Sunday 27 September 2015

My Review of the Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette

Hi everyone, so, it's here, it's new and I've finally got my hands on it. . . It's the brand new Urban Decay Naked Smoky palette!!!


As you probably know by now, Urban Decay bought out their latest 'Naked' palette a few weeks ago, and by now the world and her dog have tried it, loved it and have already reviewed it but, now it's my turn!

I bought the Naked Smoky palette, a couple days after it was released here in the UK from my local Debenhams store.  I was so excited to get it, I went in to the shop like a girl on a mission, straight to the UD counter and asked for the palette, cash in hand and stood there waiting for the lady to come back almost bouncy with excitement (I didn't though because that would have looked a little bit weird!)  I felt like a child at Christmas :-)  I took the first opportunity I could to open the box and have a peak (and of course take any Instagram pics).  But one thing I didn't want to do, was rush in to reviewing it too soon, without having the chance to really look at it, swatch it and use it, so I could really tell you what I honestly thought about it.  So here we go . . .


First off let's just take a minute to seriously admire this gorgeous packaging!  The solid plastic case has this beautiful smokey effect which is actually done with real smoke blown into the material!  A big difference to the old velvet covered cardboard from the first Naked palette!  It really is beautiful, very sleek and sophisticated.  It also corresponds beautifully with the marble craze that's currently SO 'on-trend'.  The box itself stays closed really well with the magnetic closure too, so no accidents in your bag!


The main outer box is just as nice, again with the smokey style design and the lovely metallic embossed title.


On the back of the box, are listed all the shades and shade names.  I just love the names UD pick out for their palettes, Armor is great and I love name Password to, they're just so different and quirky.


Sadly there are no 'added extras' as with the previous Naked palettes but UD have included a 'look book' of 4 different smokey-eye ideas/tutorials.  Which I thought was a really great idea, they're really easy to follow and name each individual shade to use for the look.  Very nice touch!


The palette also comes with a great double-ended brush, which I have to say is a definite improvement on the original one from the first Naked palette.  I feel this is one that I would actually use and you could create some great looks with.


One end is a really soft fluffy blending brush which is also great for applying the shadows as well as blending them.  The other end is a really handy domed pencil brush, which is perfect for lining and smoking out the shades.
They also include a nice large full size mirror in the lid of the palette, which is always very handy!


The palette comes with the standard 12 eyeshadows, 9 all new shades and 3 exclusives from previous palettes.  The shades range from a soft creamy white, through to a deep nearly-black.  There are 4 shimmery/metallic shades - High, Dirtysweet, Radar and Armor.  4 satin/pearlized shades - Slanted, Dagger, Black Market and Smolder.  And finally 4 matte shades Password, Whiskey, Combust and Thirteen.

Click to see these lovely shades a bit bigger!

The first thing I noticed while swatching these and then while trying them out, was that the shimmery shades do have quite a bit of fall out, so you might want to consider using some kind of shadow shield while applying them.  But the sparkle in them and the over-all shine is really beautiful :-)  I noticed Thirteen was very faint but I think it would work well for a brow bone highlight.  I was a little disappointed with Smolder as going by the shade in the palette, it looks a really gorgeous rich deep purple shade, but swatched, it looks more greyish which was a shame, but it's still a really nice shade to use, especially for a deeper shade all over the lid, very dark and intense, beautiful!
My favourite shade out of all, has to be Armor, it's a beautiful shimmery bronze which I just know I will use a lot.  
But I also really love High, Slanted and Whiskey, Black Market is also great for lining.


Going by my swatches, a lot of the shades look a little on the pale side, but in real life they did actually show up a little darker.  Also I think all of these shades would benefit from being applied over a good primer, to really make them stand out!


Out of all the palettes, I feel this one is the most versatile because it really has everything you could need, and is a great all-rounder!  There are SO many looks you can create with these gorgeous shades just by switching around the different shades and using them in various combinations.  I absolutely adore the smokey eye look and I love that with this palette you can create it with ease, for day time with the lighter shades or really go all out for a full-on sexy night time look.  This palette has it all.

I'm a novice when it comes to doing a good smokey eye (hence the lack of pictures of my own made up looks), but I'm really looking forward to practicing it a lot more using this palette.  Although the Urban Decay palettes are a little on the pricey side, I do honestly think they're worth saving up for and I would recommend this Smoky palette completely.  The quality of the eyeshadows are second to none, smooth, buttery, beautifully blendable and a real joy to work with!  What more could you ask for :-)

I hope you liked this post.  Let me know in the comments if you've tried this palette yet and what you thought about it, which are your favourite shades?
Until Next Time Stay Happy

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