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Review and Swatches: Urban Decay Naked Palette

I know this review is coming too late, too long after the launch of Urban Decay Naked Palette. Especially after 2 more Naked Palette, namely Naked Palette 2 and Naked Palette Basics being launched not long ago. However, I'm still dying to write my first review for a beauty product and the Urban Decay Naked Palette is the product that I always had in mind to review first! I don't know why i procrastinated so much, but it's finally happening.

Please be nice and expect less! Haha, I'm doing this with my best efforts and I'm extremely apologetic for the poor photos taken :/ Really hope this amateur review filled with my humble opinions of the product is able to help someone or anyone with information they need to know about the product. If the information you need is not stated here, feel free to drop a comment and I'll do my best to help!


So here goes!

Texture
Urban Decay is really well known for its "buttery, soft and moist" textured eyeshadows and it's no exception for their well coveted Naked Palette. If you try to swatch the colours of the eyeshadows with your finger, you will realise that your finger picks up the product easily, without using any force and just enough for a decent stoke on your forehand for the swatch.

The soft texture of the product makes the application easy and effortless! Blending is relatively easy with or without the brushes.

Do note that the "frostier" colours have a softer texture compared to the Satin and Matte colours in the Naked Palette. Not complaining though. However that would also mean that try not use too much strength when you dip your brush, or your finger into the palette when picking up the product as you make pick up too much of it. 

Durability
Personally, I do not have oily lids. When I wear the colours from the Naked Palette, they give me a good 6-8 hours wear, without having to use a primer. Because the texture of the product is so finely milled and soft, it adheres to the skin really well.

The longer I wear the eyeshadow for the day, the more I love it's colours on my lids. I prefer the "settled down" look of the eyeshadow on my eyelids as compared to the "freshly applied, clean and neat" look. The colours look softer and more glowy!

Swatches and Description of the colours 
Note: All photos are taken with indoor lighting (Left: Without Flash Right: With Flash)
         

 Top to bottom: Naked, Sin, Virgin

Naked (Matte): Light to medium brown. I feel that this is an extremely wearable colour in the palette. It is really good as an all over base colour with a slightly darker matte colour to go over the crease to create a slightly more defined eye. As mentioned earlier on, texture is slightly harder than the frostier colours but it still applies smooth. However, personally I feel that you need more of the product to show the colour payoff compared to the other colours in the palette.

Sin (Champagne/Frosty): Slightly pinkish toned and relatively frosty as you can see from the image with the flash. Will look amazing on ladies with cool skintone. Not one of the favourite colour I would use on my entire eyelids as it washes me out. I wouldn't say my skin tone is cool, but not too warm either. I'm sort of an in between. It would be great to highlight the inner tear duct area. Texture is soft and buttery.

Virgin (Satin): A nude colour with slight beige undertone. Gives a nice sheen and it is a great colour to use for highlighting the brow bone without drawing too much attention but only with use of a very very light hand. Not matte, but gives a nice glow to it. Texture is in between the Matte and Frostier colours. Application is still extremely smooth.

Top to bottom: Half Baked, Buck, Sidecar

Half Baked (Frost): One of the most gorgeous golden brown colours I have ever seen and it is a really warm brown. It is extremely frosty and looks metallic. It is a really great colour to choose for a warm, brown smoky eye, with a darker brown colour blended together with it. Unfortunately the colour swatch is not exactly true to the colour in the pan as it appears slightly pinkish here. You might refer to the first picture of the post, which showcases all 12 colours together. You should be able to see that is a golden brown colour. The texture is extremely soft, buttery and smooth.

Buck (Matte): Medium to Dark Brown. Slightly warmer than Naked. I love to use this over the crease when I use Naked all over my lid to create an entirely matte look for the eye. Texture is similar to Naked.

Sidecar (Frost with small glitter particles): One of my favourite colour in the palette. It looks rather cool toned in the pan but it applies as a light to mid tone nice rosy-brown, with soft and subtle glitter to reflect light. Looks great when settled down. It glows. I personally feel that using Sidecar all over the lid is a really simple but pretty look. Texture is soft and buttery.

Top to Bottom: Toasted, Darkhorse, Smog

Toasted (Frost): It looks very similar to that of Sidecar according to my swatches but Toasted is quite different from Sidecar. It is darker and a relatively pinky brown colour, compared to Sidecar which looks less pinkish. It does not have glitter and is solely frosty and metallic looking. This is my absolute favourite colour in the pan and I have created a dent in this colour. This colour is very flattering on my skintone and I absolutely adore it. I personally feel that this is a colour that is both suitable for warm or cool skin tone. Frankly speaking, I really can't decide if it has a cool or warm undertone to it. On first look, it comes across as a cool colour but at second look, it feels warm. Baffled. Texture is great, like all the frostier colours.

