Urban Decay Naked Basic Palette


I already said in my favourites that if I was allowed to own just one eyeshadow palette, this would be it. I'm not much of an eyeshadow person, mostly because my eyes are hooded and I see no point in applying anything else than an eyeliner, but Basic palette has been a part of my every day routine since I got it. For me this is the perfect palette, especially for an natural, polished every day look. There are several different possibilities of combining the colours, but my favourite way of using it is: W.O.S. as a base, Naked 2 on the lid, Faint in the outer corner, Crave as a liner and Venus in the inner corner. 

Excuse the lousy swatches, but the colours are accurate despite the blueish tint of the skin. The ones of the finger tips are better:

The quality of the eyeshadows is very nice. I'm a fan of matte eyeshadows and these are smooth, blend really well and are nicely pigmented. They remind me a lot of Catrice's matte shade I own called 350 Starlight Expresso, but they are less buttery than ArtDeco 551, which is a matte skin tone shade.

Venus is the only non-matte shade in the Basic palette. Both Venus and Virgin (Urban Decay Naked) are highlighting shades with an iridescent finish. Virgin is pinker than Venus, yet on the eyes the difference is undetectable and both are excellent shades for highlighting the inner corners. In fact they are best I've found so far because they are both quite subtle and nice for every day (though Mac's Vanilla pigmented is super lovely as well).

Foxy and W.O.S. are the two blending shades. I like how they included two such colours in the palette since I used them the most (I have mentioned in my everyday makeup post that I use MUA's 16 every day). Foxy is yellow toned, while W.O.S. is pink toned, however, the difference on the eyes is to my eye minute.
ArtDeco 551 is almost a spot on dupe for W.O.S., while MUA matte eyeshadow in 16 is pinker, but again the difference is not that visible on the eyes, after all, they are blending shades.

Naked 2 is a light taupe shade and my favourite. I've been on a search for such a shade for years, but most were either too warm or too grey.
Naked from the original palette is less grey and warmer, while the only other similar shade I own, MAC's Wedge is more brown and much warmer. All are excellent crease colours, however, I mostly use them as lid colours. 

Faint is a dark cool brown shade which is very pigmented.
Revlon's Rich Sable is darker and cooler, as is a similar shade from Sleek's Storm palette (the one next to black). Buck from the original palette is much warmer.

Crave is a matte black and very pigmented. I use it as a liner.
Nxy's Black is even darker, while the black eyeshadow from a Sleek palette is very similar to Crave. Creep from the original palette is a dark smokey grey with shimmer.


The packaging is great, well made and with a really handy big mirror. The palette is about the size of a smartphone, so a nice size to carry around. The only odd thing I noticed about the eyeshadows is the weird scent. I only notice it when I use the mirror in the palette because they are close to me, but it's not bothersome.

I got mine on Look Fantastic for 19.50 €, but regular price is about 23 €. I don't find it too expensive for such a great collection of quality matte eyeshadows that I used every day. I'm really happy that it's a part of my collection.

Have a great day!