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My Favorite Urban Decay Naked Palettes

ByCordelia

My Favorite Urban Decay Naked Palettes

I wanted to share my favorite Urban Decay Naked palettes with you today. Urban Decay has a TON of Naked palettes out there, so it can be hard to choose between them. I’m going to explain why each of these makes the cut for me, plus share my comparisons and looks on these palettes.

Press sample.

My Favorite Urban Decay Naked Palettes

My Favorite Urban Decay Naked Palettes

Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette
The Naked Basics palette was the first Naked palette that I owned and I fell in love with it. It’s 5 mattes and 1 demi-matte shadow. The palette is very small, fitting into the palm of my hand, yet it contains 6 full size eyeshadows. The shade Walk of Shame is one that I hit pan in my original WOS single, and I’ve hit pan on it in my palette, too. It’s my perfect base shade and it’s great for helping to blend out the edges of other colors.

Crave, the deepest shade, is a brown black that works to fill in brows in a pinch if you have dark hair like me (you could also use Naked 2 in the palette for this), it also is a great liner. Plus, if you take a small brush you can smudge Crave through the roots of your lashes to make your lashes look fuller and your eyes look bigger. Venus is a nice subtle highlighter for at the inner corner of the eyes or under the brow. Foxy can be used as a transition shade and Faint works well as a crease color.

This palette is indispensable for me. 99% of the time when I travel, it comes with me because I pair it with brighter colors and duochrome shades. Naked Basics is infinitely more flattering on my skintone (between N0-N10) and dark hair than the Naked 2 Basics. See my original review. See my Naked Basics tutorial.

Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette
After swatching Naked 1 and Naked 2 in stores, I decided not to buy them because I felt like they would just go muddy on me because of all the brown shades. Brown eyeshadows are a struggle for me because they often just don’t look right to me at all. I need higher contrast because of my pale skin and dark hair, so a palette of mid-tone browns is a no no for me.

Naked 3 was a change because it’s made up of mostly rosy neutrals. There are a few brownish shades, but they’ve either got pink shimmer or they’re taupes. Because of that they manage to be flattering rather than a muddy mess on me. Blackheart is my absolute favorite shade in the palette because it’s a warm black with coppery red micro-sparkle. It’s stunning. Darkside is a very flattering grey taupe pearl. Trick is a gorgeous rose gold with iridescent pink micro sparkle. Buzz is a pretty rosy pink metallic. Strange is the PERFECT pale beige pink matte base shade. Burnout is a gorgeous rosy pink with peach undertones pearl.

These colors are very flattering on my blue-green eyes. See my original review. You can also see my awesome Blackheart tutorial and my Rose Gold Cat Eye tutorial.

Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette
This is the latest in the Naked Palette craze. I had mixed feelings about the palette initially. On the one hand, I was happy because it was mostly cool-toned and filled with greys (which I think greys are ultra flattering on my blue-green eyes). On the other hand the texture was harder than most of my Urban Decay eyeshadow singles.

I feel like there are a few colors that just don’t belong in this palette, namely Whiskey (since it’s a warm brown) and Radar (another brown shade I’m not fond of). But I love Dirtysweet (a light golden bronze), Armor and Slanted and Dagger and Password (grey shades). I really love Smolder which is a dark purple taupe, though initially I was disappointed that it wasn’t more purple toned. Thirteen and Combust are awesome pink-toned shades. High is a pretty pink champagne. See my original video on this palette. You can also check out my comparison to the Kat Von D Innerstellar palette.

Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette Looks

The more I use it, the more I’ve come to appreciate it. My Naked Smoky Kindness look is my favorite. I also really adore my Naked Smoky Smolder look. My Everyday Naked Smoky look was nice. The Everyday Naked Smoky tutorial experimented with Dirtysweet.

Other Urban Decay Naked Palettes
Naked 1 – A bronzey brown palette with matte, satin, shimmer and sparkly shades.
Naked 2 – warm brown and taupe neutrals in a mix of finishes.
Naked 2 Basics – light taupe mattes. See my original review, my awesome tutorial,  & my Naked Basics vs. Naked 2 Basics vs. Pulp Fiction palettes.
Naked on the Run – metallics in rose, taupe and bronzes, brown matte and cool bisque satin. See my video review. You can also check out my Naked on the Run tutorial.

Honorable Mention (not an official naked, but still a neutral)
Pulp Fiction – a great little palette for travel with cream and brown mattes, taupe brown white and black satins, and a cute red brush. This is a great palette because you get more contrast with the black and white shades in it. See my review. You can also check out my fun tutorial.

What are your favorites from the Urban Decay Naked Eyeshadow family? Let me know below!

Cordelia Frost is the creative force behind Phyrra, a treasure trove for cruelty-free indie and goth makeup enthusiasts. She's the author of the game-changing 'Hooded Eyes Makeup Manual' a must-read for hooded eyes makeup.