Darkhorse (Shimmery Satin): It is a more neutral toned dark brown with very finely milled golden glitters embedded with it. It is a really really pretty dark brown colour. A great colour to use to add to the crease to create more depth. Texture is soft and buttery.

Smog (Frost): It is a much warmer brown compared to Darkhorse and it is a nice bronze colour. This is the colour I go to when I intend to go for a nice, warm look. Personally feel that it complements both warm and cool skintones as well!

Top to Bottom: Gunmetal, Creep, Hustle

Gunmetal (Metallic): I don't find Gunmetal as frosty as colours like Halfbaked and Sidecar, but it is more shimmery than satin. It is a cool toned bluish, dark grey metallic colour. I rarely use this colour unless I am going for a dark smoky eye look. However this colour is really stunning. Texture is not as soft as Halfbaked, but still smooth and buttery.

Creep (I'm not really sure but it feels like a Matte base blended with very fine shimmer): Not exactly solid black but it is a nice twist to the matte and plain old black. It personally took me about two layers to get to the dark "black" colour reflected in the swatch but I guess that the problem with all "black" eyeshadows. You never really get a full on opaque black colour with just one swipe.
Texture is slightly harder but it is still smooth on application. It is a great colour to use to line the lashline to create a softer "eyeliner" look.

Hustle (Satin): More inclined towards the cooler toned side compared to Darkhorse if you compare it in the pan. It lacks the shimmer particles present in Darkhorse. You can see a little bit of purplish plum undertone. A good colour to match with Toasted as both of them have similar undertone. Texture is very similar to Darkhorse.

Personally, I feel that the colour payoff of the Urban Decay Naked Palette eyeshadows are amazing and really, a little goes a long way. Not much of the product is needed and it really reflects well on photos and in person. Considering that little product is needed each time you use it, the longevity of the product is really long lasting. This palette gives a good mix of cool and warm neutrals that allows you to recreate a understated Twiggy look to a really chic and modern Olsen Twin look.

However, I feel that there are not enough Matte colours in the palette (Too many frosty and shimmery colours). That wouldn't really be a problem since they launched the Naked Basics - with is a matte neutral palette. But I really wouldn't have the money to spend on that considering that I own both Naked and Naked 2 palette already. Sigh.

I apologise that the some of the colour swatches are not exactly a good representation of the colours but I do hope that this review was entertaining and helpful in anyway!

Till the next beauty product review, have a great day ahead!

Just a short update

Pardon me for the lack of updates! I guess I really couldn't find much time to whip up a decent post! Here's a really really short update on what it has been like for me for the past week after school reopens!

I wouldn't say school got off to a great start. I am having so much difficulty struggling to wake up early for my 8.30 am classes. Haven't really adjusted my body clock back, considering I have been sleeping at 4 am every day before school reopened. Not to mention that there was just not enough incentive to reach school on time cause the first few classes were visiting lecturers taught by overseas lecturer. 

And I just can't seem to find the best time to take the bus to school in order to avoid the traffic. School is such a chore, not to mention projects about to start infesting my life soon. 

I haven't been going out a lot and hence not having many photo taking opportunities. Ahhh, really wish to get some time off and head out to town. Which, I suppose gonna happen real soon! Because its my last day of school today (except 31st Jan) for the entire month of January! *pops confetti*

I am extremely guilty. Guilty for spending WAY too much money on blog shopping this month. I am not even kidding. I don't know which evil monster got over me, I just couldn't help it (which I probably could in the past). All the clothes look so pretty I keep telling myself I have to get it! What sorcery is it?! And I'm not even at my best physical shape to make clothes look good on me now. Sigh. I feel like I let so many people down when I overspend on unnecessary stuff. Definitely a new year's resolution to keep better management of my finance.

Here are some Instagram photos!

Definitely some self portraits. Hehe

My lovely Naked/Naked2 eyeshadow palettes! Of all make up, eyeshadows are the ones that I can NEVER EVER RESIST. Sometimes I find myself so ridiculous. Being able to describe two identical colours so differently to my boyfriend, just so I can justify my purchases. Oh, my love for these beautiful babies. Haha

And as mentioned in earlier posts (and being extremely apologetic for the delay in case anyone is waiting), I will be uploading swatches and reviews of these 2 of my favourite palettes.

