Hey guys! If you've been reading my blog or following my social media, you know that Urban Decay launched over here in Belgium, carried by the ICI Paris XL webshop as well as their store in the Brussel Nieuwstraat and coming to other stores as well in the next couple of months. I'm super excited about it, and I obviously attended the launch a few weeks ago. The beauty counters look gorgeous and I will shop myself poor if I don't watch it. And the fun didn't end there: I got to take home a gorgeous goodie bag containing some of Urban Decay's best selling items: Perversion mascara (great for intense, thick lashes), All-Nighter make up setting spray (you can't feel it on your face, and yet it keeps everything looking flawless), Primer potion (a true holy grail eyeshadow primer product that I've been using everyday) and, saving the best for last: the Naked original palette.
I basically started jumping up and down when I unpacked this baby, as I had been planning to buy it for myself for some time now. I absolutely adore my Naked 2 palette, which obviously boosted my interest in the other palettes. Naked 3 is gorgeous with its rosey shades, but Naked original is, well, the original. There's a reason why this became such a cult favourite. And now that I've tried both, I have to say: even though I have neutral to cool colouring in my skintone (and Naked 2 is generally thought of as the cool toned Naked palette), I think the Naked original palette is even better than Naked 2. This palette has literally everything you need to create incredibly flattering looks, whether you go subtle or a bit more smokey. Love love love!
The packaging is nothing special: cardboard and felt with a magnetic closure. But those shades are simply perfect. Mostly warm colours, but they're well-balanced with neutrals and cool shades to make the palette work for any colouring if you ask me.
Naked 2 on top, Naked original on the bottom
Here you see it compared to my Naked 2 palette (on top). A couple of shades are quite similar: hustle vs busted, toasted vs YDK, smog vs snakebite, sin vs bootycall, and of course both palettes have half baked. But the similar shades are in no way interchangeable. Toasted for example is much smoother and less metallic than YDK, and it leans more rosey. The same goes for hustle. Overall, I'd say the Naked original palette is better balanced: look at the progression of the shades from left to right. In the Naked 2 palette, you go from gold to copper to taupe to bronze to grey to silver to brown to black. In the Naked original palette, you flow from beiges to golds into browns and black. The palette is more harmonious. And although that means that the looks you get from the Naked original palette are less diverse, it also means that you can create a more complete look, using more colours within the same family to blend along your eyes. If that makes any sense.
I have to admit I'd miss those two silver shades and blackout (ugh, blackout is amazing) if I'd bought the original palette instead of 2, but apart from that, I think you should get the original palette if you were to get only one. It's those two matte blending shades that make all the difference: naked and buck simply create blended crease magic when you use them right.
Swatches!
Virgin, a satin champagne; Sin, similar to virgin but more metallic; Naked, a neutral beige; and Sidecar, a pale metallic rose gold with micro glitter. I love using Sin as a highlight in the inner eye corner or just below the eyebrow, and Naked is as perfect as they come as a blending shade.
Buck, a matte neutral medium brown perfect for the crease; Half Baked, that beautiful metallic gold shade; Smog, a dirty metallic bronze that reads more like a brown with gold shimmer when swatched; and Darkhorse, a satin khaki with micro glitter. This is a beautiful, rich segment of the palette that smells of sultry summer nights.
On to the cooler shades: Toasted, a satin shadow somewhere between taupe and rose gold; Hustle, a satin dark brown that leans plummy; Creep, a deep charcoal with micro glitter; and Gunmetal, a beautiful, well, gunmetal shade that sits comfortably between grey and blue. Of these four, I'm particularly obsessed with toasted. That shade is one hundred percent my perfect nude shades. My-eyelids-but-better, if that is a thing. Perfect for those mornings when you don't want to think about your make up but just slap something on that will look good.
I created four different looks with the palette to demonstrate its worth.
And a close up of the looks, clockise starting from top left:
A subtle daytime smokey eye using Sin all over the lid, Naked in the crease, Gunmetal in the outer V and Creep along the outer lashline (upper and lower). Mascara: Urban Decay Perversion.
My perfect Naked eye make up: Toasted all over the lid, Buck smoked out through the crease, Hustle in the outer V and on the lower lashline, and Creep along the upper outer lashline. Mascara: Urban Decay Perversion.
A great canvas for a cat eye: Sin in the inner eye corner, Naked and a bit of Toasted on the middle of the eyelid, Buck blended through the crease, Hustle in the outer corner and on the lower lashline, and my Catrice precision eyeliner. Mascara: Diorshow with fiber formula.
A warm bronze smokey eye: Half Baked in the inner eye corner blended into Smog in the middle of the eyelid and along the lower lashline, Buck blended in the crease, Darkhorse in the outer V and along the lower lashline. Mascara: Urban Decay Perversion.
I honestly can't say which of these I prefer most, I just know that all of these make me look amazing and stay gorgeous until I take off my make up at the end of the day. What else would you want from a palette? I know I'm going to use this baby until I hit the pan.
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