Urban Decay Naked Palette-A Dozen Gorgeous Neutrals

Urban Decay recently began shipping the Naked Palette ($44), an amazingly soft and pigmented collection of twelve neutral colors.  Packaged with a mini-eyeshadow primer and a double-ended pencil liner, Primer Potion, this mix of two mattes and ten shimmers delivers an incredible value for the price.

These shades include:

• Virgin:  A shimmery creamy warm white
• Sin: A highly shimmery cream with a touch of peach
• Naked: A matte light latte cream
• Sidecar: A highly shimmery cream-gold, with glitter bits
• Buck: A matte medium brown
• Half-baked: A shimmery warm gold with a very smooth texture
• Smog: A shimmery deep gold-brown
• Darkhorse: A shimmery dark bronze-brown
• Toasted: A metallic soft brown with a touch of grey and a faint hint of pink
• Hustle: A shimmery deep brown with a faint touch of burgundy
• Creep: An extremely pigmented shimmer black with glitter
• Gunmetal: A metallic shimmery dark gray

Those who dislike shimmery eyeshadows should steer clear, almost all of these shades have a metallic glow. Some of these shades will deposit glitter on the lids, and yes it is noticeable as the day goes on.  Also, these shades have a more metallic shine than lines such as Guerlain, Bobbi Brown’s Shimmerwash and Chanel shimmer shadows.

However, if you don’t mind adding a splash of drama to your neutral eye repertoire, you will love this palette.  The eyeshadows are buttery soft; the pigmentation is excellent.  I cannot imagine how many combinations you could make will all of these shades.  Urban Decay knocked it out of the park with the quality of this palette.  This many high quality eyeshadows for this price makes this palette a must-have for most neutral eyeshadow lovers.

Because it includes a usable mirror, primer, liner and so much versatility, this would make a wonderful gift for someone headed off to college, or someone who wants to wear neutrals to school.

Here are the liners included: Whiskey (brown) and Zero (black):

Swatches:

All in a row:

One caution about Urban Decay’s Naked Palette–the packaging is cardboard covered in a velvety flocking.  This is not a travel-friendly sturdy palette (Armani has nothing to worry about here), and the velvety flocking is likely to retain powder from other makeup.  Nonetheless, if you have ever thought “I wish cosmetic companies would put more effort into the product, rather than the packaging,” your wish has been granted.  Urban Decay’s Naked palette delivers beautiful quality eyeshadows, liners, and primer for a very affordable price.