Wednesday 20 June 2012

Naked 2: The Review

For my second post, I thought it might be time to divulge and possibly indulge in my latest make-up fetish: nude palettes. Now, I'm a little late jumping on the bandwagon with the Urban Decay Naked Palettes but you'll have to forgive me as until recently, I barely EVER wore eyeshadow. Yes, I'm 19 and for the first 18 and a half years of my life I must have only willingly worn eyeshadow about 4 times. To be frank, I was much more into liquid eyeliner and bold lipstick, eyeshadow seemed too scary and hard to apply for a long while, not to mention I was always a little scared of making myself look like a drag queen (nothing against drag queens!). This is why I LOVE all of the new nude eyeshadow palettes on the market lately, they're subtle, great value and most importantly incredibly handy! 

So without further-or-do I progress onto the review of my latest favourite nude eyeshadow palette: Naked 2 by Urban Decay. 



Needless to say, I'm impressed. I owned the original Naked palette for a few months before it's successor was released, and it was my go-to palette for everyday eyeshadow. Amazingly, the Naked 2 has upheld the high standard set by the original if not improved upon it. This palette is much more suited for cooler toned skins (I'm pale to the point of fluorescence so gold-toned colours don't work so much for me, making the selection of muted pinks, taupes and grey-silvers in this palette perfect for me and any pale compadres!). 
I love the fact that there are both matte and shimmer finishes in this palette and the diversity of the colours within it are amazing -who knew there were so many ways to go nude? 






My favourite part about the palette is that you can use it with the first Naked palette to generate and endless number of colour combinations. As you can see from the light swatches, all of the shadows are beautifully pigmented and finely milled. They are also very buildable but I would recommend using an eye primer (if not the Primer Potion from Urban Decay) for extra long wear. Considering the high pigmentation of the shadows, the 12 x 1.3g of shadow you get in the palette for £36.00 ($50.00) it's totally worth it, coming in at  only £2.31 per gram, in comparison to the £6.67 per gram for a MAC eyeshadow. That's not even including the good quality duo shadow and tapered blending brush you get free with the palette!

and a free lipgloss:

FYI, my favourite colour combos are:
  • Foxy all over the lid with Tease, Suspect or Half Baked in the crease 
  • Tease all over the lid with YDK in the crease and Busted in the outer corner
  • Verve all over the lid and Pistol in the crease
  • Bootycall all over the lid and Suspect in the crease
  • Blackout on an angled brush on the top lash-line for the effect of fuller lashes (I find this is much more subtle than my previous liquid liner)
Lastly, the sturdy packaging means the palette is perfect for travelling and easy to clean. I really do struggle to find negative things to say about my new baby (*cringe* haha). 

Does anyone else love this palette as much as I do or is anyone thinking about buying it? How do Urban Decay shadows compare to other brands in your opinion?
xxx

4 comments:

  1. I love the naked 2. I'm a big fan of bootycall and YDK. did you notice a different in the quality of the brushes in the original in this? If you got a brush, not the pencil in the original. Because the brush from my first palette seemed nice, but when I compared it to the second, the second was a lot smaller and felt cheap, and was just not nice to use. Doesn't stop me loving the palette though. And I much prefer the material of this one. So much less mess. X

    ReplyDelete
  2. YDK is such a beautiful colour, do you wear it together with Bootycall? and YES I know exactly what you mean with the brush, I think the quality of the brush is better in the first palette especially in comparison to the application side of the naked 2 brush, the first brush feels kind of heavier and more expensive if that makes sense? I do quite like the blending side of the naked 2 one though :) I am SO happy about the packaging improvement, half of the lettering has rubbed off my first palette and it's covered in foundation stains haha :/ x

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have been wanting this palette for so long aha:)!

    thebeautymist.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete