Will you go Naked for 30 days?

This is a detailed review of the ubiquitous Naked Palette by Urban Decay after I spent such a long time with it. I am going to feature some of the looks I did with it as I go through the review. I didn't really use this for every single one of the 30 days, but I did use it whenever I want to use makeup the entire of last month. Also, I ran of creativity with this palette after two weeks, so many of the eye looks are repeats, and I only change the blusher and lip color.

Even though I am so detailed about this and put in a lot of effort just for one post, this is not a rave review at all. If you don't want to read through everything, it is sufficient to know, I truly think this is not a must-have.

Naked Palette by Urban Decay

Available: Sephora, $79 (or is it $70? =P)


Volume: 12 eyeshadow colors, 1.3 g each and 1 mini Primer Potion, 3.7 ml, both made in USA. 1 Shadow Karma Brush, made in China.


Star properties: 12 neutral colors including 4 exclusives, in textures from matte, shimmer, satin, to sparkle. Offers looks from office, smoky, to bronzy.

Packaging
The palette comes properly packed a plastic tray that is of the true royal purple that Urban Decay uses. I was quite protective at first, and kept the tray, but soon found it troublesome to always keep the palette back in the plastic tray, that I threw the tray away.

 The tray also holds the mini Primer Potion.

The mini Primer Potion is only as long as my forefinger. But it's still a steal and worth it, because you only need a teeny bit each time.

I personally LOVE the velvet finish of the brown palette A LOT, because velvet finishes are so smooth and furry. But it collects dusts and prints and is difficult to clean, while the metal one of Naked2 does not. I think the metal box for Naked2 reminds me of my primary school pencil box, and is therefore a cheaper image than velvet box of Naked.

And I like the magnetic lock that will make the palette snap shut and protect the eyeshadows well.

In terms of sturdiness, I definitely think Naked wins hands down because Naked2 is made of cheap metal and has kinks and joints that will wear and tear faster. There are 101 plastics that are harder than that metal box of Naked2.

The eyeshadows are set nicely in a gradient from light to dark in the brown palette you see above, and comes with a mirror just big enough for the eye area. I do wish it could be bigger.

And it comes with a brush that I personally find not bad, but some people thinks it's so bad it should be thrown away. It's very decent, and can pack shadows well while fitting into the curves of my eyes.

It also comes with a wide mirror, that I wish would fill up the entire cover of the palette, as this is slightly short for me.

If I turn the palette the other way, it will cover the height of my face nicely though.

Colors

From left to right, Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Half Baked, Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep, and Gunmetal.

From here, I will go into details about each color, whether I like it or not, and what I use each for.

The first one is Virgin, a satin-finish, very pale champagne the appears with a sheen of white on the inner corners of my eyes, and brow bones. This one really lasts all day, and is a perfect highlighter to make the inner corners pop. On the brow bone, it is subtle in a way that from the front, you don't see it obviously, but when I turn my head, or tilt upwards or downwards, it catches the light so well, and makes my features stand out.

This is easily one of the best highlighters I own (and I buy a lot of highlight colors individually because I am quite obsessed with highlighting the eyes). And I really like the fact that this is one rare highlighter that contains no glitter at all. Glitter can make you look less natural though I use glitter for dinner-looks and dewy looks.

It is also a very versatile color for the fact that it appears beautiful as an all over the lid color, paired with a blending color (I used Naked) in the crease, and a dark color (I used Creep) to draw the outer-V and give your eyes the extra dimension, as in the look below.

29th May. Virgin all over the lids and on brow bones, Creep in the outer-Vs, and Naked in the crease. Notice how beautiful the sheen is on the brow bone.

The next color is Sin, a shimmer champagne with a white sheen finish. This has a LOT higher shine than virgin, but doesn't turns out as well as Virgin when I used it to highlight the inner corners of my eyes, perhaps due to my darker NC23-25 skin.

Strange enough, despite the higher shine, Sin does not appears as shiny when I tried to use it on the lids over the ball of my eyes. I find that it doesn't makes my eyes pop the way I want, and doesn't gives me that 3D effect.

Sin is actually pretty much the same color as the Primer Potion in Sin that I have. And I find that even as an eyeshadow, this color Sin is still best used under all the other shadows, as a base color. It will give your other eyeshadows an extra shine and lift, but it is simply not strong enough to be use as a color on top.

As such, I found little use for this color, as I tend to stick with the original UDPP, the color Naked, or UDPP in Sin, or other eyeshadows primers/bases that I own, when I want to do eyeshadow base color.

The next color Naked, is a matte brown with red tinge, and it is literally naked/invisible on my eyelids. But strangely, this turns up as exactly the brown you see in the photos when I bring it into my crease and up in the outer-V.

