Urban Decay Naked2 Basics Palette Review & Swatches

I am a huge taupe shadow fan girl (I giggle every time calling myself a fan girl of anything) so naturally I was pretty excited when I saw press images of the new Naked Basics Palette! The new palette, called Naked2 Basics, features various shades of cool taupes that, according to Urban Decay, are wearable by anyone and any skin tones. I was a little skeptical but decided to give it a try anyway. Want to know if this could be the taupe palette you’re looking for? Read on to find out!

The packaging of the Naked2 Basics is pretty much identical to the original Naked Basics save for the slightly paler color and darker lettering on the front lid. It even has the same suede-like feel and a soft golden sheen when light reflects off the surface. The palette has a full-sized mirror inside but lacks any type of applicator.

The palette features 6 eyeshadows — 1 satin and 5 mattes. The shades are arranged from the lightest (left) to the darkest (right) as shown in the photo below.

Now, Urban Decay touted that all 6 cool-toned taupes of the Naked2 Basics are wearable by any skin tones, be it pale, medium, dark, warm, or cool. I have to be honest here and say that according to my own experience, their claim is a little too optimistic. On my medium, yellow-toned skin, some of the colors are so close to my skin color that I have a hard time making them noticeable in my eye looks. I’ll go into more details later in the shade breakdown section.

The palette was supposedly designed to be a perfect companion to the Naked 2 Eyeshadow Palette, which it is. I can see them working perfectly in harmony together. If you don’t already own the Naked 2 Palette and are planning to buy just the Naked2 Basics alone, it might be worth a trip to a store to have a swatch in person first before making a purchase, especially if your skin tone is medium or dark. :)

Texture-wise, these are some of the best mattes on the market (as you would expect from Urban Decay shadows). They are soft, smooth, super blendable (almost too blendable in fact!), and do not feel chalky or patchy at all. Some of the shades are a tad bit powdery and produce fallout but one can always work around these small difficulties.

The staying power of these shadows is great! I wore them on unprimed lids and was surprised to see that they did last throughout normal work days. However, the vibrancy of the shadows are not quite the same as when they are applied on primed lids. Speaking of unprimed and primed lids, does anyone still wear eyeshadow on bare lids anymore? I mean, I rarely ever do. It has become a necessary step in my eye makeup routine, regardless of how “natural” I intend to create my eye looks. :)

Shade breakdown

• Skimp – a pale nude; satin (repromoted)
  This is the only satin shade in the palette. It has a very, very slight sheen to the texture so it is great for subtle highlighting of the brow bone, inner corner, as well as the center of the lid. It is soft and smooth and has a nice color payoff. It applies beautifully without looking stark against my complexion.
• Stark – a nude pink; matte (new)
  Speaking of stark, this Stark shade is everything but stark! :) In fact, it barely shows up on me. The shade is so close to my skin that I might very well use it as a base and blending color. Its texture is really nice, though, soft and creamy without being patchy or chalky.
• Frisk – a warm gray; matte (new)
  Frisk is very similar to Stark in the sense that it is a difficult shade for me to pull off. It is great as a base and blending color as well as a very subtle crease color. It is slightly powdery but still applies nicely on the lid.
• Cover – a muted reddish brown; matte (new)
  Now this shows up much better! I can use it as a lid color as well as crease color. It has a nice color payoff and is very buildable. The texture is creamy smooth and blends really well. It is the warmest shade in the palette so I tend to incorporate it with every eye look I create with this palette.
• Primal – a muted brown; matte (new)
  Primal is very very close to Cover on my skin, even though they look quite different on the arm swatches. It is more cool-toned so I like to use it as a lid color. It is also a good transition shade to blend Cover with Undone. I find Primal slightly powdery and can get kicked up a lot so a tap of a brush is necessary before applying the color on the eye. The pigmentation is decent and can be built with ease. It has soft texture and blends beautifully.
• Undone – a deep smokey brown; matte (new)
  I’m still undecided whether I like the fact that Undone is not a complete black, but rather a hazy/smokey brown. It goes well with the rest of the palette, oh definitely, but I find myself wishing it to be a little darker. The pigmentation is on the sheer side for a dark shade and I feel that you can’t really create a strong outer V with it. Having said that, it is a great color to smudge/line the lower lash line! The texture is not as smooth as the rest of the palette. It is also quite powdery and produces some serious fallout.

The very basic look!

I applied Stark as a base color underneath Primal all over the lid. I used Cover on the outer third below the brow bone and then created a soft V and smudged the lower lash line with Undone. The crease color is Frisk but you probably won’t be able to see it from this angle. I finished with Skimp under my brow and on the inner corner.

Lip color is Covergirl Lip Perfection in Temptress (400)! :)

Comparison to the original Naked Basics

The original Naked Basics is obviously warm-toned in comparison. The texture of the shadows on both palettes is very similar — soft and smooth with excellent blendability.

Regardless, both palettes suffer the same color selection redundancy — the original Naked Basics has Foxy (yellow-toned) and W.O.S (pink-toned) that show up pretty much the same color on my skin and the Naked2 Basics has Stark (yellow-toned) and Frisk (pink-toned) that also look very similar on my skin.

If I were to choose between the two, I’d definitely go with the original Naked Basics simply because warm-toned shadows look better on me. Having a true pigmented matte black, though such a simple basic shade, in the palette is always a big plus in my book so the original is also superior in this case. I also find the shimmery bright Venus much more interesting than the subtle Skimp. I just feel that you can do much more with the original Naked Basics due to its contrasting colors.

Having said that, if you are pale and/or cool-toned, you may prefer the Naked2 Basics over the original. And if black is not a necessity for you, or if you are just looking for a compact neutral palette that you can use to create the most minimal eye looks with a soft smokey/hazy effect, then the Naked2 Basics is for you.

Well, that’s it! I hope you find my review and comparison helpful! Let me know if you have any questions or comments! :)

Do you wear cool-toned shadows? What are some of your favorite taupes?

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