Review: Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette

About a month ago I bought the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette, a bit late compared to everyone else but I’ve wanted one of the Naked palettes and the rose gold colours in this were so pretty I had to go for this one. It cost £38 on the John Lewis website, I decided against getting it from somewhere cheaper as I’ve already had one fake Naked 2 palette from eBay I didn’t want to risk another fake. It’s more than I spend on most palettes, I think the only exception is one from the Balm, but I thought it would be worth it having heard such great reviews of it since it’s been out.

You get a sample of four of the primer potions, I haven’t opened them yet but I have used three of them before and they’re all good as far as staying power goes. You get Original, Eden, Sin and the Anti-Aging one which I bought from John Lewis at the same time as this palette. I love the original but it was out of stock, it does dry clear and everything sticks to it well. The anti-aging doesn’t say it dries clear but it seems to as well, I can’t honestly see much difference between this and the original and I’ve tried then next to each other. Sin was a bit too sparkly for me as a base when I got a sample of it before but it does work if you’re using similar colours and as it’s champagne and these are rose golds and warm colours I’d say it’s a good match for this palette. I might open them all to do a comparison as I have a full size of the one already, I just didn’t do that now as I might use them when I go away somewhere and I know in the past these kinds of samples dry up when they’ve been opened.

The palette itself looks nice, it’s inside a card box, which I am probably keeping, which seems a bit big for it but does include the samples of the Primer Potion so I guess that’s why. I really like the look of the powders on the front of it and on the back it’s got the same design with the names of them along with a picture of the brush and the four Primer Potions so you know exactly what you’re getting. The box looks and feels expensive to me with the textured background and embossed shiny bits for the eyeshadows, primers, brush and the writing on the front.

The palette itself feels nice enough though the way it opens and closes with the plastic does make it feel cheaper than I expected it too. It holds it closed well enough but compared to others it seems more clunky than I thought it would. It has a nice look, the metal palette with the embossed Naked 3 and Urban Decay on the front and the textured rose gold background for it. Inside the mirror is a nice size, it covers almost all of the lid, but it does need something to hold it up as it just opens flat rather than the hinge keeping it open if you want it to. Inside looks a bit cheaper as it’s a plastic insert but it’s nicely arranged with the names under the eyeshadows which are a good size. The brush at the bottom has a pretty deep space for it and it’s easy to get it out as there’s a bit of a ramp on either end you can push it up if you need to.

The brush that comes in this palette seems to be quite popular with bloggers but I’m not sure if I get on with it that well. It’s a double ended brush, one is for applying the eyeshadow and the other is for blending it. I like the feel of the brush, it’s got a metal handle and it’s got a good amount of weight to it so it feels sturdy and well made. The brushes themselves are nice looking too and feel really soft and there are no stray bristles poking off at odd angles, it feels like it’ll stay that way for a while as well. My main problem is with the eyeshadow application end as it’s a bit stiff for me, when using it with the matte shadows it seemed to create more powder and problems than it picked up. It was ok with the shimmers that were creamier but it was still harder than I’m used to using on my eyes. The blending end is great, it works how I’d want it to and it’s nice and fluffy and easy to use. It’s not a problem as I have my elf and real techniques brushes that I can use instead but it was a bit of a disappointment after having heard great things about it. Maybe I’ll learn to love it and use it all the time but at least the fluffy end will get used.

Now the main reason for the palette, the eyeshadows. I’ve had a few different Urban Decay shadows in the past though I’ve always ended up getting them second hand from eBay and they’re the old formula so I was interested in seeing how much it had changed and if these were even better than the old ones. There’s a nice range of finishes with mattes, shimmers, possibly a couple of satins and some with glitter in (not sure it’d be an Urban Decay palette without those).

Strange – Very pale warm cream coloured matte. Powdery in the pan but applies pretty evenly without much powder fallout. A good match for my skin so it’s hard to tell how opaque it is but seems to be opaque in one layer, blends really well with darker shades so good for blending out colour and under brow highlight.

Dust – Shimmery champagne with silver glitter particles. Fairly sheer, needs a couple of layers to become opaque and a lot of glitter fallout so one to use before foundation. Blends well but does make a mess when you do, nice and creamy and lasts well.