At first, I did not really like this color, as I thought it makes me look a bit muddy, but I still use it every single time for blending. This makes an excellent blending color just because it is truly close to naked. You could use it to sort of erase the sharp edges of the eyeshadow.

But as the days got longer, I experimented more, and I found that if I blend properly, this is a perfect color for just putting all over the eyelids! In fact, Naked combined with Virgin makes for the simplest look ever that anyone can pull off, as in my FOTD below.

28th May. Ultra simple SUPER FAVORITE look, with on Virgin to highlight my brow bones and inner corners of eyes, then Naked for the outer-V and pulled all the way into the crease. Used Maybelline Gel Liner to do the winged tip and draw in my brows, and Essence Multi-Action False Lashes Mascara. As usual, Maybelline Jelly Glow in Sweet Momo underneath, and Blush Horizon de Chanel on top. Ended with Maybelline Color Sensational in Revival Red on the lips.

In case you want to replicate this look, I actually got inspired by this video on Youtube to make the Dita Von Teese look. Check out this video by FAWNINC. They used theBalm Nude Tude palette which I have. But I thought it can be simply recreated using Naked Palette as well.

Now the next color is Sidecar, which surprisingly is a champagne that tends brown despite it looking like brown in the palette. This has an even stronger sheen than Sin, but the sheen is goldish instead of champagne sheen, and it has a light sparkle. That said, I do suppose if you need a champagne color to pop over the ball of your eyes, Sidecar is the choice, not Sin.

I seldom use this color unless I want a lighter color for the inner corners of my eyes. But I like to pick Sidecar over Sin whenever I think I need a champagne.

Next up is Buck, a matte chocolate brown that is great as a brow color when I want lighter and more natural brows. I don't really use this for eyeshadow, as it is too hard to blend into my skin. It is like, when I blend it out, it is all gone, but when I don't blend it, it looks awful on my eyelids.

In palette, Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, and Buck right at the end.

So once again, from left to right, Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, and Buck. My favorites here are Virgin and Naked.

Then comes Half Baked, a high shine bronze with tinge of gold. There is no specks of sparkle in this, unlike Sidecar. This is one of my favorite colors because it really, really makes my eyes pop when I use it in the middle of the lids, over my eyeballs, as below.

 24th May. On my face: Dr Jart BB Cream, SANA Loose Powder, Canmake Eyeshadow Base, (from Naked Palette) Half-Baked (center of lids), Smog (outer-V), Sidecar (inner-V), and Virgin (inner corner and brow bone highlight), Darkhorse to fill my brows, and Benefit they're Real Beyond Mascara.

You can see how Sidecar is being used in the inner corners from this FOTD too.

Side view. This was the day I took photos for the Benefit They're Real Mascara review.

And the next color is Smog, a brown with gold sheen. This is a really pretty color which I am quite fond of using in my outer-V, as you can see above.

Following that is Darkhorse, the darkest brown in the palette. This is an iridescent lightly sparkling deep brown, and is my absolute favorite to fill in my brows. I like this even more than all the brow pencils I have because this is dark enough to match my hair (my hair is blackest black), yet is brown and looks natural! The sparkles that are seen in the palette don't really show up in the swatch, and doesn't shows on my brows, which is good because I don't want sparkling brows.

Darkhorse is also the go-to color for outer-V because it is so deep.

After that, we have Toasted, and you will see the palette changing from brown to pinky maroons. Toasted is a dark champagne and looks like the sister of Sin. It has a gold and silver sheen while Sin is purely champagne.

A lot of people online like this color, but I personally find not much uses for this. It doesn't really stands out or makes much of a nice blending color. I prefer Sidecar over this when it comes to choosing a color for inner corners because Sidecar is more brown. But I think the online love comes from fairer cool skin girls, so perhaps I just don't really like this because it doesn't suits my warm skin.

Then comes Hustle, a brownish maroon, iridescent with a sheen. This is my least favorite color because it looks really dull on my skin. Cool browns just don't suit me.

In palette, Buck, Half Baked, Smog, Darkhorse, and Toasted right at the end.

Once again, from left to right, Half Baked, Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted and Hustle.

The second last color is Creep, a soft black that is more matte compared to the other colors that all carry quite a high sheen. It has a bit of sparkle.

I like to use this with a precision eyeshadow brush, to just dab one line of this into my outer-V and blend out. It is perfect to add more depth to the inner corner and strength the 3D effect on the eyes.

However, this simply refuses to pile on. So whatever black you're seeing in the swatch is really what you will get at maximum. This is not too good for eye lining. Darkhorse is a better bet.

I used this color in my first FOTD right at the top of this page. And I used it for every look that spots a dark outer-V. You will not see it clearly in the FOTDs because I've blended it all out. But Creep makes a difference to the look as compared to if you just stick with Darkhorse or Hustle or Gunmetal in the outer-V, without adding a bit of black.

