Urban Decay Naked & Naked 2 Review

Hi everyone. I am going to be a laggard in blogland and review the Urban Decay Naked and Naked 2 palettes, which I am sure most of you would have heard/seen/own. I have recently acquired the Naked 2 palette, so I have decided to do review it alongside with my ever-so-loved Naked palette.

ORIGINAL NAKED PALETTE

The original Naked palette. The packaging: cardboard covered with felt/velvet (not too sure what it is but it's along those lines) with magnetic closure.

Comes with 12 eyeshadows: (from left) Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Half Baked, Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep and Gunmetal. It also comes with a mini Urban Decay primer potion and mine also came with a dual-ended Urban Decay 24/7 glide on liner pencil (one side is whiskey and one side is zero).

Mine is an older version I got on ebay a while back, the newer Naked palette no longer comes with a dual ended pencil but instead it comes with a dual ended brush (*correction: the ones now come with a single-ended eyeshadow brush). 

From left: Virgin (shimmery white, but not stark white, maybe more like eggshell white), Sin (pinkish champagne beige), Naked (matte medium brown), Sidecar (shimmery brown with silver sheen), Buck (matte chocolate brown) and Half Baked (yellow tone gold).

From left: Smog (coppery brown with copper sheen), Darkhorse (shimmery taupe), Toasted (rose gold-tinge copper), Hustle (charcoal brown with pink and purple sparkle), Creep (dark grey, almost black with multi colour shimmer) and Gunmetal (gunmetal grey with metallic light blue sheen).

As you can see in the pictures this palette has been well loved by me. I have yellow undertone skin and the warm browns in this palette looks nice against my skin tone. This palette has an excellent mix from light to dark, matte to shimmer that can really create a myriad of neutral looks (from extremely natural to heavy makeup looks). Urban Decay shadows are not the smoothest or silkiest eyeshadows in the market, but it is definitely in the higher side of the quadrant. The shadows can be prone to fallout but it's not too bad as long as you tap off the excess. The shadows are pigmented and wears well, lasts for over 8 hours on my lids but starts fading gradually from hour 6 or so.

One thing I don't like about the palette is the packaging. I don't mind the magnetic closure despite some people saying that it can flip open when you put it in your luggage (I have traveled several times with this palette and I have never had that happen to me). I just think that the finish of the packaging makes it attract dust and dirt like crazy, and there's no way you can clean it properly. 

My favourite colours: Sin as a browbone and inner corner highlight as well as all over lid colour to brighten the lids; Naked as an all over lid colour to create some depth and dimension, especially when I am doing the no-makeup makeup look; Buck to fill in my brows, define the lash line or to set eyeliners; Smog to apply in the lower half of my lids and outer corners.

There's 3 colours in this palette that I personally don't quite like. One, Sidecar because it's messy and has lots of fallout. Two is Half Baked, which I don't think looks nice against my skin tone because of the strong yellow tone in it. And lastly, Creep because the base colour is patchy and both the shadow and shimmers are prone to fallout.

NAKED 2 PALETTE

Tadahhhh~~ This is what the packaging looks like for those who hasn't seen it before. It reminds me so much of the metal pencil cases I own as a little kid.

Let's have a look at the lip junkie and brush first before moving on to the actual eyeshadows.

Instead of a mini size Urban Decay eyeshadow primer potion, this palette comes with a mini lip junkie in the colour Naked.

The Naked Lip Junkie is a peachy pink colour with lots of shimmer. The gloss is not very opaque but it does tinge my lips a little, shimmers are not overly apparent unless you look very closely. This gloss is supposed to be cooling and lip plumping, but I really don't notice much of that on my lips. The texture is not too thick and sticky, so the gloss is quite comfortable to wear. The smell is of mint candy, which I think is so delicious. This Lip Junkie wears like a typical gloss for me, which is around 2 hours plus and I will definitely need to reapply after I eat/drink/talk too much.

The palette also comes with a dual ended synthetic brush (one end is a fluffy blending brush and the other is a typical eyeshadow brush that is good for laying down colours).

