After the roaring success of the original Urban Decay Naked palette, it’s no surprise that UD have leveraged its popularity by releasing several editions of the Naked palettes since. I wanted to finally pick up one of these, just to see what all of the hype was about…
Description
This palette caught my eye purely due to the exotic, rich yet natural hues. A blend of browns, ambers and oranges particularly complimentary to olive and darker skin complexions. There are four iridescent shades and the rest are matte. A versatile range of colours that can be built up from a day look to an evening look pretty easily, as you work your way to the right. In total, the palette consists of twelve colours in modest sized pans, a doubled sided application brush and a mirror. The packaging securely holds the eyeshadow and the tools in place in a compact, convenient format. The product retails at £43.
The colours without flash (no primer)… 
The colours with flash (no primer)…
- Ember (deep metallic copper-burgundy)
- Ashes (deep reddish-brown matte)
- En Fuego (burgundy matte)
- Cayenne (deep terra-cotta matte)
- Scorched (metallic deep red with gold micro-shimmer)
- Dirty Talk (metallic burnt red)
- He Devil (burnt red matte)
- Lumbre (copper shimmer with gold pearl shift)
- Low Blow (brown matte)
- Sauced (soft terra-cotta matte)
- Chaser (light nude matte)
- Ounce (ivory shimmer)
Ingedients
Talc, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Zinc Stearate, PTFE, Polyethylene Terephthalate, Calcium Aluminum Borosilicate, Ethylene/Acrylic Acid Copolymer, Calcium Sodium Borosilicate, Sodium Dehydroacetate, Phenoxyethanol, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Silica, Sorbic Acid, Alumina, Polyurethane-33, Tin Oxide, Polybutylene Terephthalate, Polylactic Acid, Polymethyl Methacrylate, Acrylates Copolymer, Stearic Acid, Calcium Stearate, Magnesium Stearate. [+/- (All Shades May Contain /Toutes les couleurs peuvent contenir): Mica, CI 77891 / Titanium Dioxide, CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499 / Iron Oxides, CI 77742 / Manganese Violet, CI 77007 / Ultramarines, CI 77163 / Bismuth Oxychloride, CI 77400 / Bronze Powder, CI 75470 / Carmine, CI 77000 / Aluminum Powder, CI 42090 / Blue 1 Lake, CI 77400 / Copper Powder, CI 77510 / Ferric Ferrocyanide, CI 77288 / Chromium Oxide Greens, CI 77510 / Ferric Ammonium Ferrocyanide, CI 19140 / Yellow 5 Lake, CI 77289 / Chromium Hydroxide Green, CI 19140 / Yellow 5].
Verdict
In general, the good thing about all Urban Decay Naked palettes is that they all have a great colour range giving you flexibility to keep it simple or go full on. This palette includes a four matte base shades, providing adaptability for varying skin tones (I personally match ‘Sauced’). Having said this, I have found with this palette, that the pigmentation of these colours is relatively poor. The finish of the matte shades specifically, is chalky and the application is dry with no glide. In all fairness, I have not used a primer so this may have contributed to this issue. It is apparent in the photos posted above that the colours are faint and transparent, lacking vividity. The formulation also contain Mica, an iridescent ingredient that is highly controversial as a result of its unethical sourcing.
I personally am put off these palettes and would not repurchase. Whilst the advertising and appearance is no-doubt luring, the quality of these eyeshadows does not reflect the hype.
