NAKED2 Palette

I know, I know. 

You're probably thinking "ugh, not another post of swatches of the NAKED2 Palette..."

Clearly that's what it's going to be, though.

Wellllllllllll I'm hoping this is a little different from what you may have seen before since I've had a hard time myself finding swatches of this palette on skin other than fair/light people.

I also wanted to do this since I've had this palette for about half a year now (please don't judge me too much... you can judge me a little though) but haven't wanted to open it. Again, you're probably thinking I'm crazy; I spent $50 on a makeup palette full of nudes that I probably already have in drugstore palettes!?!?

Yup.

Which is EXACTLY why I haven't been able to bring myself to open/use this palette. With cheaper things laying around, I just couldn't justify using expensive shadows on days where I was just going to class or lounging around the apartment doing laundry.

But now that I have a blog I figured SCREW IT!!! I'm opening this sucker up and defiling its beauty (I'm not even going to touch on the he said/she said jokes on that one...)!!!!

Take the jump to see the indulgence...

  

 Urban Decay Lip Junkie - Naked

This is the "freebie" that comes with the NAKED2 palette (I have to put freebie in quotes because of the price of the palette... surely the cost of the lip gloss mini is included as well). I'm actually pleasantly surprised!! Looking at the gloss in the bottle (a squishy plastic, so it's easy to squeeze out) it looks like a rose color, but once spread on the skin it is much more of a peachy-pink. Lovely!! This'll be great to just throw in my purse and go so that if I'm ever transitioning my lipstick from day to night I can just slide this on over the lipstick and call it a day (or night, I guess).

But does it cool and plump as it promises?

Ermmm... well, it definitely cools! At least for the first five or ten minutes. It also tastes like vanilla and a hint of mint, so the mint is probably what's causing the cooling. But plumping? I guess you can be the judge since I'm just not sure:

Before NAKED2's photo session...

... and after (about 20-30 minutes). 

Mayyyyybe my bottom lip is plumper?

Anyways, onto the actual palette.

Just a couple glamour shots of the palette.

The included dual ended brush; the end closest to the lens is a round blending brush while the end closer to the mirror (I tried to use mirror magic to show the other end) is a dense and flat lid brush.

I'm actually pretty pleased with the brush they included! It's a good size and the two ends are going to be useful. While not the softest brush in the world, it'll do the trick!

Here are close up shots of each of the shades in sets of three, from the left to the right side of the palette:

Foxy, Half Baked, Bootycall

Chopper, Tease, Snakebite

Suspect, Pistol, Verve

YDK, Busted, Blackout

That's 12 shades. At about $4.17 a piece, is it worth it?

I think if you're a neutral eyeshadow enthusiast like myself, then I think this would make a nice treat!

Another thing that I feel other bloggers have failed to mention is the tonality of the palette. Most have been calling this a palette of "cool" colors, but I have to disagree. There is actually about a 1:1 ratio of warm to cool colors here. So it could really work for everybody!!

Foxy - a matte tan cream

Half Baked - a warm yellow gold

Bootycall - a pinky-cream champagne

Chopper - this color shifts, as seen in the two hand swatch photos; in the light you can't tell, but in the shade it is a very pretty gold reminiscent of a rose gold (red undertones)

Tease - a matte purple taupe

Snakebite - this one is hard to describe; in the pan it looks like a shimmering brown but on the skin it actually appears as a sparkling brown with intense green and yellow undertones

Suspect - this is like my skin, but shimmery; it switches from warm to cool toned depending on the lighting. It also has a bit of a red undertone (this one did not appear very true to life on camera... I'm sorry!)

Pistol - a cool grey with brown undertones; very unique

Verve - a cool, silver champagne devoid of the pink typically in champagne colors (like Bootycall)

YDK - yet another color in this palette that was nearly impossible to capture on camera. This is a beautiful rosy purple bronze

Busted - you can see in the two pictures that this is both a matte and a shimmer shade depending on the lighting since the shimmer is quite subtle; it's a cool toned bronze/brown

Blackout - a truly matte black; this is basically the same thing as if you took a piece of charcoal and rubbed in on your skin (the texture and consistency are nearly identical, and I should know since charcoal is one of my main mediums)

And there you have it!! Of course, all of these color descriptions are my own, so if they're a little different than what you feel these colors to be it may be because of skin tones or merely of opinions.

I also wanted to comment on the different eyeshadow pigmentations: not all shadows were created equal in this palette! I found that the shimmer shades were IMMENSELY pigmented while the matte shades need a few more layers to appear as opaque. The photo below shows that with a matte, a matte/shimmer, and a shimmer shade.

Blackout, Busted, and YDK - swatched on finger and dragged across skin only once; no rubbing!

Another thing I wanted to comment on was the quality of each of the shadows. I'm not sure if this was just with my palette or if others experienced this as well but Chopper and YDK are not very awesome consistencies. You can see below that both are grainy and clump while the surrounding shadows are velvety smooth.

Ew...

My last complaint is the packaging. For $50, it would have been nice if this could have been a bit better of quality with an actual metal hinge or something. Rather, it's just a bendy piece of plastic connecting the lid to the base so it can only stay open when folded back. I wouldn't mind this if the top wasn't heavier than the bottom (which doesn't seem that way but it must be) because it causes the palette to flop on it's back and scare the bejeezus out of me when it does.

Like a turtle on its back... just unfortunate.

That's it folks!! If you've made it with me this far, THANK YOU.

Truly, I know I babble, but I just wanted to give an in depth view rather than merely more swatches that the web is already full of. 

Do you have the NAKED2 palette?

Love it? Hate it?

Worth the money?

Please share!!!

xoxo - Cassie