Urban Decay - Blackout Eyeshadow

My ridiculous urge to buy black shadows hasn't subsided, I caved in & bought the single version of Urban Decay's Blackout from their newly-reformulated eyeshadow range. In my defence, it is to go in the UD build your own palette, although quite how much justification that is... either way, I like always having a matte black to hand.

Blackout has previously popped up in a couple of the Urban Decay pre-made palettes; Naked 2 & the 15th Anniversary palette.

Ignore the pink tinge on the shot of the packaging, it seemed I couldn't find a decent angle to get a good shot without it showing up.
This is how Blackout looks in its packaging. You can leave it in there, or pop the pan out to store in the palette.

It's not a massive chore to remove the shadow from the packaging, all you need to do is open the lid & carefully push on the label with the name of your shadow and out it pops.

Blackout has quickly become one of my favourite matte blacks, and I seem to have collected quite a few. It's not a hard-textured shadow, like some pans of MAC's Carbon, nor is it overly powdery. It applies easily as a dense, dark black. Blending is incredibly easy with Blackout. Pigmentation is fantastic; what you see in the pan is what you get. It is also one of the darker black shadows in my collection, which sounds a little odd, but collect a few of them & you start to notice variations in shade.


On to the swatches!
All of the swatches were done using the shadow dry & applied straight on to bare skin, no primer was used.

Blackout - with flash

Blackout - outside, no flash

To show how Blackout performs, I swatched it with a few other black shadows, namely Sugarpill's Bulletproof, MAC Carbon, Illamasqua Obsidian & Lestat.

With flash L-R Bulletproof, Blackout, Carbon, Obsidian, Lestat

Outside, no flash L-R Bulletproof, Blackout, Carbon, Obsidian, Lestat

Although Obsidian has a distinct sheen to it, it's worth including here because, on the eyelid, it doesn't look as shimmery.

Is Blackout worth purchasing? It is a good, solid matte black that performs well. If you find Carbon hard going, Blackout is an easier option that's worth looking at.