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There’s a new Naked in town and it’s beautiful. Urban Decay Naked Ultraviolet palette dropped a week or so ago but is it worth the splurge? Let’s chat.
Packaging.
No lie, Urban Decay Naked Ultraviolet is BY FAR the prettiest out of them all. The beautiful purple, blue and silver marble has me drooling. The case is plastic but rather heavy. Inside there are 12 shadows in a variety of finishes, a decent-size mirror and a brush. The latter may be useful for spot concealer work but it is not made for eyeshadow IMO. Why not make it a duo flat shader & a fluffy blending brush MAC 217-style? Anything less and I rather spend less on a palette and skip the brush thanks.
Colour story.
Back to its roots, purple is synonymous with Urban Decay, it is their soul and their branding. Naked Ultraviolet seems to be looking into the past and applying a futuristic twist to the story. I often think to myself that ‘futuristic’ seems to be the same story now as it’s been in the ’80s, but that’s just me being a bit sarcastic. Purples, duo-chrome shifts have been futuristic for decades now, maybe it’s time to modernise the term? This is not against UD, more an afterthought on the beauty and fashion industry.
NGL Naked Ultraviolet reminds me of the Urban Decay’s good old days. Bringing colour to the wider public. Sure, it’s not unusual and a lot of brands do it now, and some do it better, but what UD is always able to do is to come up with a cohesive story, with all shadows working together. Easy to blend formulas allowing anyone to create a lovely smokey and not just pros. The formula hasn’t changed. It’s not the most buttery, some shades are a little more dry and crumbly but once they’re on, it all comes together. I can’t stress enough how easy they are to blend, the little eye look below took me the whole of 10 mins to blend!
If you’re looking for a lot of mattes, you won’t find them here and it’s probably why it reminded me of UD’s golden days with shimmer-full palettes with a few mattes thrown in. I would love to see a darker matte here, just to allow me to create a full look without needing to look elsewhere but then again, you almost don’t need to as the darker shades have matte bases with metallic shift or glitter added meaning you can blend it out to ‘almost matte’ if you want to. I was able to go without and for the first time in years created mostly shimmer look and I’m not mad, as it looks beautiful. If you’re into purples, but want some neutrals thrown in for good measure, I think you’ll fall in love with Naked Ultraviolet, as there are a few gems in here that need shouting about.
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| Swatched with the help of ring light |
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| Swatched in natural light |
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| Photos of the ackaging and shades taken in strong sunlight (golden hour) |
Shades:
Trippin’ - satin beige, lovely on the brow bone and in inner corners
Mind Slip - light peachy matte, great transition shade
Dazed - copper shimmer, pigmented and easy to transfer
Hacked - light to medium neutral mauve matte, another great transition shade, nice pigmentation and transfer
VR - reddish shimmer with iridescent micro glitter, little crumbly but absolutely stunning on, more of a finger to lid shade or applied wet
Lucid - transformer shade, pistachio glow on its own or giving ultraviolet vibes when applied over purples, transfers well
Optimized - pastel lilac matte, superb pigmentation and transfer to the lid
Warning - pink satin with a purple shift, found it a little harder to transfer to the lid
Cyber Punk - purple shimmer with pink micro-shimmer, same as Warning, not my fave formula
Euphoric - inspired by Euphoria, purple shimmer with a blue shift
Purple Dust - dark grey/violet base with it iridescent micro-glitter, good pigmentation and a bit of fall out
Digital - black (though more dark grey) base with red micro-shimmer, pigmented and fall out experienced
What I love.
I really like the neutral side of the palette, all shades perform well and VR, despite being crumbly, is an absolute stunner. Mattes: Mind Slip and Hacked work really well. I wish Trippin’ was a matte but I get the concept. I’m also obsessed with Lucid - a pistachio green is beautiful on its own with its ultra glowing finish and works very well as a transforming shade too. Optimised is a fantastic pastel matte. Pastels are super hard to get right and Urban Decay has done us proud here. Could they do a full-on pastel palette next and recreate this magic with some other rainbow shades?
I love you but...
I love Digital as an all-over smokey shade, but you must be mindful of the fall out as it does that quite a bit. Do your eyes, first girls and boys. Now, Cyber Punk could have been epic, it's very pretty, but formula kills the vibe a bit. It’s more of 'me issue' than anything else but I prefer my shimmers to pop a bit more. Having said that, use it all over and you get yourself a winner. Same with Euphoric, I like it as an all-over shade but... Can’t quite pinpoint what I have a problem with here. Now Purple Dust I love. It’s pretty, it’s futuristic, count me in, but the fall out is real, similarly to Digital.
Just no.
I’m not a big fan of Warning. I don’t get it. Yes it’s pretty but satin with a shift doesn’t quite transfer well, it’s more a formula issue but I’m also not a big fan of the shade.
Final thoughts.
Futuristic but wearable seems to be a theme here as Urban Decay have a new take on their formulas, with all the subtle duo-chrome shifts and polished finishes. It’s as beautiful as it is inspired. I have seen a lot of reviews say otherwise but I feel like this is a palette a lot of people will be reaching for every day, whereas some other brands tend to be ‘Instagram only’ inspirations.
It’s super easy to use and all shadows blending seamlessly. As we come to expect from Urban Decay, you really can’t go wrong as whatever shade you pick, there’s always a way to blend it into a made-up look. No patchiness, just effortless makeup. And for that, it’s taking its place in my everyday palette drawer for sure and I plan on playing with it a bit more.
Price and where to buy.
Available exclusively on Urban Decay and Cult Beauty for £43 now.
Did you grab the Urban Decay Naked Ultraviolet yet, or planning to? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Thank You For Reading.
With love,
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