Urban Decay Naked 3 Eyeshadow Palette

Good Day Everyone,

I've been playing around with the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette for a few weeks now and feel ready to share my thoughts. When this palette first came out, I was in two minds as to whether I wanted it or not because I already have the original Naked and Naked 2. However, when I saw a friend's palette in person I totally fell in love. I for one love pink and blush tones for eyeshadow. I feel they compliment my dark brown eyes and warm complexion really well. Plus the colours in this palette are very different to the original Naked and Naked 2 palettes. I've been on a makeup purchasing ban since the new year and still have just under three months to go but luckily as I had my birthday in January my hubby kindly indulged me :o)

Value For Money:
If you've read my previous posts on the Naked and Naked 2 palettes then you will already know that I think this palette is great value for money. In the US, this palette retails for $52 USD, just like it's predecessors, but in Singapore the price has gone up slightly from $80 SGD to $83 SGD. Likewise in the UK the price has gone up from £36 to £37. However, despite the slight price increase you are still getting a great deal as this palette costs less than the price of three individual Urban Decay eyeshadows, plus you get some freebies thrown in for good measure :o).


The Freebies:
Like the Naked 2 palette, this one also comes with a double ended eyeshadow brush with a blending brush on one side and a regular shadow brush on the other. These eyeshadow brushes retail in the US for $26 USD each so that's the cost of the palette covered right there ;o). Keeping in line with the theme of this palette, the brush handle is a rose gold colour with gold writing on it.

The blending brush from different angles

The regular shadow brush from different angles

The brush isn't bad at all and I do use it although my preference would have been to have the crease brush that was in the Naked 2 palette rather than this blending brush. I find the crease brush to be better at blending and this blending brush better for applying colour onto my crease... go figure!

In addition to the brush, this palette also comes with samples of all four of the Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potions; Original, Eden, Sin and Anti-Aging. Each sample is said to contain about a week's worth of primer and is supposed to be resealable, although I don't have my hopes up for this. The primers are foil wrapped so once it's opened I'm not sure how you would reseal it and prevent it from drying out - I guess I'll have to try one to find out.

The Packaging:
The packaging is very similar to the Naked 2 palette in that the shadows come in a metal tin case, reminiscent of an old school tin pencil case. The colour of this one is rose gold, of course, and the top of the tin isn't completely smooth like Naked 2, but has a ripple effect along with gold embossed writing. The hinged lid snaps shut and the packaging feels secure and travel friendly. 

On the inside of the palette there is a large mirror in the lid, just like it's predecessor, and the 12 rose hued shadows going from light to dark, along with space for the brush.

The Eyeshadows:
This palette contains 12 new shades from Urban Decay and whilst the theme of the palette is rose gold (i.e.pink) the colours are incredibly wearable, in my opinion. The colours are not garish colours that you imagine when you think of pink eyeshadows. I wouldn't even say that all of the colours are pink, some just have a subtle pink undertone to them, rather than actually being pink. There are a range of finishes from completely matte to pearly satin and down right glittery :o). Overall, I feel the colours in this palette are mainly warm toned with a few cool shades. As you can see from the swatches below less than half the shades are what I would actually call pink. Most of them are very wearable neutral colours and hence this palette being referred to as a naked palette.

As you can see from the photos above the shadows are pretty true to colour and most translate well from the pan onto my skin. The texture and quality of the shadows is what I would expect from Urban Decay. They are very smooth and buttery but you do have to be careful with Buzz and Trick as there is quite a bit of fallout from them, and a little from Dust. From the photo above it looks like there are three matte shades, Strange, Limit and Nooner but I have to say that Strange isn't completely matte, it does have a sheen to it that the other two matte shades don't.

Below I've cited the way each of the colours have been described on the Urban Decay website followed by my own opinions, if different, based on my experience:

Strange: described as a pale neutral pink matte-satin. This is an extremely pale pink. Even though this shade looks matte in the photo above, it does have a sheen to it when it catches the light. This is the brow bone and inner corner highlighting shade. On me, it works particularly well on my brow bone but it doesn't translate as well on my inner corners as my skin is darker there and so the colour loses it's brightness. I don't mind this as I prefer something a little more shimmery on my inner corners.
Dust: described as a pale metallic pink shimmer with iridescent micro-glitter. The actual colour within this shade isn't very pigmented and using MAC's Fix+ definitely helps to enhance the colour. This does have some fallout so apply with caution. This shadow is all about the sparkle and I don't mind that at all :o) This shade is great on the centre of the lids for a sparkly pop.
Burnout: described as a light pinky peach satin. This translates more on the pinky side on my eyelids and is a great all over the lid colour.
Limit: described as a light dusty rose matte. This is a great crease and blending out colour.

Buzz: described as a metallic rose shimmer with silver micro-glitter. This is definitely the most pink shade in the palette and looks gorgeous on the centre of the lid. This and the shade Trick have the most fallout but the pigmentation is better than Dust.
Trick: described as a light metallic pinky copper shimmer with tonal micro-sparkle. Gosh that sounds complicated! Basically this is a coppery rose gold shimmer. When I think of the colour rose gold this is what I imagine. The colour in this shade is a bit more pigmented than Dust but not as much as Buzz so I recommend keeping the MAC Fix+ to hand.
Nooner: described as a medium pink brown matte. This is a great crease / blending out colour. On my eyes this has more pink in it than the above photo is showing. It's like a deeper and darker version of Limit.
Liar: described as a medium metallic mauve shimmer. I would say this has subtle brown undertone to it.

Factory: described as a pinky brown satin. The warm brown in this shade is definitely more dominant than the pink.
Mugshot: described as a metallic taupe shimmer with a slight pink twist. This shade definitely has some dusky pink plummy-ness to it and is one of my favourites.
Darkside: described as a deep taupe mauve satin. This has a grey plum undertone to it that is deeper than the one in Mugshot. This shade definitely looks more grey in the pan than it is and for some reason the swatch on my skin looks a lot paler than it does in real life.
Blackheart: described as a smokey black matte with rosy red micro-sparkle. This is the shade that I am most disappointed with whilst loving the most! It is a chocolatey black with red sparkle that looks stunning in the pan but it doesn't translate well onto my lids. It is very easy to over blend the black so that it loses most of it's intensity and the red sparkles just seem to disappear with the tiniest bit of blending. I tend to use this wet on an angle brush as a liner in an attempt to maintain the intensity of the black and keep as much of the red sparkle as possible by not blending it.

As my under eye dark circles extend onto my eyelids, I definitely need to use some sort of coloured primer or base to minimise this darkeness in order for the colours to show up as they look in my swatches. Without a coloured base on my eyelids some of the paler shades just get drowned out by the darkness of my natural lids and don't show up very well. Whilst I have the original Primer Potion, I'm looking forward to trying Eden and Sin in particular to see if they help counteract the darkness on my lids.

I absolutely love this palette and there's not a single colour that I don't use. To me, this palette is different enough from the original Naked and Naked 2 palettes to warrant it's place in my collection, especially as eyes are my thing. As to which of the three palettes is my absolute favourite... well that's not a decision I can make lightly. I'm going to need some time to think about that one and get back to you. Perhaps I'll follow this up with a post comparing all three Naked palettes and give you my decision then ;o).

Do you have the Naked 3 palette? What do you think about it? Do you love it as much as the original Naked or Naked 2?

Love Sheen xxx