Last but not least, is Gunmetal. I see this color as a blue with silver sheen and silver sparkle. It is one of my favorites too because I really like using this as the color closes to my upper lash line when I want to do a smoky eye. It really gives that nice blue feel.

In palette, Toasted, Hustle, Creep, and Gunmetal.

Again, Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep and Gunmetal.

I wanted to compare just the two matte browns for you. Naked is much lighter and better for blending.

Top: Buck. Bottom: Naked.

And then I thought of comparing Toasted to both Sin and Sidecar. As you can see below, Toasted is very similar to Sin and Sidecar, but Toasted is definitely a darker color, and Sidecar is definitely more brown, while Toasted and Sin are both champagne.

Left to right, Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, and Buck. The two squares on top are Toasted.

So I tried rubbing them to show smudge proof Urban Decay shadows are, and there is it!

They just don't budge, especially the darker colors. I have been wearing Naked Palette shadows for the last one month, and they always last me more than 6 hours (I normally get home and wash off after 6 hours), sometimes more than 8 hours.

Urban Decay shadows just don't budge when you rub.

I really like how the Urban Decay shadows always make my eyes look so velvety and perfect through the day. And here are some of the FOTDs I took in my month-long dedication to it.

I like how this palette offers 3 sets of colors, brown, maroon, and blue, as you see below.

28th April. Brown eyes. Favourite look. Darkhorse in the outer-V, Smog on the inner-V, Half Baked in the middle, Creep to deepen the outer-V, Naked to blend colors into the crease, and Virgin on the inner corners and brow bones.

29th April. Maroon eyes. Hustle on the outer-V, Toasted in the middle, Sidecar on the inner-V, Creep to deepen the outer-V and close to the lash line. Naked to blend, and Virgin on the brow bones and inner corners. Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss (pink coral) on my lips.

1st May. Blue eyes. Favourite look. Gunmetal closes to the lash line, a bit of Creep to line the lash line. Just blend out the edges by using Naked in the crease. Virgin on inner corners and brow bones.

3rd May. Brown eyes. Smoky. Darkhorse closest to lash line, followed by Smog, then Half Baked. Didn't quite work. Wouldn't try this again.

5th May Maroon eyes. Smoky. Hustle closes to lash line, Toasted above it. Blend out. Didn't quite work too.

7th May. Natural. Brown. Favourite. Virgin all over lids, inner corners and brow bones. Buck in outer-V and pull halfway into crease. Half Baked over center of lids where the eyeball is. Gel Liner follow lash line downwards, thicker at the center of lids to create round, innocent eyes. Benefit They're Real Mascara for natural looking eyelashes. Leftover Maybelline Gel Liner used to fill in brows. Maybelline Jelly Glow in Sweet Momo underneath and Le Metier de Beaute blush in Echo over it. Dior Addict Extreme lipstick in Holiday over my lips. Super love this looks. And yes, I do have a use for Buck!

Versatility
I feel that this palette is really very versatile as it claims, and truly able to take me from office, to smokey, and bronzy!

My favorite looks are the brown-based ones, and the smokey eye with the blue Gunmetal closest to the lash line. I am so in love with the looks on 7th May and 28th May.

This palette really lives up to what it claims on the back of the cover. 4.5/5
My only real gripe is that the colors don't pile up, as in I find it hard to layer one color over another.

While I gave 4.5/5 based on how well it lives up to what it promises on its cover, I beg to differ from countless Youtubers that this is a must-have. Buy only if you're prepared to use extremely natural office-friendly makeup. I admit that I felt a bit stifled after going through 30 days of just using this palette whenever I want to makeup, and so I broke my promise to myself for the day that I tried the Dior Summer palette and the Chanel Summer Eye Contraste Duo. But that really is it. I did stick to only using Naked Palette otherwise. I think if you're color-lover, you'd be better off spending the money on cheap and good Sleek Makeup palettes.

Talk about natural eyes, there are 1001 quads from every brand out there offering natural eyes. The only thing that Naked Palette is offering is a put-together of natural eye colors. And that's good if you're beginning your makeup journey and have zero natural eye quads, like absolutely zero, because Urban Decay offer amazing quality eyeshadows. If you have no natural eye quads in your collection at all, $79 for great range and great quality is definitely worth it.

This is a moneysaver if you're just out of university, and going for interviews right now, and pretty much know you're going to end up at least 1-3 years in office/banking etc, and you are dead sure you want to put on makeup every single day, because this will last ages. Check out Naked2 if you have cool skin. I think that will be more suitable.

Posted in: 4 hearts,eye,FOTD,reviews,Urban Decay