Well, initially when I revived this blog, I really wanted it to reflect more on my passion and interest - which really is beauty stuff. Make up, skin care, nails. Everything pretty! Almost all my friends know I'm such kuku crazy over beauty stuff, in other words, I'm a true blue beauty junkie. And I'm really proud of it! *beams* My friends come to me for beauty advice and I really hope this blog can help provide some useful tips and information to anyone else who's interested! So I'm gonna work hard on that!

My top favourite mask at the moment. Love it! Reviews soon!

January's Bellabox was well.... disappointing. 

And my typical lunch in school! Tom Yum U-mian with fried dumplings. Yum! Hungry already.

And by the way, I'm feeling so dejected and have crazy low self esteem recently. I think and feel like crap oh god. Just when my skin had to improve a bit, I have to be at my fattest stage of my entire 21 years of life. Really feel so ridiculously fat and upset with my own body and yet I am always so hesitant about my diet plans. One moment I'm so crazy determined, and the next, I'm so oh-whatever. Really need to snap out of it. It's not even about the looks anymore cause I realise that it's affecting my health. Really not good to have that much pressure (from the weight I'm carrying on everyday) on my spine when I have pretty bad scoliosis. 

I'm gonna take this 3 weeks of no-school-opportunity to workout intensely to lose some weight and tone up. It's really not gonna be easy cause I can't simply hit the gym, skip or go for a jog cause I have to avoid sports/activities that creates impact on my back. Which leaves me only to swimming. It's gonna be tough, but I really hope I can do it! :)
Well, here's to the end of my blog entry! Turned out it wasn't really a short update! It's just lack of focus. Haha

Have a great day ahead and cheers to mid week! 2 more days to the weekend!

Restless

It's mid week already and I've been feeling super restless over these few days. Everyone has started school but me. Not sure if I'm happy about it.

My school starts on the 10th, which is just 2 days away. Feeling really apprehensive yet excited at the same time.
Can I not feel so heavy hearted please?

My fun-filled December!

As promised! Here's the crazy long update on various events that happened just in the month of December! I love December. Season to be fun and jolly. Its a pity it's January already and school starts, project work's about to kick in, stress about school related stuff impending. Gah. But this would be my last semester with the school, so I guess I'll bear with it and end my school life with a nice note :)

So here goes!

Baby's 21st birthday party with friends at The Studio

Bf's birthday theme was Casino and I personally felt that it was a great theme! Even the deco of The Studio was really matchy. Everything fell into place, apart from the huge rain that made travelling to the location so inconvenient (and that the birthday boy was late for his own event).
Every guest was given $40 fake money to play games such as "Big/Small" so that there could be some interaction and fun.

 Major proud of myself. Stayed up the entire night and drew up this banner from various casino themed images that I google-ed on and it turned out so pretty! We made up some props too!
So here are some photos taken with the props and banner and of course the birthday boy!

21st Birthday Celebration With Just Us 2!

Here's our second time going to USS. The first time we went was during the soft opening period of USS and there was many rides that were not open. Really excited to return back this time round (well, not really happy over the fact that I am 10kg heavier than the last time I went there) and conquer all the rides I didn't manage to the other time!

Definitely have to take a photo with the globe at USS. Tourist much. Haha

Took the Transformers ride. Pretty amazing but I came out so giddy. 2 rides at The Mummy then this ride immediately is definitely no joke. It was pouring so heavily the only indoor ride nearby was  The Mummy so we took the ride back to back.

Really professional actors!

I CONQUERED BATTLE STAR GALACTICA! HOHOHOHO! I mean seriously, this was the only ride I was intimidated by. Bf and I was queuing for the Human side and my heart was beating soooo fast I can't even... Kept saying I'm gonna die and that I shall wait for him to complete the ride outside. We queued for 1.5 hours and trust me, I kept repeating these words for then entire hour.
Got up the ride, and before the ride even started I was screaming already. Such a disgrace. But honestly, look at the photo above. It was meh. Hahaha. I handled it, relatively well. The ride ended and I was like "It's not even scary."

Same went for Cylon. Before the ride started, I was screaming already. But honestly, I felt that Cylon was really really manageable.

More random photos we took!

I love this photo of us!

This too!

Loving the glow on my skin!

XOXO

All excited about how to comb the entire area. Haha

Unfortunately we had to end the day earlier than we wanted to cause of the rain and we headed to our favourite "Katsu" place! Ginza Bairen. We had our dinner at the same place on his birthday last year. Love this place.

