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.
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.
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 ♥
Until Next Time Stay Happy ♥
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