacement palette was on it's way to me. 

I was quite impressed with their customer service. I was slightly irritated over having to send pictures several times, but the fact that they replaced a palette purchased elsewhere was fantastic!

Sadly, the replacement palette had the same issue with the same two shades. However, when I switched their places, they now sit correctly. It's disappointing and makes me question the quality of the customizable palettes overall. If I get other colors to switch into this palette, will they lock in correctly or not? If I bought another customizable palette to fill, would those slots function correctly?

Final Thoughts

 I love that most of this palette is neutral basics that will make a gorgeous brown smoky eye. I'm thrilled with the lack of glitter bomb shades. I really like the fact that it's in the customizable palette format and I can switch out colors if I choose. The biggest downside of this palette for me is the issues I had with the palette and colors not locking down properly. I wasn't thrilled with the design of the Urban Decay customizable palettes, and this just confirmed my doubts. Thankfully, I have most of UD's permanent shades in palettes already, so I'm not tempted to run out and buy a bunch of them or a bunch of their customizable palettes. I might one day buy a couple of basics to switch out the colors I don't use in both Oz palettes or to make them better traveling palettes, but I'm not in a rush to do that.

Did you indulge in either of the Oz palettes? Which is your favorite?