Back to Basics

Ah, I think I finally get the hype of Urban Decay products. Probably not the full extent, but I'm definitely beginning to form an affinity, the Naked Basics palette is fast becoming my favourite eyeshadow palette. Ever since my mum brought it back from her trips to the Americas, I've been using it every single day. I mean, I knew I liked using neutrals, but jeez, this brings it to a whole new level.

I love the packaging, always a fan of that rubberised casing that's reminiscent of NARS packaging and MAC, on occasion. The size of the palette is also really nifty for travelling, and the mirror is actually quite good; the hinge helps it to stay put too, so it's a palette with an actually useful mirror. The only thing that annoyed me was, for some silly reason, I had trouble opening this palette, as you can see, my nail punctured the lovely Venus shade. But I suppose that's an example of how soft and buttery these shadows are. Either way, I've managed to master the clasp, it is easier without thinking about ruining my fake nails.

left to right, without flash: venus, foxy, walk of shame, naked 2, faint, crave

With Flash

Sunlight

These shades seem pretty light, one might think that they're more for lighter skintones. But even for my medium/medium-light skin (NC25-30). Five matte shades and one shimmery highlight shade; I love ALL of these. My favourite combinations include walk of shame as an allover wash, and then naked 2 as more colour on the lid; or naked 2 as an allover, contouring with faint and then any of the lighter shadows as a brow highlight. Crave makes a fantastic liner too, it looks great on the lower lash line too, it's not too black, but more of a brown-black so it doesn't look too harsh. The two lighter matte shades foxy and walk of shame work well as neutralizing shades on the lid, with foxy being yellow toned and walk of shame more pink. The payoff for foxy is not as good as the other shades in the palette, though, and crave wouldn't work as well as a base shadow I don't think. But definitely naked 2 is my favourite shade out of the palette, looks fantastic on the eyes to add a bit of depth, it's a nice light taupe-y colour, perfect for the "nude" look.

Really, this was the best palette that I could have received, considering how much I've been using it now, I can easily see myself using this a lot more in the future, especially taking this with me when travelling time comes around. Feels very sleek and luxurious, so I'm quite lucky to have gotten my hands on this baby.

This was purchased for me (by my mother) from Sephora for US$27, available here.