10 Things You Should Know About the Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette
- It’s smokier than the time my brother showed up late to a hip-hop dance show smelling like he spent the last 20 minutes hot-boxing in the car. Translation: it’s incredibly freaking smokey! — and you can do a lot of different things with it, like a smokey bronze eye, smokey gray, smokey brownish black, a smokey black panda eye, a smokey plum, a smokey taupe… Lots of smokey possibilities.
- It’s completely clothing optional (It’s called Naked Smoky, after all, which reminds me… I spell it “smokey,” but UD spells it “smoky”), although I do recommend wearing clothes if you’re going out wearing this makeup.
- On that note, I may or may not be wearing clothes in these pics. Take a guess! 🙂 And then say “CLOTHES: YES” or “CLOTHES: NO” in the comments. LOL!
- The name may cause confusion if you discuss it with your Filipino mother.
MOM: What are you doing?
ME: Oh, checking out this thing called Naked Smoky.
MOM: What do you mean you’re naked!? I didn’t raise you to be naked on the Internet!
ME: No. Mom, no, I’m not naked…
MOM: And you’re smoking now too? Smoking is bad. Don’t smoke! - If you go to DSW wearing Naked Smoky on your lids, you’ll be the most glamorous person there. (True story! I just got back from looking at shoes… Didn’t buy anything, boo.)
- It will not help you make friends with the neighborhood kitties…but it can be used to create smokey eyes like the eyes of your favorite smokey-eyed kitty.
- Speaking of cats, if you happen to run into Tabs while wearing the grays and browns in this palette and he rubs his face all over your face (as he’s apt to do when he’s looking for love), you will not be able to see the cat hairs he leaves on you since most of these colors match his fur. Again, true story.
- If you get it, you’ll have another brush to add to your “Emergency”/”Just in Case”/”Things I Probably Won’t Use Every Day” pile, because the dual-ended brush that comes with it is meh. I’ll give it props for not being scratchy, but I think the brush heads are too dense and stiff to do any real-deal hard-core smokey blending. They just end up pushing stuff all over the place, so I’d grab a fluffy tapered brush and a domed blending brush instead. Fluffy blending brushes all the way, son!
- While playing with it, you may become so wrapped up that you forget to eat lunch. Yes…you guessed it. TRUE. STORY.
- It hurts like a mo’ fo’ when it falls on your foot. So try to avoid dropping it on your foot. 🙂
The 411 on the Urban Decay Naked Smoky palette
- It’s $54 and will be available online starting July 8, 2015 and at Sephora, Ulta and select Macy’s stores.
- It houses 12 powder eyeshadows with colors ideal for smokey looks.
- Nine of the shades in it are new (High, Dirtysweet, Slanted, Dagger, Smolder, Password, Whiskey, Combust and Thirteen), and the other three, while not completely new, will be available again exclusively in the palette (Radar, Armor and Black Market).
- The included dual-tipped brush has a tapered blending brush head on one end and a pencil brush head on the other.
- It comes with four simple little step-by-step eye tutorials (Iconic UD Smoky Eye, Smoky Reality Star, Smoky Cat and Everyday Smoky) and a list of smokey eye tips.
- The palette has a magnetic closure.
- Nine of the 12 shadows are highly pigmented — shimmery beige High, shimmery golden beige Dirtysweet, shimmery bronze Radar, satiny Black Market, satiny plum Smolder, matte gray Password, matte brown Whiskey, matte pinkish beige Combust and matte beige Thirteen. The other three shades, all grays, are moderately pigmented — shimmery gray Armor, shimmery bluish gray Slanted and shimmery grayish navy Dagger.
- The shadows feel pretty darned smoooove. I didn’t really have any issues with chunkiness with the shimmers, or patchiness with the mattes.
- The wear time is excellent. I think it might even be better than the usual seven or eight hours I regularly get from UD shadows (I wonder if Urban Decay tweaked the formula? Hmm…).I wore them on top of NARS Pro Prime (which I applied from lash line to brow bone) and Urban Decay Perversion Eye Pencil (which I buffed on my lid), and eight hours later the makeup still looked just as intense as it did when I applied it. I think these shadows could easily last through a 14-hour day.
