NEW IN: URBAN DECAY NAKED ULTIMATE BASICS PALETTE REVIEW WITH SWATCHES

*Beauty with an edge*

Urban Decay Naked Basics 2 (POST) is my ultimate matte holy grail palette. It has all you need to create any given daytime look and even transform it to evening. I love mattes as my hooded eyes just look better in all matte shades. When I first saw UD finally coming up with a new Basics palette, I knew I will need to get my hands on it. And to see this gorgeous rose gold/ copper beauty and not buy it, would be a cry for help. Yes, I own a lot of palettes and no, I don't buy EVERY new palette on the market. In fact I'm being pretty good recently and only going for palettes I know I'll like and that bring something new to my collection. There's always a room for all matte palette in my opinion and this one was too stunning to walk away. Urban Decay Naked Ultimate Basics is a new gorgeous addition to Basics family and if you'd like to see more of it, please continue to read :)

Packaging:

I can't ignore it. It is by far the prettiest palette I own. The rose gold high quality plastic that's still light enough to travel with. Imagine a CD case - it's just a tad smaller than that. The design of the front is just exquisite. The burst design that's not only painted but moulded in, makes for a stunning finished effect. With the large company name and logo on front, somehow not disturbing the art of the design itself. The back is super basic, matte plastic with basic information about the product. 

What's inside?

Inside hosts a large, good quality mirror, 12 eyeshadows (1.2g each) and a small double ended brush. Considering how much of an eyeshadow giant Urban Decay is, you'd think they'll finally get that brush perfected. No such chance. It's business as usual or BYOBB (Bring Your Own Blending Brush). I like the mirror and you can easily do your makeup when travelling with it. Do I wish, Urban Decay succumb to the square eyeshadow pot design? As always. I find the characteristic pods little fickly when it comes to getting the product on the brush. Having said that, the new palette features quite a nice break in between the shades, meaning they're less likely to mix when the product gets dusted by a blending brush.

Formula:

Formula and pigmentation varies from shade to shade. The lightest shade is the only one with satin finish, the rest is matte. The four shades in the top row (transition shades) are quite lightly pigmented. Don't get me wrong, there's pigment there but I think that step was applied to help with blending in the crease. Transition shades don't need to excel in pigmentation and these four are gems in their own light, despite being more sheer than others. All the shades are super soft, almost buttery to touch and swatch lovely both on the fingers and when transferred to the skin. All swatches you see here are done with 3 swipe method, on no primer. I get asked a lot why my swatches look slightly different to when maybe you do it. I think it has a lot to do with experience in swatching. Every product requires certain amount of pressing when swatched and you also need to press the product onto the skin. I hope that clears the whole "It can't be 3 swipe method" debate. 

Shades: 

Blow - light champagne satin finish, great pigmentation

Nude - light beige matte finish, ok pigmentation

Commando - medium beige with neutral tones matte, good pigmentation

Tempted - medium taupe brown with cool tones matte, good pigmentation

Instinct - medium taupe with purple pink tones matte, good pigmentation

Lethal - dark taupe brown with purple tones matte, great pigmentation

Pre-Game - light yellow beige matte, good pigmentation 

Extra Bitter - dark warm brown with red & orange tones matte, great pigmentation

Faith - medium dark warm tone brown, great pigmentation

Lockout - medium dark neutral brown, great pigmentation 

Magnet - charcoal matte, good pigmentation but nicely build able

Blackjack - black matte, good pigmentation (it's not Blackout from Naked 2 but softer version)

Overview:

It's lovely to see such a great contender from Urban Decay as most of their palettes end up disappointing me. I really like UD mattes. They are not up there with Makeup Geek in my opinion, but rarely any shadow is. It's not a love from the first side as the recent palettes from Anastasia Beverly Hills (POST) or Jeffree Star (POST) but it's definitely close. I much prefer it to the Kat Von D Shade + Light palette (POST).

I think the shadows have mostly great formulas and the colour payoff is lovely. It is the ultimate daytime palette for me. It's nice to see a mixture of neutrals, cool and warm tones in one palette. It's travel friendly, looks absolutely stunning on my vanity and as a typical magpie, I can't stop staring at it. I have tested it for more than a week now and I honestly can't stop modelling my eye with it. It's perfect for daytime and evening, it will suit most skin tones, although more fair and medium than dark. There's a good balance of shades and if there's one matte eyeshadow palette everyone may need - it could easily be this one. I still prefer the formula of MUG shadows, however they're not as travel friendly. Naked Ultimate Basics is definitely taking a proud place on my vanity and in travel makeup bag. 

Naked Ultimate Basics is available now for £38.50 from Urban Decay, Selfridges, Debenhams and Feel Unique. 

Thank You For Reading,

Love