My Chosen Brand

After doing more research into different beauty brands, I have finally chosen to work with Urban Decay as my brand.  I have chosen Urban Decay because they are a brand with a vast range of products and a varying colour spectrum.  I believe that with Urban Decay as my brand, I will be able to achieve a variety of different looks; being more creative in some areas, as well as toning it back for more natural looks in others.

BACKGROUND?
Claiming to be the leading, trend-setting cosmetics company, Urban Decay is definitely a beauty game-changer.  The brand has been a respected part of the industry for nearly 20 years with Wende Zomnir still in charge, as the company's Chief Creative Director.  "I feel like Urban Decay really paved the way for the big companies to try something edgier, and we've become the source for what's next in make-up", says Wende Zomnir.  She launched Urban Decay along with Sandy Lerner and David Soward in 1996, when the beauty industry was very much based around pinks, reds and beige colours.  Starting out with just 10 lipsticks and 12 nail varnishes, all bearing rich pigments and ground-breaking names, Urban Decay has built a huge following and now offers a whole range of products, from eyeshadows to lipsticks, foundations to nail varnishes.

BRANDING?
WEBSITE.

Screenshot of Urban Decay's Website Homepage.
(http://www.urbandecay.com)

Urban Decay's branding varies depending on where you are looking.  To the right is a screenshot of their website homepage.  At the top of the page they have the logo and navigation for the whole website.

COLOURING.
The key colour that runs through Urban Decay's website is purple, and it is the colour of the shelves that you would buy the products from in a shop, as well as being the colour of their eye primer packaging.  This is because purple was the colour that Wende Zomnir and Sandy Lerner originally launched the brand for, as that could not find the colour sold in any other brand.  Purple is Urban Decay's trademark colour, and will often be found on their products somewhere.

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LOGO.
Urban Decay's logo is simply their initials in a funky font.  Again using the colour purple.



PACKAGING.
Urban Decay's packaging varies depending on the product, however it is always something special; never boring and the boxes you don't want to throw away.  The colours used in their packaging reflects the product, for example the Naked palettes have fairly neutral packaging, whereas the Vice palettes have more colourful packaging, as they are more colourful products.


KEY PRODUCTS?
Urban Decay has revolutionised many products, bringing highly pigmented, colourful products to the shelves of many different stores worldwide, however their most popular products are probably their NAKED collections.  Urban Decay's Naked collections range from their Naked eyeshadow palettes, to their Naked Ultra Nourishing Lipglosses, to the Naked Skin collection which holds a whole range of products in itself.  The key products from this collection, and probably from the whole of Urban Decay's products, are most definitely the Naked eyeshadow palettes, which have 'revolutionised neutrals'.
The original Naked palette was released back in 2010 with 12 shades of bronze-hued neutrals, ranging from a pale champagne to a gritty gunmetal.  The palette was one of the best-selling palettes ever, and raised so much demand that Urban Decay decided to release another one at the end of 2011/beginning of 2012; behold Naked2.  Again, the palette was released with 12 different shades, but this time they were all taupe-hued neutrals with greyish browns, a glittery copper and the blackest black.  Naked3 was then released in 2013, introducing Urban Decay lovers to 12 shades of rose-hued neutrals, ranging from a pale shimmery pink to a deep black matte with specks of red micro-glitter.

ANON, (2013). Urban Decay Naked [digital image] [viewed 26th Jan 2015]. Available from: http://www.prettygossip.com/2013/11/21/urban-decay-naked-3/

LIMITED EDITIONS?
Urban Decay has had it's fair share of limited edition products, as has every other beauty brand out there.  Making a product 'limited' or 'exclusive' makes people assume that the product will run out, and they want to be one of the few to consume it.  Urban Decay's limited edition products are always a great success and have been known to sell out within days of being released.  Their limited edition items are usually an eyeshadow palette of some sort, sometimes with an extra product added in, such as a lipstick or nail varnish.

ANON, (N.D.) Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Palette [digital image] [viewed 26th Jan 2015]. Available from: https://www.makeupgeek.com/reviews/product/urban-decay-alice-in-wonderland-palette/

Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows; This was a limited edition palette  created and released to coincide with the release of Tim Burton's film Alice in Wonderland, back in 2010.  The palette consisted of 16 eyeshadows, 2 eyeliners and a mini Urban Decay Primer Potion, all of which came in a pop-up box with Alice walking through a field of giant mushrooms.  Urban Decay reused already existing shades from some of their other palettes but renamed them specially for the palette.  For example, Painkiller was renamed Alice, Oil Slick was renamed Jabberwock, and Polyester White was renamed White Rabbit.