- As for how easily the shadows blend, that’s where things start to get a little complicated. I’ve noticed that when I blend the Naked Smokey shadows on top of a wetter eye primer base (the NARS Pro Prime I used feels like a cream when it’s applied), they’re super easy to blend. I had absolutely no trouble getting one color to merge with the next.But on top of a drier base — like the Urban Decay Perversion Eye Liner I buffed on my lids — they seem to catch on some areas more than others. The moral of this story is that to get the smoothest gradients possible (which is one of the things you want when you’re going for a smokey eye), you’ll probably want to prep your lids with a creamy primer, and for this, NARS Pro Prime works great. I’m betting that UD’s Eyeshadow Primer Potion would work, too, as would a MAC Paint Pot or a very creamy kohl pencil.
Basically, it seems like these shadows want a little movement and slip beneath them.
- Surprisingly, fallout is minimal, especially compared to other UD Naked Palettes (for real!).For this look I did my eyes before my foundation because I anticipated having to do some cleanup afterward, since Urban Decay’s shadows are kind of famous for ended up all over the place if you’re not careful. I also purposefully chose to wear the darkest shade, Black Market, because I figured it would give me a good idea of how much fallout I’d have to contend with (a fallout barometer, so to speak). So I did my eyes, then grabbed a makeup wipe to clean up on my cheeks and under my eyes, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was very little to clean. It was kind of shocking, really. Between this and the epic wear time, I seriously wonder if Urban Decay tweaked something formula-wise.
I also kept checking throughout the day for any eyeshadow bits or bobs but didn’t see any.
- Compared to UD’s other Naked palettes, this one definitely has a darker theme. More of the eyeshadows are deeper and sootier. In the case of Naked, Naked 2 and Naked 3, they each may have had, like, one really dark shade, but I’d say that about 3/4 of Naked Smoky’s shadows are in the deep/dark range.
- I really like — dare I say love? — this lineup of colors. They’re flexible, but I do think the palette could use another brown because, dagnabbit, you can ALWAYS USE ANOTHER BROWN. Yes, you may quote me on that. 🙂 A mid-toned brown, lighter than Whiskey, would have made a great additional transition color (’cause I’m all about those gradients, man). But with a little improv, you can get by without it. If you want a lighter brown, just mix Whiskey with a lighter matte like Combust. That’s what I did in the look I’m wearing here.
I’m also wearing…
Eyes — Urban Decay Perversion Eye Pencil
Lashes — Chanel Le Volume de Chanel Mascara, Urban Decay Fast Easy Sexy Partial False Lashes in Instalush
Cheeks — Urban Decay Score After Glow Blush, Urban Decay Strip Naked Flushed Palette, Urban Decay Toasted Baked Bronzer
Lips — Urban Decay Naked Lip Pencil, Urban Decay Failbait Lip Gloss
Face — Dior Diorskin Nude Air Serum in 40, NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer in Biscuit, Urban Decay Naked Skin Ultra Definition Powder
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
WANT NEED MUST HAVE
You look amazing! I was on the fence about this until I saw the swatches. Since I don’t own any of the other palettes this may pop my UD cherry
So. Darn. Pretty. And, I’m really excited to hear you liked the formula so much. This one really appeals to me.
Its gorgeous but not for me! Pass! 🙂
Hi Karen,
This is gorgeous!! I’m really loving Password, Whiskey and Combust (the matte-ish shades) from your swatches. I didn’t think I’d need this (er, says the person who’s collected Urban Decay NAKED 1-3), but I may have to check this out in person 🙂
Dammit, I knew I would fall in love this as soon as I saw someone do an actual look with it! This looks amazing and perfect for super sexy, night-time looks. Unfortunately, I never go anywhere where I could wear makeup like this everyday 🙁
Oh geez, I want this! I already have nakeds 2 & 3, & I think this will be joining them ASAP!!!
Magnetic closure? Wow, I think the Urban Decay team may have outdone themselves in the palette design department. That said I kinda agree with you Karen, this palette needs one less smokey shade and one more matte brown for transitioning!
Finally! More swatches and pics of the palette. Definitely a must have for me since these are my colors that I can wear everyday to work. The packaging is different from my other Nakeds but still unique and beautiful. At least there are 9 new shades for me to look forward to. Thanks Karen!
