Mrs Mia Wallace shows you how to do Bold Neutrals with Urban Decay’s Pulp Fiction Palette!

I’m feeling very nostalgic lately, what with my favorite beauty companies looking to TV and movie classics for inspirations. Much as I can’t stop re-reading The Hunger Games and The Mortal Instruments, the movie adaptations are just lackluster. For true cinematic classics, my favorite heroines are Uma Thurman of Pulp Fiction, and Milla Jovovich from The Fifth Element. Both actresses have that enviable chiseled face and defined jawline, and both have made their careers portraying powerful women who dance on the border of danger. How much more urban and contemporary can you get? And until orange hair comes in vogue, a more wearable movie-classic-turned-everyday-makeup is quite possibly Urban Decay’s Pulp Fiction Palette.

Regular readers of my blog will know that I hardly ever wear browns on my eyes… I love bold colors and shimmers, and somehow matte browns tend to make my eyes look somewhat drab and lifeless. But it is a challenge that I’ve been working on all year, and it has culminated in today’s post. After all, who better to look to for deep sultry eyes that are anything but dull, than Mrs Mia Wallace?

Granted that look is a little dated, we don’t all have to go with wine red lips to embody power. Urban Decay Pulp Fiction has the right mix of light, medium and dark shades, with a black liner shade and soft highlighter thrown in for good measure. All the right elements to get you from a light daytime wash of color, to a bold evening look.

The swatches (from left to right) correspond to shades on palette left to right, top to bottom:

• Righteous – pale ivory with a matte finish
• Tyranny – warm medium brown with a matte finish
• Vengeance – dark taupe-brown with a soft matte finish that almost feels like satin
• Furious – white with a pearly sheen
• Anger – black with a satin finish

All the shades were incredibly soft and finely-milled. Most of the shades had excellent color pay-off, with the exception of Anger which was the least pigmented of the lot though still decent.

For a day at the office (safe but not too boring), I decided to play up the smokey aspect of the palette, without overdoing it. Since I have somewhat heavily hooded eyes (i.e. those “hidden” eye folds overhanging my lash line), I’ve learnt that if I were to take dark browns too high up the lid, it tends to make my eyes appear even smaller. So instead, I first applied Righteous all over the lid, followed by Tyranny (very light handed!) up to the crease. Thereafter, I took a pencil brush and applied Vengeance all along my lash line, smudging up to my folds. In order to balance things out and to further emphasize the almond shape, I continued along my lower lash line, and winged outwards slightly. Finished with Anger used as a black liner all around, and Furious as highlighter under the brow bone.

Very very simple, nothing fancy, but somehow the combination of these tones of browns, really worked for me. I added a warmer blusher (this), and a medium neutral (almost cool) lipstick (this)… and it feels like a nice, very professional look!

Granted there is nothing here that is earth-shattering nor headline grabbing, but this is a very good basic palette, and if you have ever felt the need for a matte base shade or a matte crease shade, Urban Decay Pulp Fiction should be top of your list. And if you need more reason, the dark broody Pulp Fiction theme is reinforced throughout the packaging!

Urban Decay Pulp Fiction is limited edition, and commemorates the film’s 20^th anniversary.  Get it and be cool, honey bunny!

_{The product was provided for my consideration.  All opinions expressed are my own honest, unbiased views.}