Urban Decay Naked Basics Review and Swatches

In the process of moving, I sorted through my makeups and got rid of things I don't (at least semi-) regularly use. This included theBalm Nude 'Tude, leaving a brown-neutral (matte) hole in my stash, which I decided to fill with Urban Decay's Naked Basics. (Urban Decay just released Naked2 Basics, which I have not seen in person. It claims to be a cooler-toned version to Naked Basics, but swatches online suggest it doesn't have the same range of depth as the original, so while I love cool-toned neutrals, it's not calling to me particularly strongly.)

Naked Basics is UD's matte companion to the more glitter-tastic full Naked palettes, none of which I own. Basics includes 5 matte shades and one shimmer (Venus), with 3 pale highlighting-type shades. It is definitely not a palette that everyone will find useful (though the denizens of the internet review sites certainly seem to like it), as you have to like mattes and light shades, but I find it to be a very valuable addition to my stash.

The three left shades are all variations on a highlighting theme. Venus is the lightest and whitest, and also the only one that is shimmery; I adore it as an inner-corner highlight, as the shimmer is fine and delicate and it brightens really nicely. Foxy is a yellow-leaning ivory, and W.O.S. (Walk of Shame, apparently) is its pink-leaning counterpart. Foxy and WOS are really hard to see when swatched/applied; they basically just even out my skintone. I like them as lid shades for a super neutral look and use them often as browbone highlights/to soften edges. Naked 2 is fabulous; it's a matte light brown-taupe, and I love it for softly defining the crease. It really makes the palette for me. Faint is a medium-dark warmish brown matte, and Crave is a black matte.

2 swipes with finger over primer, left to right: Venus, Foxy, W.O.S., Naked 2, Faint, Crave

All of the shades are soft and finely milled, though I find that Naked 2 kicks up some powder (though it doesn't affect application or wear). I haven't tried them on bare skin, because everything else creases on me without primer, but they last all day over UDPP (of course, so does pretty much everything). Each shade is 0.05 oz, equivalent to a full size eyeshadow from MAC/UD, and the palette as a whole is just so wonderfully compact, making it a truly awesome option for travel.

look how cute!

The best thing about the palette, besides how frickin' adorable it is, is that the shades are light enough for me to actually be able to use them without much fuss––I find that shadows any deeper than medium require a lot more effort to not overwhelm my whole vampiric pastiness thing. Foxy and W.O.S. are a little redundant, I think, though that may just be because they're only marginally darker than my own skin and therefore don't show up much. However, the only shadow I've hit pan on is Inglot 352, a matte beige, which I use as my browbone highlight, so having an excess of such light shades works out well for me.

Here's an example look using just this palette, with W.O.S. patted all over lid, Naked 2 patted in outer half of lid and crease, Faint diffused in crease and outer corner, Venus patted on inner corner, and Crave smudged as a liner on upper lashline:

And full face (see this post for complete breakdown):

HELLO

So, Naked Basics is nice on its own. It's also awesome with my other UD neutral palette, Rollergirl, which has shimmery shades that correspond quite nicely to the ones in Naked Basics.

Left to right, two swipes over primer: Venus, Verve, Naked 2, Suspect, Faint, Darkhorse

And here's an EOTD using the two palettes:

I applied Verve (Rollergirl) on the inner half of the lid, Suspect (Rollergirl) on the outer half of the lid, Naked 2 (Basics) in the crease, Faint (Basics) in the outer corner, Darkhorse (Rollergirl) over Crave (Basics) on the upper lashline, with a mix of Foxy (Basics) and W.O.S. (Basics) on the browbone; Maybelline Full N Soft Waterproof is on my lashes. Whewf––whoever thinks "neutral" eyes means "simple" is clearly...not me, I guess. And here, as part of a full FOTD with Laura Mercier Wild Bouquet on cheeks and MAC Yield to Love (LE, from A Novel Romance collection, and already sold out! Saddest of sadfaces) on lips:

While Rollergirl was LE, the shades are all still available (and you can purchase the palette itself from ACW); Verve and Suspect are in Naked 2 and Darkhorse in Naked 1, and each can also be purchased individually (not the most economical way of acquiring UD shadows, though). Between the two palettes, my brown neutral shadow needs are taken care of...for now, at least ;) Grade: A-
$29* for 0.30 oz, available from Sephora, Urban Decay, Ulta, Beauty.com
*It was $28 when I bought it a month ago. GAH.

What do you think of Naked Basics? What's your favorite neutral palette? Do you like light matte shades?