UD and little fallout? The end is nigh! What sorcery is this? This palette looks like a very good improvement- more mattes, less fallout, better wear time… it’s what people wanted, right? I’ve never been a smokey eye aficionado, so I’ll probably pass, but kudos to UD to popping out a relevant and improved Naked palette!
Hmm… Naked peaches. I would totally do a naked peach-toned palette. With like one mint thrown in there. Psst, can you pass that along? 😉
PS I’m voting that you are naked. Pants are always optional when it comes to the internet.
Karen, you make anything look amazing and this palette is no exception! I love what you’ve done with it and how it looks, but I am not in love with the name nor the blatant milking of the Naked franchise no matter how silly Naked and Smoky sounds when put together, considering how hard UD tried to make Naked… naked and neutral when launched. But damn, you look amazing and erm… Clothes: On … I hope 😉
I love the look you created Karen! I really like how versatile the palette is but I don’t know… I’m not really into dark eye shadows so I’ll probably pass… Really, really love ‘Smolder’ though!
Gorgeous you look Karen 🙂
Clothes: YES!! Haha Karen could you pleaaaaaase film us some tutorial with this palette? For the smoky eye virgins who simply must have it. Thank you in advance ;).
This. Is. Gorg. I’ve never bought a Naked palette (gasp, I know) but I think I finally like this one. I’ve always had an issue with the others: not enough matte shades, not enough darker shades, etc., but I can’t find any reasons not to buy this one 😀
I think I want this! Trying hard not to want it. Love the theme. And I vote that you’re dressed. You know, per your momma’s advice 🙂
I am torn about this palette. The colors are gorgeous, your look is stunning but I don’t know how often I’d wear such a look.On the other hand, I want it just because it’s an UD Naked palette…
And I vote that you’re wearing clothes!
No make-up palette could make me forget about lunch, lolllz…
Seriously though, I really like the look of the new smokey palette, I might crack and treat myself!
I was totally on the fence about this palette until I saw this post! I’m pretty lukewarm about the Naked palettes in general(love the Naked Basics though!) because of all of the fallout, so I’m intrigued now that I hear there isn’t any with the Smoky palette. Love this look on you! (I’m also with you–it should be “smokey” 😉 )
I vote not wearing clothes bc that sounds like something I might do! :p
Ok, so Naked Smokey. It really is a beautiful palette, no question. But why do I need it? I have all 4 Vices, Nakeds 1 & 3, the Smoked palette, some singles from Naked 2, Naked Basics, the Glinda palette… and other older palettes.
Why do I need this? As much as I hate to say it, I just don’t need any more neutrals. Perhaps if I see it in person I will be dazzled, but right now it seems redundant.
Also forgot to mention you look stunning in these pictures. 🙂
Good to note all 10, but the best is want cat love wear Smoky!
The look that you’ve created is stunning! I haven’t worn a smoky eye in awhile now but I do love it and as a plus my husband loves a smoky eye on me :)) I skipped on the Naked 3 palette cause I was not in to the rosy tones but this palette looks very sexy to me so I might just get it.
I need this in my life, no doubt about it!
You are definitely the queen of blending. And Clothes: Yes. 🙂 I would be able to do the Smokey Panda (aka – holy cow, did someone just punch you in both eyes?). HAHA!
You look great! Love this palette.
Oh I wish you would do a tutorial on this look! I don’t plan on getting this one since I have similar colors, but smokey eyes on my hooded lids are usually disasters…
From one makeup addict to another, pretty please? 😀
Not that anything was holding me back from purchasing this (gotta collect ’em all!) but yeah, I totes need this. The packaging is gorg! And I love the colors. Most smoky palettes I’ve had in the past or seen have always been too dark for my tastes. I think this has a nice balance of colors.
I’m so pale and I NEVER do a smoky eye. It just doesn’t work for me. But the colors in this palette are so gorgeous I want to buy it just to stare at the colors. And maybe use the colors one at a time as liners. Smolder just keeps calling out to me. Must go test swatch as soon as possible!
Love your look!!! At first I told myself this palette was not for me. But now since I saw your post I am thinking about it. Then again I do ask myself “will I ever use the palette?” “Don’t get it just because it’s pretty!”
I was totally not sold on this pallete, but this look right here… sigh, now I want it!
Smoulder, Whiskey and Combust really stand out to me! Love the look of this!!
