Don’t go Naked! Get Smoky with Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette!!

Urban Decay has been successfully winning fans with its Naked series of easy-to-wear neutral eyeshadow palettes for years.  And now, for a change, the brand has released a Smoky palette for evening looks.  I was looking forward to trying it out as I’m a fan of smoky eye looks, and have enjoyed past releases such as the Pulp Fiction palette from last Fall [reviewed here].  Thanks to a dear friend, I was able to play with it for the last couple of weeks, and would like to share my thoughts with you today.

The latest Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette consists of 12 shades ranging from beige to black.  Unlike the usual nude palettes, the Smoky palette has a variety of color injected, particularly blue and purple, although these have a strong grey-cast to them.

The swatches from left to right of the palette are:

• High is a light shimmery pink-beige with a frosty finish
• Dirtysweet is a light-medium metallic coppery-brown
• Radar is a medium brown with a satin finish and a sprinkling of golden shimmers
• Armour is a medium-dark taupe with multicoloured shimmers
• Slanted is a medium silver grey with a satin finish and some light silver shimmers
• Dagger is a dark sooty grey with a satin finish and some sparse shimmers
• Black Market is a matte black

• Smolder is a dark blackened purple with some sparse shimmers
• Password is a medium-dark taupe with a matte finish
• Whiskey is a medium brown with strong yellow undertones
• Combus is a pale pinkish beige that is near-invisible against my skin (it took many swipes to even get it to show as faintly in the swatch photo above)
• Thirteen is a brightened ivory with a matte finish

I’ve never owned any of the Naked palettes in the past so I can’t offer any comparisons.  However, when stacked next to last year’s Vice 3 palette and the Pulp Fiction palette, the textures and pigmentation of Naked Smoky seems a little lacking.  In particular, I found the darker shades to be dry and lacked pigmentation, especially Slanted, Dagger, Black Market and Password.

Here are a few eye looks to give you an idea of how they perform:

For this eye look, I first applied Password all over the lid as a base color up to the crease.  Then I layered on Slanted on the inner half of my lid, followed by Dagger on the outer half.  Finished by lining the outer half of my upper lash line smudging out with Black Market.  Also lined bottom lash line with Black Market and dabbed some Armor to the inner corner to complete.  Also patted on some Armor to the center of my lids for a bit of pop.

The full look in context:

And here’s a 2nd eye look featuring the browns:

For this 2nd eye look, I started with a base layer of Combust, then applied Radar to the inner half of my lid.  Next I added Whiskey to the outer corner, and dabbed on Dirtysweet to the center of my lid.  Because I felt Whiskey wasn’t dark enough on its own to “finish” the look, I added some Black Market to the outer wing, keeping close to the lash line and smudging upwards.

And here is the full look in context:

Priced at SGD83 for 12×1.3gm of product, it is hard to nitpick.  Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette performs well when applied on the lids, giving a good number of options for creating various types of eye looks.  I did have some problems with fading after 6 hours and minor creasing around my folds, so I would recommend the use of a good primer for those who have oily lids.

_{This palette was kindly loaned to me by Alene aka Paperkitties.  Do show some love, and pop over to check out her perspective on this palette and other UD goodies here!}