Urban Decay Naked 2 Eyeshadow Palette

Good Day Everyone,

I’m following up my review of the Urban Decay Naked palette with my thoughts on the Naked 2 palette. I’ll also make comparisons along the way between the two palettes. If you’re not into makeup or rather eyeshadows, the way I am then you may be wondering why on Earth I bought two palettes from the same brand, that according to my mum look very similar, but to me the colours in Naked 2 were different enough from the original Naked palette to warrant it’s place in my collection. In addition, I think these palettes offer great value for money and makeup tends to be one of those things that last a very long time, with the exception of products such as mascara, which should be replaced every few months for hygiene reasons.

Value For Money

As I explained in my original Naked palette post I bought both of my palettes from Debenhams (in the UK) at Easter when they were having a 10% sale and my palettes cost me £32.40 each (reduced from £36 each). That’s about $66 SGD but I know at Sephora in Singapore the palettes retail for $80 SGD each (although I think the price may now have gone up to $83 SGD) so I made a bit of saving by buying them from back home. In the US the palettes retail for $52 USD.

Again if you've not seen my original Naked post I’ll explain why I think these palettes are such great value. Using the US for the purpose of comparison, a single Urban Decay eyeshadow with a fill weight of 1.5gr costs around $18 USD. With the palettes you get 12 eyeshadows with a fill weight of 1.3gr (so a smidge less per shadow) all for just $52 USD. That’s less than the cost of three individual eyeshadows! Plus you get a couple of little freebies thrown in too. I think that’s superb value for money, don’t you? :o)

The Freebies:

With my original Naked palette I got a sample size of the famous eyeshadow Primer Potion and a single ended Good Karma shadow brush.  With the Naked 2 palette I received a sample size of the Lip Junkie Lipgloss in the colour... Naked of course! The gloss has quite a minty and cooling sensation on the lips but not in a bad way and the colour would suit all skin tones.

The palette also came with a double ended Good Karma shadow and crease brush. Given that the shadow and crease brushes retail for $26 USD each, that’s your $52 USD right there so, in a way, it’s like getting the eyeshadow palette and lipgloss for free :o) Well that’s how I justified to my hubby ;o) The brush is actually very useful and if I’m travelling with either palette then I’ll pop the double ended brush in that palette and that one brush is enough for me to do an eye look.

In an ideal world, my freebie preference would have been for the eyeshadow Primer Potion from the first palette and the double ended Good Karma brush from the second as that would provide a more ‘complete’ package for the eyes. The addition of the lipgloss just felt a bit ‘random’ or perhaps it was some marketers idea of introducing customers to a different product... who knows?!

The Packaging:

I was pleased to see that Urban Decay had taken on board feedback from customers and improved the packaging for this second palette. The eyeshadows come in a taupey coloured metal tin case with darker embossed writing, reminiscent of an old school tin pencil case. The hinged lid snaps shut and the packaging feels a lot more secure and travel friendly compared to the original Naked palette which had a magnetic closure. On the inside of the palette improvements have also been made in that the mirror is much larger compared to the first palette.

The 12 shadows are neatly lined up but I must admit the order in which the colours are lined up does bug me a little. In the original palette the colour sequence seemed to move in a logical manner from light colours on the left to darker shaded on the right. In this palette, they colours seem a bit higgledy-piggledy and confused. There is no natural progression from light to dark or from matte to shimmery to sparkly. Do you get what I mean? Or perhaps it’s just the way my mind works ;o)

I definitely prefer the packaging of this second palette simply because it feels more secure when shut and therefore travel friendly, plus the mirror is much larger. In addition, the outside of the palette is much easier to clean with a simple wipe down and doesn't attract dust like the original.

The Eyeshadows:

Again the palette contains 12 neutral shades, like the original and I've inserted a photo of the swatches from the original Naked palette so you can see just how different / similar they are. Overall, the original palette leaned more towards the warm golden, orangey, brown, dark tones, whereas this palette has more lighter colours with a bit more icy-ness to it with the grey, oysters and whites, as well as some warm shades. Both palettes contain shades with purple / pink undertones and for some reason the shade Half Baked is included in both palettes - I guess it's just as well that it's one of my most used colours.

Original Naked Palette

Naked 2 Palette

On the one hand I can understand why some people would think that the two palettes are very similar, or rather, not different enough, to warrant the purchase of both but on the other hand, for me, the colours are different enough and I'm very happy to have both in my collection :o)

This time there are three matte shades (Foxy, Tease and Blackout versus two in the original). Whilst I didn't particularly miss having a matte black in the original palette I do appreciate it's inclusion as it means I can use it in place of my usual pencil eyeliner and so it's one less product to take with me when I travel. Foxy makes a great brow bone highlighter and I've actually used it to set my under eye concealer as the colour is more or less translucent on my skin. 

The shadows are very true to colour, as you can see from the photo above where I've matched up my swatch photo with the pan colours. Again just like the original palette, the texture of the shadows is very buttery and smooth. Whilst they’re not powdery and crumbly as such I have experienced a little fall out with Chopper and YDK. All of the other colours apply beautifully with no real fallout issues and the pigmentation is great. There is a mixture of textures / finishes within the palette ranging from matte to shimmery to sparkly / glittery. 

Below I've cited the way each of the colours have been described on the Sephora website followed by my own opinions based on my experience:

Foxy: described as a cream bisque with a matte finish. On me this is pretty much like a translucent powder. It has a very slight pale lemon undertone to it.

Half Baked: described as a golden bronze with a shimmery finish and I agree.

Bootycall: described as a shimmering cork but to me this is not what I would expect the colour cork to look like. I’d say this is a white satin with a very pale peach undertone.

Chopper: described as a copper shimmer with silver microglitter and I’d say it has quite a strong orangey peach undertone to it.

Tease: described as a creamy pale brown with a matte finish. This definitely has a mauvey (purple) undertone to it.

Snakebite: described as a dark bronze shimmer with a metallic base. I’d say it’s a dark bronze with a brown undertone to it.

Suspect: described as a pale golden beige with a shimmer finish and I agree.

Pistol: described as a light gray brown with a shimmer finish. I don’t see the brown in this shade and to me it’s just a light-medium grey with silver shimmer.

Verve: described as oyster with a shimmer finish and I agree. It has a very cool, almost icy-ness about it as it leans more to the white side rather than cream.

YDK: described as a cool bronze shimmer with a metallic base and I agree.

Busted: described as a deep brown with a shimmer finish. To me this brown definitely has a dark purple undertone and leans ever so slightly on the grey-brown side rather than the orange-brown side.

Blackout: described as blackest black with a matte finish and I would agree. It reminds me of a soot black – very pigmented and intense.

So there you have it, another gorgeous selection of neutral colours that I am very happy to own. You definitely don't need both of these palettes unless eyeshadows are your makeup thing in which case your 'want' will probably override your 'need', as it did with me. So really it comes down to which colours you think you are more likely to use. Having had both palettes for several month, I would say that I use the original palette slightly more than Naked 2, simply because if I'm ever in a rush then the middle four colours (Buck, Half Baked, Smog and Darkhorse) have become an easy go to look for me. Otherwise I tend to mix colours from both palettes to create a complete look. 

Do you have this palette? Is it one of your favourites? If you could only pick one, which would it be? The original or Naked 2?

Love Sheen xxx

My verdict: 5/5

For the UK: UD Website and you can purchase this palette from Debenhams and House of Fraser stores

For the US: UD Website

For Singapore you can find this product at Sephora

(Note: I purchased this product with my own money)