Erin | Erin and Katherine Talk Beauty
Gahhhh, do I want this? I kind of want this. But the shadows are so dark and I’m so fair-skinned. I had the Naked 3 and ended up giving it to a friend. Why I thought rose gold was a good color for a redhead, I don’t know. It just didn’t look right and I never used it. But this is so pretty. Maybe I should try the Naked 2 instead. You, Karen, look gorgeous and can rock the heck out of a black shadow!
Meghan I am fair skinned too and Naked 2 is mostly cooler toned, much easier for me to wear than 1 or 3. If you want to take a dip in the UD Smokey waters, you could try the Smoked palette- I have seen it on sale lately. It is a good starter and has basic matte shadows and jewel toned dark ones. or take the plunge with this one, it looks like it could work well for pale complected beauties like us. I am going for it.
Karen, you are the Queen of Smokey Eye looks! I swear you could probably create a smokey eye with piece of chalk, a bit of eye cream and a burnt biscuit! thanks for the amazing swatches and for quoting your mom in this post. I can just hear her voice admonishing you- she sounds adorably confused. I will definitely be in line at Sephora for this one. Haven’t been this excited for an UD release in ages. It is as edgy as the vintage releases but with a modern edge and much nicer formula and packaging from the sounds of it. Sign me up!
I like it but I don’t love it. Not enough bronzes/browns, and the fact that there are matte shades in this and they wasted four slots with mattes kind of dissuades me. I have no use for mattes of any kind.
CLOTHES: NO!
I’m getting this palette. It is a wet dream! SO many options! :O
I am so flabbergasted at the price, and even more so that this line sells so well! Ach! It’s absolutely gorgeous though, I won’t deny. The colours look buttery smooth.
Also, CLOTHES: NO. Live life on the edge, Karen!
Smokey HOT. Damn, girl!
Wow this palette looks like amazing! I just wonder if the colors would work on a pale yellow-greenish skin :O cool tones like blues and grays usually look really bad on me :/
WHYYYYYY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME ERRRYTIME KAREN?? I would be like “No, not interested”, see it on you and I want it…like BADLY. No matter what it is! Stop, please. Okay don’t. I love your reviews and swatches 😀 Thanks!! These colors are gorg!
I need to have this as soon as it comes out….I love ANY Smoky eye….makeup looks amazeballs!!!!
Gooorgeous look on you girl! This palette looks awesome, I just need to actually use the old UD smokey palette that I have first!
I’m just so darn torn! Of course, you’ve managed to make this palette look incredible and make it seem like I need in my stash. But Idk. I’ve been coming across some mixed reviews that have me a little confused. I really can’t wait for this baby to hit stores!
Hmm, interesting! Well, all I can say is that I had a great experience with this palette. Not sure about the other reviews you read, but I’ve used it and worn it, and I think it’s lovely.
You look great! These are definitely not my colors (plus I really don’t like big palettes) so I’ll pass!
Mrrow! How pretty, especially Dagger, Black market, and Smolder! And did I read that right? Smoky Cat? Double Mrrow. Is that the same look Tabs was telling me about? :). I don’t wear eyeshadows much, I don’t need a new palette, BUT ZOMG, this is all kinds of amazing!
I need to see this palette in person before deciding anything. I do love the colors and the theme, but I just can’t with yet another eyeshadow palette. However, if they ever release Smolder as a single, you bet your buns I’d be all over that.
More than the epic palette that I now want because of you, this post was on point. Perhaps top 3 favorites. The joke with your mom was hilarious, your pictures were breathtaking, and your content made me read every word. A+
Looking pretty as always Karen ….please make a tutorial video of this look 🙂
2 more days! I need this in my life!!!!
Bought this one. It is gorgeous. I have Naked 1 and 3, skipped Naked 2. I also have a bazillion other neutral palettes (chocolate bar 1, Too Faced Natural at Night, Too Faced Natural Eye, Tarte Wild something (the one with animal print on the edges and black on the top and bottom), Lorac Pro 1, Lorac Unzipped, Unzipped Gold… and more!) But this one is different from my others and I like how UD included more mattes.
Was on the fence about getting this, but you talked me into it! Thanks for a great review.. I had to LOL at your Pinoy mom story. Sounds like my mom too! 😀
I actually thought these were pics of Jennifer Lopez!! Thanks for the pics and the info. Just got mine the other day. Can’t wait!!