I love eyeshadow, and especially love eyeshadow palettes,
but I find that a lot of them contain very shimmery and bold colours, which are
great, but I really needed something more subtle for work, and although
drugstore eyeshadows can be really good, the pigmentation just wasn’t there for
a lot of shadows. So, a couple of months ago, I decided to bite the bullet and
buy the Urban Decay Naked Basics 2 palette. I opted for the Basics 2 over the
original because I felt that the shadows were more cool toned, and suited me
better. The shadows are also matte, which is perfect for me as I tend to prefer
simple and subtle eyeliner looks.
The palette itself is very small and compact, but does
include a good sized mirror. Inside the palette there are six shades: Skimp,
Stark, Frisk, Cover, Primal and Undone. Honestly, I love all of these shades,
and use this palette pretty much every day. The shadows are lovely and soft,
and they’re very easy to blend.
Skimp is a very light shadow, and is the only one in the
palette that isn’t matte. I wouldn’t say that Skimp is shimmery per se, but it does
have a slight shimmer to it, which makes it very pretty on its own, or just to
brighten up your overall eyeshadow look.
Stark is probably my favourite colour in this palette. It’s
hard to describe the colour really, it shows up slightly peachy on my skin
tone, but it makes a very pretty base, and adds a little more colour than just
using Skimp alone. I like to us Frisk as more of a transition colour in the
crease, and if I want more definition then I usually mix together Cover and
Primal. Undone is a very versatile shade, and I’m a fan of it because it’s dark
enough to use as an eyeliner, or to create a smokey eye with, but it’s also not
quite black. Sometimes I find black to be too harsh on my skin tone (I’m very
pale), so Undone is a good alternative, but is still as versatile and bold as a
black shadow.
Compared to some other eyeshadow palettes the Naked Basics
are fairly pricey, but I think the quality of the product and the fact that I
use all of the shades really makes it worth it for me. I still have plenty of
other eyeshadows that I love and use regularly, but this palette is my perfect ‘everyday’
palette, and it’s also great for travel.