Anyways, this is the Naked 2 palette, which is $50 at Sephora. It comes in this plastic tray that holds the palette and the lip gloss. The palette itself is a warm grey metal, with Naked 2 embossed on the lid. It opens up to reveal 12 eyeshadows, a good-sized mirror, and a double-ended brush. I really like the packaging. It feels modern and sleek, but still luxurious, and very study--I have no worries about this palette breaking at all, and I tend to break things.
Lip Junkie gloss in Naked: The lip gloss is itty-bitty, and has a squeeze applicator. The color is a pinky-brown with frosty shimmer, and a minty vanilla flavor. It's a nicely packaged little gloss, but I'm honestly never going to use it. I don't like sticky glosses, the color is a little blah, and I hate frosty shimmer in my lip glosses. I wish it had been replaced with a Primer Potion sample instead, although I'm sure the color and the formula of the gloss will really work for some people.
Once you open the palette, you can see that the mirror is actually large enough to apply your eyeshadow with! So that's exciting (usually those tiny mirrors in eyeshadow palettes are just ridiculous). You have the 12 shadows, arranged kind of from light to dark, although not consistently, and the Good Karma brush below the shadows. I really like this brush. I've been using it with the shadows every day. It has a flat applicator side and a skinny, but fluffy, blending brush on the other. The bristles are synthetic (yay), and work really nicely. It applies shadow neatly and blends it flawlessly. I'm so glad this brush comes with the palette, because it really does make it travel appropriate. If you don't need primer, you could just bring that little palette with you and be done with all your eye makeup needs.
From left to right: Blackout, Busted, YDK, Verve, Pistol, Suspect, Snake Bite, Teas, Chopper, Bootycall, Half Baked, Foxy. I swatched all of these dry--you could get more pigment if you applied them wet, but I found that they all applied very nicely dry and without a lot of effort. The only issues I had were with Tease and Pistol, which I had trouble getting to show up on my arm, although I haven't had trouble getting them to show up on my eye.
Left to right: Foxy, Half Baked, Bootycall, Chopper, Tease, Snake Bite: Foxy is a matte, creamy bisque. It's hard to see on the far left there because it's such a light color, but it is very pigmented. It's similar to MAC's Brule, and makes a nice lid shade or highlighter shade if you don't like sparkle in your highlighters. Half Baked (also in Naked 1) is a shimmering golden bronze. It's very metallic and applies like butter. I don't love that it's in both palettes, because that makes it harder to justify buying Naked 1! Bootycall is a lightly shimmery nude champagne that also makes a great highlighter or lid shade--it's a pink, shimmery version of Foxy. Chopper is a shimmery copper with silver microglitter. It's a very similar shade to MUFE's Aqua Cream #12 (which I also own) with the inclusion of silver shimmer. I like that mixed metallics idea. It applies, again, like butter, with a small amount of fallout. Tease is a medium, warm matte brown that reminds me of a slightly warmer, darker version of MAC's Wedge. It is slightly less pigmented than other shadows in the palette, not to the point where it's hard to use, but the contrast is pretty noticeable when 10 other shadows are much more pigmented. Snake Bite is a bronzey-brown with a metallic base. It looks much prettier in real life than on my arm, and it's actually one of my favorite colors in the palette. It's just such a flattering, easy to work with color. I've been using it on my lashline and crease for smokey definition that creates shape but isn't too dark.
Left to right: Blackout, Busted, YDK, Verve, Pistol, Suspect: Blackout is a matte black, plain and simple. It's not exciting, but it is very nicely pigmented, especially compared to other matte blacks I've tried, like MAC's Carbon. I like that it's in this palette because it's not something I'd buy on its own, but it's such a good color to own, especially for smokey eyes! Busted is a shimmering deep brown, slightly darker and cooler than Snake Bite. I like that this palette gives you two different brown options for contouring and smokey eyes. YDK is another one of my favorite colors. It's a cool bronze metallic shade, with a bit of a rose gold feel. It looks like a million bucks on your lids, and it's just such an interesting color that really pops. Verve is a brownish grey with a lot of metallic shimmer. I don't usually go for grey eye shadows, but this one pulls warm on me, which makes it much more flattering and easy to wear. Pistol is a shimmery, deeper, more grey grey-brown (say that 10 times fast) that was really hard to swatch on my arm. It's not the kind of color I'll wear all the time, but it is nice to have a solid, neutral grey in the palette. Lastly, Suspect is a golden beige with a metallic, shimmery finish. It's another one of my favorites because it's such an interesting neutral that would be flattering on a wide range of skin tones.
In terms of lasting power, I've been wearing these with a primer (MAC's Painterly) in the 80-90 degree humid Boston heat, and getting about 10 hours of wear before I get significant fading and creasing. Given that this heat and humidity is not normal, I'd say the wear time on these shadows, especially in a cooler climate, is pretty darn good.
Awkward Chic rating: A+! This is such a good value for the money. $50 for a mini gloss, a good quality brush, and 12 sizeable shadows is fantastic. I know I'm going to wear at least 10 of these shades all the time, and this is so convenient for traveling. I'd definitely buy this for a friend--it's a great buy for a makeup addict or a makeup newbie.
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