Urban Decay Apocalyptic Nail Kit

This time of year offers all kinds of great kits and gift sets in the stores. What better way to sample a new polish brand than to get a cute little gift set to experiment with? I could not resist the "Apocalyptic Nail Kit" from Urban Decay, found at my local ULTA store and online from Urban Decay for $26.00




The set consists of seven tiny bottles with polish names clearly labeled on the back, in a zipper case with clear front and dark purple metallic body.

"Our tightly-edited collection of shades lets you experiment without the commitment of full-size bottles." Perfect! Except....that description implies that once you finish experimenting, you can then commit to a larger bottle. Which doesn't seem to be available. Just this set....but let's come back to that in a minute, once we've taken a look at the polishes themselves.


"Fbomb" is a dark creamy red. Very classic yet more of a brick red than a bright siren ruby red. I like! I found it a little runny, but that could be just a matter of getting used to a new-to-me brand.


"Big Bang" is shimmery metallic hot pink that adds some "Bang!" to your nails. It's nice, just not my personal favorite. My Wet 'n' Wild "Lust" from the Craze collection has me covered on hot pink, but again, "Big Bang" is perfectly nice. And, it's an older color that was brought back.


"Meltdown" is a beautiful dark purple. It applied really well. Love!

My poor, once mighty index nail wears "Grunge" which is a shimmery charcoal navy. Very nice! The Urban Decay website describes Grunge as "metallic peacock." I have no idea what that means in relation to the color I swatched, which was a dark greyish color, not a bright green or blue.


At the other end of the case, we have a white and two more dark colors.

"White Widow" is an opaque white. Very cool. I was wondering what color outfits to wear this with. I am thinking black? At one point I was thinking dark red, like a red velvet cake! Uh, don't worry, I won't do that.


"Gunmetal" is a shimmery graphite gray, very true to its name. It goes on very sheer and looks good at two coats.



Last but certainly not least is "Apocalypse," a blackened purple, very glossy and opaque on the first coat. Love this!!

These bottles are rather tiny, at .017 US fl oz. Here's a comparison shot with a normal China Glaze bottle to give some context.


These fashionable colors are great for winter, and the kit is, of course, great as a gift for the nail polish fan who needs something new or for just sampling, as I am doing.

Don't forget for travel! I will be at the Modern Language Association annual convention, a scholarly conference held at the end of December. The standard uniform for academics at this meeting is black, with occasional very cool unique pieces, such as an awesome skirt or pair of shoes. (I find it interesting how academics dress certain ways in certain disciplines....I have been to conferences where both men and women wear plain boring suits, for instance.)

I am thinking this nail kit will be a perfect set to take along with me for this three day conference. I don't think I will be in the mood for happy, blingy holiday glitter manicures but won't necessarily need to be work conservative with this crowd.

So how does one get more of these without getting another set?? I just saw a sneak peak on Twitter of a new nail polish color, so I hope Urban Decay will bring out regular size bottles for at least some of this set. After all, Urban Decay was founded on cool nail polishes. A co-founder, according to the Urban Decay website, wanted nail polish in colors that were not available, and the company was soon born.

As a nail newbie, I don't know the story of why Urban Decay hasn't had nail polish available recently. I do like the Urban Decay Apocalyptic Nail Kit very much, and here's hoping for more!