Continuing on with my “Products I Can’t Live Without” series, we’ve got #12: the original Naked palette. This has been out for years, and there’s a reason it’s still a best-seller– though I’ve only gotten around to discovering this recently. Having been super impressed with the quality of the shadows in the Naked 3 palette I got for Christmas, I decided to give the original a whirl a few months later. While I do still love the N3, I find that lately, I reach for the N1 palette more.
I think we all know what the Naked palette looks like by now, but there’s no harm in a refresher photo for anyone who’s forgotten:
And suddenly the reason for my terrible photography becomes clear: I take all my pics with an iPhone camera, and my phone has a case on it that sometimes gets in the way. I’d take the case off, but I’m terrified of my slippery butterfingers dropping it when the phone’s unprotected. (A valid fear considering I drop it about once a week, on average. That case is a godsend; I highly recommend them.) Anyway, crappy pics aside, you can still see why this palette is so popular, as the range of colours is pretty excellent, and the quality is still the best I’ve ever had the pleasure of using.
My personal favourite shade in this palette is Half-Baked, which is a beautiful shimmery gold. That said, having tried to keep an eye (pun intended) on which ones I actually use the most, it’s the mattes that give me the most bang for my buck. Most days, I will put a wash of Virgin all over and up to the brow, followed by a gentle dusting of Naked on the lid and some Buck in the crease. That’s my go-to look lately– my “everyday eye”, so to speak. When I want to be super glam, I’ll replace Naked with Half-Baked and Buck with Smog. I’ve only used Creep and Gunmetal a few times, but you can do a reasonably good smokey eye with this palette… Well, if you’ve got better skills than I do, anyway.
The funny thing about this palette is that I bought it purely to know which shadows would get most use and should be repurchased as singles. Although there are three clear stand-out shadows which I will definitely need to pick up as singles since they’ll run out before the rest, I have a funny feeling I’ll be buying the whole palette again, too. There’s something very comforting about knowing I can put together a whole lot of looks with just this one little velvet case, and though it is a little expensive, I feel it’s definitely good value for money. I’ve added this to my “Products I Can’t Live Without” list on the basis of that fact, then, and I suspect it will be living in my makeup drawer for a long time to come.
Do you love Urban Decay shadows? Do you have a favourite among the Naked palettes? Should I consider Naked Basics or Naked 2 for my next purchase? Drop me a line and let me know!
-A-