I don't really care for this brush and I don't use it at all. The bristle are alright, on the stiffer side but not to the point that it's scratchy. I personally just don't really like the way this brush feels on the lids but it is a convenient brush to have if you don't already have lots of brushes. 

Comes with 12 eyeshadows. From left: Foxy, Half Baked, Bootycall, Chopper, Tease, Snakebite, Suspect, Pistol, Verve, YDK, Busted and Blackout.

From left: Foxy (matte creamy beige), Half Baked (same as the one in Naked yellow tone gold), Bootycall (shimmery off white, similar to Virgin), Chopper (rose gold), Tease (matte mauve tinge taupe), Snakebite (brown with copper sheen).

From left: Suspect (medium taupe with sheen), Pistol (grey with silver sheen), Verve (metallic dirty white, you know what I mean? like when you are mixing paints and you accidentally get a little black into the white colour?), YDK (metallic coppery brown with copper sheen and shimmers), Busted (Dark brown) and Blackout (matte black).

I haven't had the Naked 2 palette for very long at all so I haven't used it a whole lot and I still have mixed feelings for it. The Naked 2 shadows are of Urban Decay's updated shadow formula (as in the Urban Decay 15th anniversary palette, Book of shadows 4, I think, and in the recently relaunched single shadows). The texture is definitely slightly smoother and creamier but I don't think the difference is all that life changing for me. There is also again, a good mix of light-dark, matte-shimmer shadows which makes this palette very versatile. I haven't tried out all the shades on the lids but the ones that I have tried wears quite well, I had my makeup on for 7 hours or so and it still looked quite good. I also much prefer Naked 2's packaging, the metal case is much sturdier, the mirror is much bigger and it doesn't get dirty as easily (even if it did get dirty I can just wipe it clean!!!).

I think the shadows in the Naked 2 are more cool toned, so I don't necessarily like some of the shades against my skin tone. 

My favourite shades: Foxy as a highlight colour when I want to add some brightness without it being too in your face, Snakebite to be applied in the outer corner for definition and Busted to define the lash line or to create a smokey liner look.

Colours I don't really like and haven't used: YDK has lots of fallout; Verve, which faded and spread in the time it took for me to swatch and take photos of the shadows (less than 30 minutes). And Half Baked, which I still don't think looks good on my skin but lots of people like it.

COMPARISON

 As you can see, the Naked 2's packaging is just much sturdier and cleaner looking. Size of the palettes are similar.

I really like the light to dark progression of the colours in the Naked palette but for some reason Urban Decay didn't do it the same way in the Naked 2.

Colour comparisons. Top from left Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Half Baked, Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep and Gunmetal. 

Bottom from left Foxy, Half Baked, Bootycall, Chopper, Tease, Snakebite, Suspect, Pistol, Verve, YDK, Busted and Blackout.

Half Baked in Naked and Naked 2 are identical, as they are the same shade.

Virgin and Bootycall looks similar on the lids, but Bootycall is warmer.

Snakebite reminds me of Smog, but more brown.

Suspect looks similar to Sidecar, but with a more apparent sheen. The colour reminds me of the colour Naked but of course suspect has a sheen.

Bottom line is, these are both very good palettes. They are both versatile and contains a good mix of tones and textures. Albeit being of different formulas, the shadows are mostly pigmented, the texture are nice and wears well on the lids. Whichever you will prefer will largely depends on your preference towards the nuances of neutral tones that you prefer to wear. 

I think the average non-makeup-junkie people definitely will not need both of these and if I have to choose one, it will be the original Naked palette.

 My everyday neutral makeup using the Naked 2 palette. I used Foxy all over the lid as a colour wash, then I applied Bootycall in the front half of my eyes and on the lower lash line. I also applied Tease on the lower half of my lids to define my eyes and Snakebite on the outer corners.

This is it from me this time. Please follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/lizchewy and/or weibo http://www.weibo.com/lizchewy

Until next time xoxo