Cordelia's world is a kaleidoscope of alternative beauty, gothic fashion, and life-enhancing tips, making every visit to Phyrra a journey into a more colorful and inspired self.

36 Comments

  3. I know that many people don’t like the Naked 3 palette but I still love it. Trick is just the most beautiful color. For some reason this new Smoky palette isn’t that exciting to me. One of my top three would be Vice 2. LOVE the colorful shades. Thanks for the round-up. 🙂

  4. I need the Smokey Eye one that just came out! I really love their Naked line in general!

  5. Such beautiful eye looks. I have Naked 1, Naked 3 and Basics… but Naked 1 is my favorite… though Naked 3 is right there after that. 🙂 I love love the packaging of Naked Smoky – so pretty and I can’t wait to get my hands on it when I do 😀

  6. I think of all the Naked palettes, Naked 3 is my favorite – those rose-toned shades work well on EVERYONE!! However, I LOVE the packaging for the Naked Smoky palette! I still don’t own the original Naked palette yet; at this point, I’m considering buying it just so I can say I have all 4 of the major palettes!

  7. I tend to use Naked 2 the most, but I’ve been using Naked 3 a fair bit lately. I’m still undecided if I need Smoky in my life or not…. So many palettes so little time.

  10. Love the comparisons! I’m also obsessed with my naked basics, and I often use Crave for my brows. I’ve hit pan on every shade in the palette, with the exception of the black shadow. Overall though, I think my favorite one shade wise is the OG naked palette. I dislike their textures, because the fallout is unreal, but I love the mixture of warm neutrals – and sin is the prettiest all over lid color!

  11. I’ve actually got all three of these. I know it’s mostly because of you and your great swatches. I’m still struggling with matte shades since I don’t think they go on as smoothly. The interesting thing is that when I use UD Primer Potion I have more trouble blending than when I use Too Faced Shadow Insurance.

  12. So great to see the swatches all together. I’m still on the fence about Naked Smokey. I love the look you did with Kindness especially, and grays and cool toned shades are good for me. I’ve got that Ulta 10% off coupon to use so maybe. Now why did I buy that new pink purse, lol?

  13. I finally ordered Naked3 last week. I decided Naked and Naked 2 just had too much potential for going muddy on me. I’m glad to see you confirm this. The same with Smoky, plus grays aren’t my best colors. I have Naked Basics (one of favorites, and so versatile), Naked2Basics (the mattes don’t turn muddy on me), and Naked on the Run. I love pinky-nudes, so fingers are crossed that I’ll love Naked3.

    1. Yep, that’s why I skipped them! I do have the Silk Naturals versions of them reviewed on my blog (I think?) and some of the colors from Silk Naturals are stellar, but overall too many browns for me! Naked2Basics was just not enough contrast for me, though I did manage 1 decent look with it!

      1. I got Crown Brushes Exposed palettes really cheap (like $12-13 per), and I was curious whether their makeup was any good. The quality isn’t UD, but not bad at all for what I paid. I wouldn’t call them perfect dupes, which is good, because their versions of Naked and Naked 2 don’t turn muddy on me. (Their brushes are CF, so I assume the makeup is, but I haven’t found definitive information on this.) Coastal Scents’ Revealed was super-muddy on me. I de-potted it and kept the shades I liked. Revealed 2 works great for me, but I don’t really think it’s a super-close dupe for Naked 2, either. Revealed 3 is awesome with all the berry shades, but it’s not really a Naked anything dupe. It just does it’s own thing.

        I have the UD Smoked Palette, which I do like for the color options. Sleek’s i-divine Bad Girl Palette is pretty amazing. I like I can do blue, green and purple smokey eyes in addition to brown or gray/black.

          1. I think it’s their best palette out of the ones I have. No duds. (I have six of the i-Divines.)

  16. I love Urban Decay. They have such gorgeous, highly pigmented colors. My favorite palette is the Shadow box. I have yet to buy myself a Naked palette, but I have bought one as a gift for my sister who is a makeup artist and she loves it. Since I’m now a Mommy, I hardly ever buy myself high-end makeup as much as I used to. I’m going to splurge and get one for myself, one of these days. The problem is which one to choose. Decisions, Decisions.

    1. I think my top 3 all time favorite palettes from UD are 1. Electric Palette 2. 15th Anniversary palette 3. Naked Basics. I highly recommend waiting for a good sale at UD or Sephora and then buying when it’s 20% off 🙂

      1. I missed getting the 15th Anniversary palette, but my favorites are 1. Electric Palette 2. Vice 2 Palette 3. Vice LTD Palette and 4. Naked 3. I wish I could find someone who has a 15th Anniversary palette for sale!!

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