Review: Urban Decay Naked Palette!

This Christmas morning, a lone Sephora bag sat under the tree. Since I am the lone (read: obsessive) makeup addict in our family, I suspected the bag had my name on it and my excitement level skyrocketed. Excitedly, I tore into the bag to see that my awesome mother-in-law had given me the Urban Decay Naked Palette.

The stuff legends are made of, people.

I've lusted after this palette for two years now, but every time I marched into Sephora, wallet out and ready to purchase, it was sold out. I had a pretty darn good substitute in my Stila In The Light palette, but my mind kept going back to the Naked Palette and I hoped that someday I would finally get my little mitts on it.

And then finally.....

(Yes, this post totally warrants the Success Kid meme.)

The Naked Palette contains 12 neutral shades that are supposed to flatter any skin tone or eye color (Virgin, Sin, Naked, Sidecar, Buck, Half-Baked, Smog, Darkhorse, Toasted, Hustle, Creep, and Gunmetal). It also comes with Urban Decay's flat Good Karma brush and a sample size of Urban Decay's Primer Potion (oh man, I love this stuff!!).

Most of the shadows are pretty heavy on the shimmer, with only two matte shadows in the entire palette (Naked and Buck). The two matte shadows aren't as heavily pigmented and I find that I need to use a considerable amount of product to achieve any color on my eye lids (see swatches below; the mattes are decidedly "meh"). The shimmery shadows are buttery smooth, give rich color payoff, and are very easy to blend. They definitely make the palette.

I used this palette the day after I got it (specifically Toasted, Hustle, and Creep), and didn't experience any of the allergic reactions some people claim to have when using this product. However, when I later used Sin and Buck my eyelids erupted in crazy red scaly patches and itchy white bumps.

-The hell?

The same eyeshadows, when used on my sister-in-law, created no issue. I tried them a second time, and BAM! Same thing: red, itchy miserableness.

Always a glutton for punishment, I tried it a third time, just to be sure it was in fact the makeup. The third time proved to be the charm, and my eyelids didn't react to Sin or Buck at all. This led me to conclude that perhaps the issue wasn't with the eyeshadows themselves, but rather it was with my brushes. I realized I hadn't cleaned them in a good long time (you can say "ick!", I won't feel judged), and that lack of cleanliness was more than likely the culprit.

A good soak in the sink revealed just how much gunk (and possible germs) were living in my brushes. No wonder my eyelids freaked out!

So remember ladies, get thy brushes to a cleanery! Or else you might end up with a pair of puffy red eyes yourselves.

Do you own the Naked Palette? What are your favorite shadow combinations? Share in the comments!