The Urban Decay Palette Machine has cranked out yet another huge and expensive palette for the masses, but this is no ordinary Naked Palette.
I purchased the first Naked Palette when it debuted in 2011. I was on a lengthy Sephora waiting list, back when they came with eyeliners instead of brushes (the pencils were the hold up in production, they have since been replaced with what I can only assume are easier to manufacture brushes). It finally came to me for the then-exorbitant price of $44. I like the palette, but I realized over time that I only really used 4 colors out of the 12: Sin, Naked, Hustle, and Toasted. I found myself wishing that it had more matte shades and not so much fall-out on the glitter.
Fast forward to yesterday when I was standing in line in Ulta at 11 am, clutching my new Naked Smoky palette the morning it hit stores, and realizing that two women behind me also had one each. Urban Decay has created a monster! I'm sure it was gone by noon. And the price has increased by $10 to $54.
Over the past few years, I have looked at the various iterations of Naked, the Naked2 (too similar to the first one), the Naked3 (way too trendy & pink), the Naked Basics (both of them), Naked On-the-Run, and none of them really held my attention for long. Until I got the email last week for the Naked Smoky Palette. The four years since my first Naked purchase have taught me a lot of things, the most important (well, as far as makeup is concerned) being that a palette must have:
- a light shimmer for highlight
- a light matte for more highlight/blending
- a medium matte shade for transitional color
- good neutral-toned taupes and greys
- a black
- a brown
- minimal glitter
Ok, I think that the name is dumb. The entire concept of Naked was that it would be natural and fairly neutral, so Naked Smoky? Dumb. A long time ago I bought the Urban Decay Smoked Palette, but this one is completely different from that too.
So, to the pictures!
The Shimmers:
The Satins:
The Mattes:
Comps:
The Lorac Pro 2 palette and the Too Faced Boudoir Eyes Palette have a lot of similar shades.
There aren't any true dupes in any of these.
Lorac Pro 2 Similarities:
- Password is similar to Cool Gray in the Lorac Pro 2 palette, but not as purple.
- High is the same color as Beige (LP2), but the texture is different- High has more sparkle
- Radar and Mocha (LP2) are almost dupes, but Mocha is slightly more red-toned.
- Radar and Rosè are similar, but Rosè is more peachy while Radar is brown.
- Slanted has more black to it than Silver in the LP2 palette.
- Smolder is similar to Voulez-Vous in the Boudoir Eyes palette, but Smolder has more black.
- Combust is more pink than Fuzzy Handcuffs in the Boudoir Eyes pallete.
- High is slightly lighter toned than Sugar Walls.
There are some similar shades in the Balm Nute'tude palette too:
- High and Stand-offish are VERY close. Stand-offish might be slightly more gold and High is a touch more pink, but they're definitely interchangeable.
- Armor and Selfish are the same color, but Armor has a little more sparkle.
- Black Market and Serious look the same on the skin.
The packaging for the Naked Smoky palette is the best I've seen so far in the Naked Palettes. It is a solid plastic case with the name in raised silver letters. The palette has a marbled (smoky!) look and the back is translucent. It has a nice big mirror on the inside lid and closes with magnets.
I always forget to talk about brushes because they seem like an afterthought, but the brush in this palette isn't bad. It is double ended with a pencil brush on one side and a fluffier blending brush on the other. The pencil brush was fine and did the job. The blending brush was slightly floppier than I like and a little scratchy on my lid, but that might improve with washing. I used my trusty Real Techniques Deluxe Crease Brush.
The Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette is available at Sephora, Ulta and Urban Decay's website.
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