Naked Basics I Worth The Hype?

Nowadays, it's not often I make a high end makeup purchase so when I do, thorough research is done, reviews are read and swatches are had. With this in mind, I knew I wanted to buy one of the Naked palettes from Urban Decay but deciding which one to go for was a tough decision, Naked 1 over the second and third palettes or maybe be radical, downsize, go for one of the basic palettes but do I want more shimmer or more matte, who knows! As you can see, this decision took a very long time for me and my incapability to quickly make a decision, but in the end , I finally went for the first of Urban Decay's two Naked Basics palettes and here's what I thought..

The Naked Basics palette includes a line-up of six neutral eye shadow fixes with most of the colours being matte and only the Venus shade having a little bit of shimmer. All these nudes come housed in a really sturdy feeling ruberrised palette which comes with a well-sized mirror that I use if I ever want to do my makeup on the go.

All six of the shades are really well pigmented especially the matte black called Crave which makes it perfect for use as an eyeliner which is slightly softer than pencil but still defines your eyes. The colour choices for the other shades are also well chosen with the palette including colours that could allow you to create a more subtle look (you could maybe pop a bit of foxy all over the lid and then do a bit of crease-blending with a fluffy brush and a touch of the light brown shade, Naked 2) or you could up the stakes a bit and go for a more evening appropriate look (a deeper crease shade like faint could be used backed up with some lining under your eyes with the help of crave.) The options are pretty big for which shadows you can combine which does mean that I get a lot of use out of the palette.

Although when I think about the colours and pigmentation in this little palette, all is good and I feel like logging on to feel unique and ordering the original Naked palette, the lasting power of these shadows is not so fab. These shadows do stick around looking pretty for two or three hours but after that, they are not much better than any other palette o' colours. Yes, you could pop on a bit of eye shadow primer but when you're paying the double digits for an eye shadow palette, you expect the kind of eye shadow that isn't going anywhere!

I do really like the Naked Basics palette and I do use it a lot, the pigmentation is strong and the colours are well put together but then again, the lasting power just isn't 10 out of 10. But for me, I'd still say it's worth a little splurge - treat yourself!

ps. I hear the original Naked palettes last really well so stopping myself from entering in my card details for a sneaky purchase of one of them is getting harder and harder by the day..

Beauty and the Budget