Love: Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette
The first few eyeshadow palettes I had featured explosions of color and shimmer that would make a transvestite proud. I had 120 and 88-color palettes and I loved them! Well, I still love colors and shimmer. But the older I get the more I realize how important it is to have dependable basics to work with. This doesn't just apply to clothes and shoes and bags. It's the exact same thing with makeup.
To create a great eyeshadow look, you need classic neutral shades as your base, contour, and highlight. Think of bright, shiny colors as the accessories in your eye makeup. They grab attention and express your mood as well they should. Neutrals, while meant to work hand in hand with colors, must do so in the background. Unless you're wearing them by themselves, of course.
The Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette (P1,600 at Stuff in Style) is perfect for a simple to smoky eye look on its own. It's also designed to be a sort of building block for creating more complex, colorful looks. These eyeshadows have great color pay-off and super smooth texture (as expected from Urban Decay), which means that they're quite easy to work with.
I like thinking of this palette as a little black dress - that one thing you can wear to practically anything!
The ultra posh palette is slim, hefty, and has a rubbery feel. Don't worry, it's not the sort of rubber texture that makes NARS palettes difficult to clean! Anyway, I also love the raised lettering on the cover as it contributes to the luxe tactile experience.
The shade selection for Naked Basics is ace. It pared down the essentials, which were already in the first two Naked palettes, into something even more fundamental. The first three shades are for highlighting, creating a base, and lid color. Some people like to start with a matte beige or white eyeshadow before they apply the rest of their eye makeup. The last three shades are for contouring, smoking out, and lining the eyes.
Venus, Foxy, Walk of Shame
Venus is a shimmery white that verges on frost. Great for highlighting on the brow bone to bring out the arch of the eyebrows! Foxy is a matte yellowed beige, while Walk of Shame is a matte beige. Both eyeshadows can be used on the brow bone, as a base or lid colors.
Naked 2, Faint, Crave
Naked 2 is a soft taupe that has a satin finish. It's perfect either as a crease or blending shade. Faint (satin dark brown) and Crave (matte charcoal) make fabulous smoky eye colors.
So, do you need this palette? Yes! The Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette has high-quality shades that can work with any coloring and splash of color. It's great for applying makeup on the go since it's small and compact, too, unlike the first two Nakeds. However, if you already have similar palettes and don't really apply eyeshadow out of the house, then you can give this a miss.
I'm a huge fan of Urban Decay eyeshadows though so I think it's a great investment. :) How about you? Is this something you would get for yourself?
In any case, you can find the Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette from Stuff In Style. Love this store! The next Urban Decay product I want to try is the NAKED Skin liquid foundation because of the awesome reviews. Hope SIS restocks soon. Anyway you can follow the store on Twitter and Instagram (both @stuffinstyle). It's also on Facebook.
