Make up collection: Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette

It’s here. It’s finally here! The other week the Urban Decay Naked 2 eyeshadow palette was introduced to the Dutch market without as much as a whisper. No one knew when or even if it would show up in our tiny country and then suddenly it did. So when I went to The Hague last week, I decided to check the Sephora there to see whether they had it stocked and they did. Since my plan was to pick it up in the UK next week, I thought: why not buy it right now as I’m going to spend the money anyway. This is what the palette looks like:

As you can see the palette comes with a mini lipgloss which I have yet to try and a double ended synthetic brush. The brush isn’t ideal when you store brushes the way I do, but I think it will be ideal to take with me when traveling because you get two brushes in one go. Urban Decay brushes are good brushes. I have one brush that came with the original Naked palette and love that so I’m sure these will work fine as well. Let’s move on to the colors shall we?

Just like in the original Naked palette there aren’t many matte shades, but the prettiness of the colors make up for that. One thing that immediately stands out is the fact that the colors are more cooler toned than the original palette and there are also fewer darker colors. That suits me just fine as I never use very dark colors for my eyelooks as it can make my eye sockets look quite dead.

So far I have used the palette a number of times to try out some combinations. I tried out a taupy-brown look using tease, suspect and busted and I tried a gray look with verve, pistol and blackout. One thing I love about this palette is that it has colors with a purple undertone and that it comes with some more taupes and grays. Those are my favorite colors for creating looks and so I really do think that this palette is a good addition to the original Naked palette which was more brown/ bronzy oriented. Now on to close ups and swatches and what the colors look like in my opinion:

From left to right:

• Foxy: matte, soft yellow shade which you can barely see against my skin. Great as a highlight on your brow bone.
• Half baked: already part of the first Naked palette AND the Sustainable palette. Great golden brown shade for all over the lid or to add some shine in the middle of your eyelid.
• Booty call: shimmery cream colored highlighter.
• Chopper: coppery color with a pink/ rose undertone. This looks best all over your lid or on your lower lash line.
• Tease: matte soft brown color with a mauve undertone. Can be worn as an all over lid color or soft crease color.
• Snakebite: dark brown with golden shimmer. Good crease color or for your lower lashline. Can also be used to create a subtle smokey eye.

From left to right:

• Suspect: shimmery taupe/brown color. Again a solid all over lid color, but I also like this on my lower lash line or in the crease with very subtle looks.
• Pistol: shimmery silver gray color. I wore this as a crease color the other day, but would also work on the lower lash line or all over the lid.
• Verve: light gray color with lots of shimmer. This is quite possibly my favorite shade in the palette. Again: an all over lid color or for the lower lash line.
• YDK: shimmery rose gold color. Also featured in the Sustainable palette. I would preferably wear this all over the lid.
• Busted: dark brown color with a dark brown undertone and some shimmer to it. Good for creating a crease, outlining your outer V area and dark smokey looks.
• Black out: also a great crease color as it is a matte black without any shimmer. Best color in the palette for a true smokey eye. Also feature in the Urban Decay 15th Anniversary palette.

As you can see from the swatches, the pigmentation is amazing, just like with other Urban Decay palettes. I’m thinking that Urban Decay is quickly becoming my favorite eyeshadow brand as their eyeshadow palettes are just the best. This is now my 5th Urban Decay eyeshadow palette and not a single one of them has let me down so far. The eyeshadows are smooth without being powdery and especially in this palette the shadows do not suffer from a tremendous amount of fall out.

I already own the original Naked palette too and was skeptical as to whether I would ‘need’ this one as well. After seeing some reviews and comparisons though, I knew that it was different from the first one and since this girl loves her wearable nude shades of eyecolor I thought it would still make a good addition to my make up collection. I will show you my original Naked palette some time in the future as part of my make up collection series. For good comparisons of the original Naked palette and the Naked 2 palette I would like to refer you to this website (Dutch), or you can watch this video (English).

What are your favorite types of eye shadow to wear? Nude colors like I do, or do you prefer a pop of color?