MELROSE, L (2014) Urban Decay Naked Vault 2014 [digital image] [viewed 26th Jane 2015]. Available from: http://www.llymlrs.com/2014/10/urban-decay-naked-vault-2014.html

The Naked Vault; In 2014 Urban Decay brought out the ultimate Naked dream, holding 12 of the Naked collection's items.  The Naked Vault consisted of all 3 of the Naked eyeshadow palettes, 3 shades of the Naked Flushed palettes, 3 different shades of the Naked Ultra Nourishing Lip Glosses and 3 of the 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencils.  All items sold individually would have cost Naked fanatics £255, however the Vault cost just £180, saving you the grand total of £75.

ANON, (2014) The Mysterious Urban Decay Vice LTD Palette [digital image] [viewed 26th Jan 2015]. Available from: http://www.cosmeticaddiction.com/2014/09/the-mysterious-urban-decay-vice-ltd.html

Vice3; The Vice3 limited edition palette was released towards the end of 2014 and can still be bought from the Urban Decay website.  The palette consists of 20 brand-new shades, from a soft black to burgundy tones to a smoky red-black, all arranged into columns; neutrals on the left, jewelled shades in the middle and smoky shades on the right.

MUSE, I (2014) Urban Decay Naked on the Run Palette [digital image] [viewed 26th Jan 2015]. Available from: http://www.musingsofamuse.com/2014/11/urban-decay-naked-run-palette-coming-soon.html

Naked on the Run; This is a travel ready, all-in-one Naked kit.  The palette contains 6 new eyeshadow shades (the 5050 all-over shade double the size of the other 5 shadows), a bronzer, a blusher, a full size Ultra Nourishing Lip Gloss, a travel size 24/7 Eye Pencil and a travel size Perversion Mascara.  The Naked on the Run palette is designed for both day and night looks and if you look of the Urban Decay website, you can find tutorials for these different looks.

VOGUE, (2014) Urban Decay Pulp Fiction Collection [digital image] [viewed 26th Jan 2015]. Available from: http://www.vogue.co.uk/beauty/2014/08/14/urban-decay-pulp-fiction-make-up-collection/gallery/1220367

Pulp Fiction Collection; In Summer 2014, Urban Decay released a Pulp Fiction collection for the Quentin Tarantino film's 20th anniversary.  It was a make-up tribute to Mia Wallace and for Mia Wallace inspired Urban Decay lovers.  The collection consisted of; a blood-red Revolution Lipstick, a 24/7 Glide-on Lip Pencil, an Eyeshadow Palette that consisted of 5 eyeshadow shades, a glitter Eyeliner in gunmetal and a red Nail Varnish which mimicked the red nails that she wore in the film.

References:
- ANON, (2011) Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette [online] [viewed 26th Jan 2015]. Available from: http://www.temptalia.com/urban-decay-naked-2-palette
- NIVEN, L (2014) How To Look Like Mia Wallace [online] [viewed 26th Jan 2015]. Available from: http://www.vogue.co.uk/beauty/2014/08/14/urban-decay-pulp-fiction-make-up-collection
- KAREN, (2010) Urban Decay's Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows Reads Just Like a Fairy Tale. In: Makeup & Beauty Blog [online]. 20th January 2010 [viewed 26th Jan 2015]. Available from: http://www.makeupandbeautyblog.com/cosmetics/urban-decays-alice-in-wonderland-book-of-shadows-reads-just-like-a-fairy-tale/
- SALTZMAN, S (2014) Urban Decay Launches the Naked Vault [online] [viewed 26th Jan 2015]. Available from: http://www.allure.com/beauty-trends/blogs/daily-beauty-reporter/2014/10/urban-decay-naked-vault-review.html

- SCHMID, W (N.D.) Wende Zomnir Celebrates 15 Years of Urban Decay [online] [viewed 26th Jan 2015]. Available from: http://la-confidential-magazine.com/style/articles/urban-decays-wende-zomnir-on-15-years-in-the-beauty-business
- URBAN DECAY, (N.D.) About Us [online] [viewed 26th Jan 2015]. Available from: http://www.urbandecay.com/aboutus/about-us.html
- URBAN DECAY, (N.D.) Jobs/Careers [online] [viewed 26th 2015]. Available from: http://www.urbandecay.com/careers/jobs.html
- URBAN DECAY, (N.D.) Naked [online] [viewed 26th Jan 2015]. Available from: http://www.urbandecay.com/naked
- URBAN DECAY, (N.D.) Naked On The Run [online] [viewed 26th Jan 2015]. Available from: http://www.urbandecay.com/naked-on-the-run-eyeshadow-by-urban-decay/460.html

- URBAN DECAY, (N.D.) The Naked Lineup [online] [viewed 26th Jan 2015]. Available from: http://www.urbandecay.com/naked3/landingpage-naked3.html
- URBAN DECAY, (N.D.) Vice3 [online] [viewed 26th Jan 2015]. Available from: http://www.urbandecay.com/vice-3-eyeshadow-palette-by-urban-decay/246.html

Photo References:
(1) - URBAN DECAY, (N.D.) Urban Decay Logo [digital image] [viewed 26th 2015]. Available from: http://www.brandsoftheworld.com/logo/urban-decay-cosmetics-0