Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette

The latest Urban Decay Naked Smoky palette has been hugely anticipated and has been selling out in seconds to bloggers and make up enthusiasts a like. It's my favourite palette of all the Naked sets simply because in my little goth head, smoky eyes are always better. But it works beautifully even if you don't want to go full Amy Lee. There's a huge selection of sparkly pinks, golden and muted nudes, shimmery blues and silvers, and of course super pigmented dark blacks, purples and greys. 

But to appeal to me a make up set only needs two things. Gorgeous packaging and cute names for all the shades. Urban Decay deliver fantastically on both these fronts. The palette box itself is a frosted black plastic inlayed with swirling, swooshing smoke in a greyscale of shades. The name of the palette itself is embossed and coloured in a striking silver. The names however are what I really love. If you're going to make an eyeshadow and name it Password or Dagger or Thirteen then I will just throw my money at you and go. 

Below you can see the colours of this make up palette against my skin tone. Now I don't know why because I have seen other bloggers use this palette and they had a better variation on colour to me, but my skin tone makes most colour grey. I'm not joking. I always struggled with blues and purples back in the noughties because on me they just go grey.  The same unfortunately can be said for some of this set of colours too. The light colours towards either end, and even some of the matte colours are still easily definable, until you get to colours around the black (or Black Market as it is here). You can barely see the difference between Black Market, Smolder and Password on my skin tone. They look in the palette above as black, purple and grey. But that is no reason to be put off! Password blends beautifully to soften the edges of Black Market and acts as a boarder between a dark colour and a light colour. Smolder would look more purple-y against a lighter colour such as High or Combust. However between two dark shades it just gets lost.

To test out this incredible palette I created a few different looks. + if you buy this palette you can make them too, these are the suggested looks for this palette. The look above is quite a dramatic smoky eye created using Combust, Thirteen, Smolder, Password and High. I also used Soap and Glory eyeliner in Superblack and Benefit's Roller Lash mascara. Considering I felt that this was quite a rock chick look, I went completely uncompromising on the lips. Who care about the bold eye or dramatic lips rule?! I did both and applied coat upon coat of Topshop lip colour in Legend.

Below we have the Smoky Reality Star eye make up. Which basically uses a pencil to create a dramatic but smoked out cat flick. The colours used here are Thirteen, High, Black Market, Slanted and Dagger. Again I used S&G eyeliner in Superblack and Benefit Roller Lash to help create this look. On my lips this time I went for a Kardashian family nude, layering Coquette by Lime Crime and Cognac by Smashbox Cosmetics, layering the two into a nude ombre look.

Below here we have the Everyday smoky which is a striking softly round eye. There's no elongating with eyeliner, or pulling the corners of the eye up and out, it's simply a soft everyday bit of smoke. This look was created using Combust, Armor, and Password. It drags a little of a lighter colour through the centre of the eyelid to give the appearance of bigger an brighter eyes, which is a clever and super easy technique of seeming more wide awake. This look I teamed with a red wine stain lip colour from Revlon's Colorbust Matte Balm range in a shade called Sultry.

The last look is probably my favourite. For everyday make up I usually go for golds and metallics to lift and brighten my eyes. These types of colours work well on my skin and compliment the fact I have very dark brown eyes. On top of that I usually do a sleek and pointed cat flick, a look I have been practicing since I was 13. To create this Smoky Cat look (which is my fave) I used the shades; High, Dirtysweet, Radar and Whiskey. I again used the S&G eyeliner, and Benefit Roller Lash. I also used my all time favourite liquid eyeliner, Glameyes by Rimmel London. I also teamed it with my current favourite lipstick, Sexy Sienna by Charlotte Tilbury. It's peachy undertone becomes more vibrant with the neon orange of my hair but still keeps a subtle off-nude look.

Urban Decay Naked Smoky Eye Palette 
Soap and Glory Smolder Kohl Eyeliner in Superblack
Benefit Roller Lash Mascara 
Rimmel London Glam'Eyes Professional Liquid Eyeliner in Black Glamour

Topshop Long Lasting Lipstick in Legend (discontinued, similar shade here)

Lime Crime Unicorn Lipstick in Coquette

Smashbox Cosmetics Be Legendary Lipstick in Cognac
Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm lip colour in Sultry
Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution Lipstick in Sexy Sienna

If you love make up and dramatic eyes then this is a palette you need to own. It's new for Autumn 2015 which means it's packed with this seasons essential shades. It comes with a fantastic double ended brush that helps you complete this eye looks to a professional, high standard. I recommend this palette to everyone - even more so if your skin take purple pigments well!

Have a happy Sunday everyone!