The must-order pork with cheese balls set. Not sure what's the exact name of this dish though. It's really really good! Always ordering it each time we return! :)

Same face! His curry rice with assorted deep fried stuff! Yummeh! Next up was home sweet home for surprises and presents!

Homemade with love from scratch Nutella Chocolate Cupcakes! I wouldn't say they taste amazing but they are not awful for sure! Dallops of nutella are hidden within the cupcakes! Everything with cupcakes taste good! Haha and that is why I chose to use nutella as the frosting.

Hope you like it! :)

Present time! Got him a Seiko watch eventually.

It was a great day of fun and once again, wishing you a Happy 21st. Hope that you enjoyed yourself thoroughly, like I did! :)

Camwhore moments!

BKK Trip with Clique!

This came immediately one day after our day at USS. Gosh, it was so rush. Tardy king and queen aka Zhiyang and Huiteng had to give all of us panic attack before the flight. Especially Zhiyang, who didn't have a local number and there was no way anyone could contact him. *Smacks forehead* We could only wait for his call and THANK GOD HE CALLED. Cause no one told him where to meet up.

Whee! Excited much! First time going to Bangkok!

Departure!

The 4 people who headed to the airport together. Also the 4 who are the most responsible and sensible people. HAHA

Happily waiting for the train to arrive, also being naive that we would reach our hotel soon after we alight from the train. Truth is, we were nowhere near Bangkok, not to mention our hotel.

Kope-d lots of photos from Facebook!

On the dusty train, outside the smellytoilet. The train ride took about an hour? We were sooooooo hungry and angsty already.
We could have just taken a taxi to the hotel but I'm glad we took the train somehow. A different experience I would say.

First meal in BKK! So awesome! PORN'S SEAFOOD. Literally. It was so good. The tom yum soup. The garlic chicken. The fried morning glory. Salivating already :( Thai food's da best!

Day 2 outside our place, KC Place! Not very happy with the hotel service though :(

Look at how chio the Bikini's are! And so cheap too! They were about 250 baht? So that's like around $10? Just realised, not exactly cheap. But still prettzz!

Got myself one set too! Still having no confidence to wear bikinis yet :/

Brekkie! Root beer float!

Day 2 was the the day we shopped the most I would say. Covered Platinum Mall, Siam and I'm really not sure where else.

Mirror shot!

Too tired. Too tired.

Look at Teng, think she was trying to do a Vlog. Her lifetime wish during the entire BKK trip - To buy  Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. Nah!

Caption given by bf: "The flavour pointed to is shit"

Hahahaha how apt seriously. The original was good though!

First time on TukTuk! Omg so major fun! Our driver was like some F1 driver. Super exciting and fast. He got me hooked on TukTuk!
We sorta got conned cause the ride costs us 250 baht if I'm not wrong. Wayyyyy over priced. But we learnt our lesson. The rest of the TukTuks we took were priced nothing close to that.

We went to Chinatown for seafood after that. Not fresh not nice. No need to mention.

Day 3 at the theme park!

Honestly speaking, this theme park was quite a waste of time. Felt super giddy after a certain spinning ride. It wasn't even fun. And couldn't enjoy my day after that.

We went to the water park soon after and I gave up after entering the wave pool. Couldn't take the pulsing waves and I was super giddy. I conclude that I have motion sickness.

Day 4 was spent shopping if I'm not wrong. And on the last day before we check out! Really wish to get back to BKK soon!

Regret that I didn't manage to get to Chatuchak and Pattaya and so many more places. I only left BKK with 2 ziplock bags of clothes :( I guess the clothes there were much more expensive that what I expected it to be. Bought lots of knit tops though! The knit tops were amazingly cheap there!

Bye BKK! Be back soon!

Christmas Celebration with Lovely People

Had a simple lunch with MI clique at Bugis Ma Maison. Simple and Heartwarming :)
Words can't explain how much I love these people. It wasn't full attendance though. Really hope we can meet up soon again!

And Christmas itself with the Clique at Bf's place as usual. Ordered Pizzas and whipped up some homemade stuff. Caught Home Alone 2 and played some drinking games. This tradition has been going for 3 years now. Hopefully we will have more of these celebrations following year after year!

And that marks my month of December. I'm sorry if this entry ended up really choppy cause there's so many things going on.

Really wanna do up a post on my favourite holy grail make up soon! Assuming most of you people reading my blog are girls and would be interested in it! Haha. Till then, hope that the past few days of the new year has been kind to you.

Lots of love,
CX