Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Shadow Pencils Spring 2011

Urban Decay has just announced the newest member of the 24/7 family: the 24/7 Glide On Shadow Pencil. The 12 shades of waterproof eyeshadow are new for Spring 2011 and I have them to review, so I'm going to do my best to show you how pretty they are!

Like their eyeliner counterparts, these come in pencil form with a shiny silver cap. They're chubby pencils, about twice the diameter of a 24/7 eyeliner. They are actual pencils (not twist-up/automatic) so will need to be sharpened, but if you have the Urban Decay Grindhouse sharpener, they fit perfectly in the large side.


The shades are:

Barracuda, black with silver glitter.



Clash, a bright aqua blue with a hint of green, iridescent sparkle and a subtle purple sheen.

Clinic, a medium blue-toned emerald green with shimmer and subtle silver sparkle.


Delinquent, an amazing jeweltone purple with iridescent sparkle.



Lit, a light bronzy gold shimmer.



Mercury, a grey-silver shimmer.


Midnight Cowboy, a light peachy-beige gold with silver microglitter, just like the powder eyeshadow.


Morphine, a light lilac purple with blue duochrome and shimmer.


Narc, a mossy, olivey yellow-toned green shimmer.




Rehab, a light brown/taupe shimmer.




Sin, a delicate champagne shimmer.



Wasteland, a chocolate brown shimmer.

And, on my arm, applied straight from the tube, no base:

Sin, Midnight Cowboy, Lit, Morphine. If you enlarge this, you'll be able to see the gorgeous glitter in Midnight Cowboy. Also note how awesome and glowy Morphine looks. It has really strong blue iridescence so it looks like it's glowing blue. It's amazing.


Delinquent, Clash, Clinic, Narc. I tried to capture the sparkle in these, you may need to view it full size to see it. Delinquent is incredible, look at that rich purple color and all that electric purple shimmer in it!



Mercury, Barracuda, Wasteland, Rehab. Barracuda really stands out here, doesn't it? I love that glitter. And I'm not sure if you can see it very well, but Rehab has a really pretty reddish-gold duochrome sheen to it. It's subtle, but when you catch it just right, it's so pretty.

The texture of these pencils is really similar to the 24/7 eyeliner. They're soft, silky and extremely smooth. They really do glide on, no tugging or skipping. They're very opaque and pigmented and you really don't need more than one or two swipes of color.

You can apply them as eyeliner or eyeshadow. You'd think with such a chubby pencil, you wouldn't be able to get a nice line, but that's not the case. The thickness of the tip actually makes a really even line that isn't too thick. If you prefer a super thin line, you can always sharpen the tip before using it to line.

I've been testing them out over the past week to see how they hold up, and these are a few of the ways I've used them:

(All of these looks use Too Faced Shadow Insurance as a base.)

This is Lit on the lid and on the lower lashline, a green Anastasia shadow in the crease, Delinquent as liner and a tiny bit of Clinic on the outer edge of the lower lashline. Isn't Delinquent amazing?





This is a silvery smoky eye using Lap Dance and Stilletto from the Too Faced Naked Eye palette and Urban Decay Delinquent 24/7 shadow as eyeliner. Seriously... just look at that purple! It's so awesome! I can't get enough of it.




This is Morphine on the lid with Kat Von D Prague (from the Truth palette) in the crease and on the lower lashline and MAC Blacktrack Fluidline as liner. Morphine has that amazing blue glow that I love all by itself, but it does something cool when you layer with it. When other shadows are layered over Morphine, they become duochrome! Prague is a matte formula, but you can see in this picture that it takes on a red pearl duochrome effect everywhere it touches Morphine.

Now that I've used these a few times, I have a few observations.

First and foremost, when they say 24/7, they mean it! This is by far the longest wearing eyeshadow I've ever used. At first I was afraid that they'd crease due to the creamy texture, but that is absolutely not the case. They are bulletproof. No amount of rubbing or sweating or crying or rain will make these run or crease. Once they're on, they're on. They're so hardcore that they're even a little hard to remove- they don't come off easily with soap and water. I'd recommend an oily makeup remover to take these off- I use pure jojoba oil.

Because of this long-wear formula, you have to work quickly. They set extremely fast. Faster than the 24/7 pencils. Because they set so fast and don't budge when they're dry, you can't really blend them. I've tried and failed. There's literally no time to try to smudge your lines or blend out the colors, and if you try to blend after they're starting to set, it causes some uncomfortable tugging on the lid. Lightning fast. That's why I'm sticking to using these as a lid color or a liner.

The slight tackiness/stickiness (disappears after a few seconds) of these when they're freshly applied makes them a great shadow base. You can lay down a base of 24/7 and then pat your powder shadow on top while the 24/7 is still sticky to intensify the colors and smudge/crease/fade proof them. Also makes a good base for glitter if you work quick enough!

These would definitely be ideal if you're a swimmer or for a trip to the beach since they're waterproof and they don't melt. One color as a lid color, another color as liner and some waterproof mascara. Pool-proof makeup.

Besides being totally waterproof and crazy long wearing, another advantage of the 24/7 Glide On Shadow is that there's no glitter fallout. This is especially pleasing to me, as I've had a love-hate relationship with Urban Decay's glitter shadows. I am extremely happy that they've made Midnight Cowboy into a pencil. In pencil form, you can enjoy all the glitter in the iconic Midnight Cowboy without it ending up all over your face. The glitter stays on your eyelids and doesn't budge. Very, very happy about this.

I'm someone who never uses cream or liquid shadows because they're a pain, but these have changed my mind. They're creamy but they don't crease! They're easy to apply- just scribble all over your eyelid and you're done. They make nice, bold, even lines as eyeliner and they stay on all day. They're not really blendable, so I personally can't use them as a crease color, but as a lid color and a liner, they're great.

My top picks? Delinquent and Morphine are my must-haves from this collection. Delinquent is the purple pencil I've been searching for all my life. It is pigmented, sparkly and very obviously purple. Morphine is just insanely cool and you know I can't resist a duochrome. Midnight Cowboy is another top pick because it's a perfect neutral lid color and unlike the powder version, the pencil has no glitter fallout. Mercury is also great for an extremely fast, easy smoky eye look.

All the colors are gorgeous, vibrant and sparkly but I have a soft spot for purples and glitter. I really hope they do more glitter shades! I'm hoping for the old version of Oil Slick with the rainbow glitter. I'd also love to see SWF, Goddess, Kiddie Pool, Uzi and the other Midnight shades in pencil form. One can dream...

Have you tried these? I want to know what your experience with them was.

They're available now on Urban Decay's website, Sephora and Ulta.

(These were sent to me for review.)