Urban Decay NAKED2 - Swatches & Review

Hiya gorgeous!

I'm sure everyone has already heard about the Urban Decay NAKED2 palette, but I just found mine again and fell in love and I had to share it. I bought this right when it came out, and then when I received it, I set it aside to swatch before I used it, and then I forgot about it. =-/ Story of my life.

So here we are again! Let's just pretend it's not months later ...

NAKED2 is a much sturdier palette - it's a metal casing (almost like a tin mint box, like Altoids?) and the tray with the shadows is also metal. No cardboard here ladies! It also comes with a double ended Good Karma Shadow/Crease brush that is only available with this palette.

The colors in this palette are gorgeous. There are 12 taupe and greige shades, one of which is a repeat (Half Baked) and five new/exclusive shades (Bootycall, Tease, Snakebite, Pistol, Busted). Again, most are shimmers and there is one heavy glitter, but there are three mattes in the palette making it more user friendly.

I realize I'm no Karla Sugar, but I did my best attempt at arm swatches. Top is fluorescent lighting, bottom is sunlight, swatched on bare skin. If I can figure out a way to make the swatches even, I think my pictures would be better. It's driving me nuts.

The colors in this palette seem to be a bit more on the golden and grey tones, rather than the nice smattering of neutral, gold, pink, and grey in the first palette. To compare, I did a mini swatchfest on my arm with NAKED on top and NAKED2 on bottom, fluorescent lighting on top, sunlight on bottom.

Pigmentation on these is great, as it usually is with Urban Decay eye shadows. Good lasting power, even without primer, and color stays true all day. I personally ADORE UD eye shadows, so I was all over this new palette. The design itself is sleek and pleasing to the eye, and this palette is super travel friendly since it's sturdier than the original NAKED palette. If you're wondering if you should bother with NAKED2, especially if you have NAKED already, Pretty Gossip did a great review on the NAKED2 along with comparisons and swatches of similar colors side by side. All I can say is, I bought both didn't I? =) But I'm a hoarder lover of UD and palettes, so it was a no brainer for me.

Available where Urban Decay is sold. I purchased mine from Urban Decay directly, where it retails for $50 for the palette, brush, and a mini Lip Junkie in Naked.

And this is what I've been up to recently... I broke down all my Urban Decay palettes and put them into Z palettes and Unii Palettes! I couldn't decide which to get, so I purchased one of each, and now I plan to get more. Of which you ask? Stay tuned, I'll be doing a comparison soon! =P

And just to leave you with a pretty picture, this is my new orchid baby! My husband found this plant in the dumpster at work. Someone threw it out after Valentine's Day (after all the flowers dropped, I guess?). Anyway, he brought it home and declared himself "The Great Orchid Rescuer" and took care of it, and now it's blooming. It's been like our kid, wondering if it's a boy or a girl as we keep guessing what color the flowers will be. We already have a medium purple one and a white one with purple specks. This one seems to have some yellow in it, along with a strong dark pink/purple and white, which we're excited about!

My orchid baby!