Third Time Rosy

Like most beauty junkies, I was in danger of “Naked fatigue” from the continual releases from Urban Decay of their Naked eyeshadow palettes. When I first saw pictures and swatches of Naked3 online, I was a bit on the fence about whether the palette was for me. “Rose-hued neutrals” sounded off alarm bells in my mind about the difficulty of pulling off pink eyeshadows, and I’d largely dismissed the first half of the palette as shades I would hardly ever touch given they looked so light, and so pink. But you know how the story goes. With every new YouTube video I watched and blog post I encountered that featured Naked3, my initial lukewarm sentiments inevitably turned around. The fact the palette seemed perpetually out of stock on Look Fantastic and HQHair did little to dissuade me. Finally, one night in a moment of weakness, I made a order on BeautyBay, where I also previously purchased my original Naked and Naked2 palettes.

Before I get into the review, a little rant about BeautyBay. I noticed they deliberately hiked up the price of the Urban Decay Naked palettes to Australian customers by some $20. They also seemed to be selectively selling them to certain countries, as I would read messages on their Facebook from UK customers asking when Naked3 would come back in stock, but I’d check the website and Naked3 would be available to purchase for me, albeit at a whopping $82 or so. I checked my order history and in 2012, I bought the original Naked palette for $59.60 (which back then, included $9.90 shipping) and Naked2 for $58, but I paid around $82 for my Naked3. Granted, the Australian dollar has also fallen a bit since then, making foreign currencies more expensive, but it’s clear there’s been some deliberate, targeted price hike which I find dishonest and unjustified, especially since comparable sites like Look Fantastic and HQHair are selling Naked3 for the retail price of £37 or $69.

Moving on to my thoughts about the actual palette. I’ll begin by saying I love Naked3 much more than I thought I would, and even though I paid a premium for it, I’m thrilled to have it in my hands. Despite reservations about the shades in the first half of the palette, I actually use them more than I do the first half of Naked or Naked2. Yes, they’re generally very warm, pink, coppery, peachy shades, but I tend to focus them primarily on the first third of my eye or as an inner corner highlight. The more outright glittery shades like Dust, Buzz and Trick do have quite a bit of fallout (as well as Blackheart), but I usually overcome that problem by wetting my brush with one or two spritzes of Avene Thermal Spring Water first. Doing this also makes the eyeshadows much more vibrant and smooth to apply.

l-r: Strange, Dust, Burnout, Limit, Buzz, Trick

l-r: Nooner, Liar, Factory, Mugshot, Darkside, Blackheart

l-r (top row, then bottom row): Strange, Dust, Burnout, Limit,

Nooner, Liar, Factory, Mugshot

l-r (top row, then bottom row): Limit, Buzz, Trick,

Mugshot, Darkside, Blackheart

l-r (top row, then bottom row): Strange, Dust, Burnout, Limit, Buzz, Trick,

Nooner, Liar, Factory, Mugshot, Darkside, Blackheart

A surprising favourite in this palette has been the ultra sparkly, bronzy, coppery Trick. Liar is also beautiful as an all-over lid colour, and the mauve/taupe matte shades like Limit and Nooner are super versatile and something a bit different to your usual beiges and browns. I feel Urban Decay has done incredibly well with the overall shade selection in Naked3, especially in coming up with twelve, all new eyeshadows that form a very complete, coherent palette that still is sufficiently different to its two predecessors. The quality is as you would expect from Urban Decay, and while a couple of the shades were perhaps slightly lacking in pigmentation and drier in texture than in the original Naked and Naked2 palettes, there’s nothing to really complain about. I’ve been reaching for Naked3 almost non-stop since it arrived. Just when I thought I’d had enough, Urban Decay have done it again.