Urban Decay Naked Eyeshadow Palette (Original)

Good Day Everyone,

Today I have a real treat for you, if you love eyeshadows the way I do... I've finally got round to photographing and swatching my two Urban Decay Naked Palettes – about time given that Naked 3 is about to hit the market very soon! So without further a do I'm going to jump right to it as this is quite a lengthy post.

Value For Money

I bought both the original and Naked 2 palettes from Debenhams (in the UK) at Easter when they were having a 10% sale and my palettes cost me £32.40 each (reduced from £36 each). That’s about $66 SGD but I know at Sephora in Singapore the palettes were retailing for $80 SGD each (but I think the price has recently gone up to $83 SGD) so I made a bit of saving by buying them from back home. In the US the palettes retail for $52 USD.

Using the US for the purpose of comparison, a single Urban Decay eyeshadow with a fill weight of 1.5gr costs $18 USD. With the palettes you get 12 eyeshadows with a fill weight of 1.3gr (so a smidge less per shadow) all for just $52 USD. That’s less than the cost of three individual eyeshadows! Plus you get a couple of little freebies thrown in too. I think that’s superb value for money, don’t you? :o)

The Freebies:

With my original Naked palette I got a sample size of the oh so famous eyeshadow Primer Potion which is a great way of sampling another product from the brand. The Primer Potion makes the eyeshadows last longer and delays creasing on my lids.

In addition, the palette also came with a single ended Good Karma shadow brush which actually retails for $26 USD . Normally I don’t tend to use the brushes that come with palettes as they don’t tend to be the best quality and it often feels they've just been included for the sake of it but this one isn't too bad for patting shadow on the lid. However, I do wish that it was double ended with a blending brush on the other side and I think Urban Decay caught onto this as the brush that comes with the Naked 2 palette is exactly that.

The Packaging:

The eyeshadows come in a beautiful rich chocolate brown sleek palette with a magnetic closure so it just snaps shut. I think the actual packaging is cardboard that’s covered in brown felt like material with gold foil lettering. I keep my palette within a makeup case as the felt fabric does attract dust and as you can see from the photos, the gold lettering chips pretty easily which is a bit disappointing.

Inside there is a mirror in the lid, which I do feel could have been larger and again Urban Decay seemed to have picked up on this as the mirror in the Naked 2 palette is much larger. The 12 shadows are neatly lined up going for light to dark with a slot for the eyeshadow brush.

Despite the magnetic closure, the palette doesn't feel all that secure when shut so whenever I travel with it I don’t simply throw it into my suitcase for fear of it opening and ruining the contents. I usually travel with the palette in a toiletries case or makeup bag.

The Eyeshadows:

The palette contains 12 ‘neutral’ shades and just because it’s a ‘neutral’ or ‘naked’ palette, doesn't mean that it doesn't contain any colour because it does. The colours are just not the bright bold colours that I would only wear occasionally, instead they are very wearable, everyday shades that can glam up an eye look as a well as being appropriate for day time wear.  Overall the palette is warm toned which suits my complexion very well but I think these colours would suit most skin tones. Having used the palette for several months now, I feel the range of colours is more extensive than what I first thought upon purchase. The colours range from very pale pink champagnes to gold and various brown tones through to brown toned pinky plums and blue toned grey.

I find the colours to be very complimentary and have no problems creating a day or night time look from this palette alone. The two matte shades are great blending colours. The colour Naked in particular just blends into my natural skin colour and Buck can be used lightly as a blending and transition colour.

The texture of the shadows is very buttery and smooth. Whilst they’re not powdery and crumbly as such, I have experienced a little fall out with some of the more sparkly shades. The pigmentation is great and to be honest I don’t think my swatching skills does the pigmentation much justice (I did a better job swatching the Naked 2 shadows). There is a mixture of textures / finishes within the palette ranging from matte, satin, shimmery to sparkly / glittery.

Below I've cited the way each of the colours have been described on the Sephora website followed by my own opinions based upon my experience:

Virgin: described as a nude satin. I’d say it’s a very pale pink satin that leaves a beautiful sheen on the lids rather than any sort of colour.

Sin: described as a champagne shimmer. Similar to Virgin but with a little bit more of the pink coming through. With it being a shimmer rather than a satin finish it does look more sparkly / bright and reflective. Both virgin and Sin make great inner corner highlighters.

Naked: described as a buff matte. This is one of the two matte colours in the palette. The colour doesn't really show up on my eyelids due to my skin tone, and so I use it to mattify my lids and as a blending colour just above my crease. On my photograph swatch I really had to build up and layer this shadow for the colour to show. It’s a nudey beigey brown with a slight pink undertone when I build the colour up.

Sidecar: described as a beige sparkle. Sidecar is a colour that seems to look different on different people. Swatched on my arm in the photo it’s a sparkly browny peach with a silver sheen to it. On my lids the peach undertone doesn't come through so much and it looks more like a browny beige with a silver sheen. It definitely has more brown to it than what ‘beige’ implies.

Buck: described as a brown matte this is the only other matte shade in the palette. I’d say it has an earthy orangey undertone to it – very autumnal.

Half Baked: described as a bronze but it’s definitely more golden shimmer. It didn't swatch that well on my photos but the colour is actually a lot more intense when I apply it on my eyelids.

Smog: described as a golden brown shimmer. Like Sidecar this is another colour that looks different on different people. On me it’s more of a coppery bronze colour.

Darkhorse: described as a bronze-plum shimmer but to me it’s more of a chocolatey brown with gold flecks – I’m definitely not seeing the ‘plum’ in this shade.

Toasted: described as taupe-bronze. This is a beautiful taupe with a pink undertone and a rose gold-esque sheen. 

Hustle: described as a mocha shimmer but it definitely has a plumy undertone to it.

Creep: described as a near-black metallic. It’s a dark charcoal grey with multi-coloured sparkle.

Gunmetal: described as a dark grey metallic. I’d say its a slate-grey with a blue undertone and silver sparkle.

In terms of fallout, Sin, Sidecar and Gunmetal are the only ones where I have to be particularly careful. All of the other colours apply beautifully with no real fallout issues.The shadows are very true to colour, as you can see from the photo below where I've matched up my swatch photo with the pan colours. Clearly the colour isn't going to look as 'intense' swatched on my arm as it does in the pan where the shadows are more densely packed and reflect the light differently compared to my skin. The good thing is that most of these colours can be built up to increase their intensity on my eyelids.
So there you have it, a gorgeous selection of neutral colours that would please any eyeshadow lover! Having had this palette for several months I think this is a truly amazing palette with a gorgeous range of shades and fantastic value for money. I would not hesitate to recommend this at all. The criticisms that I have are minor relative to the greatness of the palette and some of these have been addressed in the Naked 2 palette, such as, a larger mirror, double ended brush, and more secure packaging so it shows that Urban Decay have listened to their customer's feedback.

Regarding the shadows I love most of the colours, especially Sidecar, Buck, Half Baked, Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted and Hustle - I think I just named most of the colours- haa haa! Flipping it over, the colours I use least are Creep and Gunmetal just because of the sparkle factor, they get reserved mainly for night out looks. This is definitely my most used palette

Do you have this palette? Is it one of your favourites? What other eye palettes do you recommend?

Love Sheen xxx

P.S. My thoughts on Naked 2 are not too far behind :o)

My verdict: 5/5

For the UK: UD Website and you can purchase this palette from Debenhams and House of Fraser stores

For the US: UD Website

For Singapore you can find this product at Sephora

(Note: I purchased this product with my own money)