Burnout – Warm champagne or pale rose gold shimmer. Opaque in one layer, nice and creamy and easy to blend. No actual glitter in it so no fallout and feels almost like a cream eyeshadow when applying and almost sticky which does make it last well.

Limit – Matte warm light nude. Opaque with one layer when using a primer, though it does feel slightly powdery in the pan it’s easy to apply and doesn’t feel like that when applying it. Bends well and lasts pretty well though it seemed to disappear faster than the shimmers even with a primer but lasted about three hours as pigmented as when it was applied which may be long enough anyway.

Buzz – Shimmery peach/rose gold. Another really creamy one that applies and blends really easily. It is very pigmented and one layer was enough for this to be opaque. Very similar colour to Burnout and Dust but a bit pinker.

Trick – Shimmery copper. This one stood out the most to me in the palette and it’s probably the biggest disappointment. It looks nice and creamy but it took quite a bit of brushing on it to get any amount of product and when I applied it it came out hardly pigmented and needed three or four layers to get the swatch on my arm. I love the colour, it blends well and lasts but the formula has let it down as it just takes so much to get the colour on my eyelids.

Nooner – Warm medium nude matte. Nice colour for the crease and blending between others. Feels less powdery than the other mattes and really easy to apply and blend though it doesn’t take much blending for it to disappear on my skin. It lasts pretty well and seems pigmented with or without the primer under it which is unusual for a matte in my experience.

Liar – Shimmery pink rose gold. A fairly similar colour to Buzz and Burnout but a darker shade. Really pigmented, very impressed with this one, it applied very easily and one layer was opaque. Very creamy and blends well with no fallout.

Factory – Warm brown, not sure if this is a shimmer or satin finish really. Less shimmer than the other shimmers in the palette, fairly pigmented but could do with two layers to get it opaque. It turns out darker on my skin than it does in the palette. Fairly creamy though not as much as others, blends well and no fallout but doesn’t seem to have the staying power of some of the others in the palette.

Mugshot – Shimmery slightly pink taupe (not sure how to describe this one). It’s a similar colour to Liar but a bit cooler and has a slight copper hint to it. In the palette this is very close in colour to Factor and Liar but it’s a bit more coppery than Liar and lighter than Factory. Creamy, nicely pigmented and blends well, lasts well too as lasted four hours with primer underneath and still looked good.

Darkside – Shimmery warm taupe. Possibly another satin finish, it’s a bit too shimmery for that to me but it’s not as shimmery as others in the palette. It’s nice and creamy and easy to apply and blend though it doesn’t seem to have as much staying power as others.

Blackheart – Matte dark brown/black base with red/copper glitter. Applying this it’s very pigmented, it surprised me with one layer it was opaque, though unfortunately this doesn’t seem to last and it was less opaque, even with a primer, after half an hour. The glitter does cause a lot of fallout and not much of it actually stuck to my skin so it ended up looking less glittery than when I started and my face got sparklier. Feels slightly powdery when applying it but it does blend pretty well if you’re careful.

Some were definitely better than others but I’ll go through them all in one go, I’ve swatched them on top of the original Primer Potion on the top and without anything on the bottom half of the swatch.

I think the majority of the colours are good, they’re well pigmented and blend well and so far they seem to be lasting quite well too. I was a bit disappointed with a couple of them, Trick especially, and there seem to be quite a few of the colours which are very close to each other so there could have been a better range but overall I like it. It hasn’t made me suddenly convert to sticking with the more expensive Urban Decay over companies like Sleek or MUA but it’s nice to have something that’s a bit more expensive and a bit of a treat.

I think I probably would recommend this palette. For the price you get twelve eyeshadows which isn’t bad, it means they’re around £3 each even without the primers and the brush which, for Urban Decay, seems a good deal to me. If you already have a lot of neutral palettes I think this is different enough with the rose gold element to it that it could be worth looking at. If you know warm colours do not work for you then this isn’t one for you but if it’s the sort of price you would pay for a palette and you like the rose gold look like I do then it’s definitely worth a look at. I will definitely be using it a lot especially in the autumn now as I wear my rose gold jewellery even more now and with the current trend for maroon and dark red or purples I think these colours work really well. Overall it’s a nice palette with enough different colours to make it worth it even if there are a few that are almost dupes of each other.