Review! Urban Decay Naked2

Just so my Naked palette wouldn't feel lonely, I bought Urban Decay's Naked 2 to go along with it!

They are quite cozy together in the tin I store them in.  Naked 2 came with a little sample size of Lip Junkie in Naked, and you can see my review of that here.

 Urban Decay says this palette has 12 Taupe and Greige Neutrals.   Greige means grey, by the way.

Um, well, no, it's not taupe and grey.  It's 8 pinks and purples, with one yellow toned cream (Foxy), one golden copper (Half Baked), one cool grey (Pistol), and a solid matte black (Blackout).

It's pretty, to be sure, but the pictures they show on their website don't show how pink this is.

I've seen the comparison between Naked and Naked2 as Naked is warm, while Naked2 is cool.  Well... I don't think so.  Naked is browns, and Naked2 is pink; but both are fairly neutral.  There are a few colors that tilt one way or the other, but overall, neutral.

The matte shades are very nice, although they seem like they are going to be chalky as you start to load your brush.  Once applied, they smooth out perfectly, and blend easily.  The shimmers create a nice sheen, and the glitter shades seem pretty subtle, especially for Urban Decay (who is known for "glitter bomb" eyeshadows).

The case is metal, and snaps closed.  I love the case!  It is very sturdy, and you can leave it loose in your makeup storage and not have to worry about it falling open and ruining the shadows.

To try out this palette, I wore it several times, and each time I tried a somewhat random combination.  I put the first six colors together, then the last six, then every other one starting with the first, and then every other one starting with the second.

For the first look, I used Foxy, Half Baked, Bootycall, Chopper, Tease, and Snakebite.  (Oh, lordy, the names!)  One thing to remember when using this palette, is that it looks very different close up versus farther away.  In the close-ups, it looks like I have very little eyeshadow on.  In contrast, the full-face view seems much more dramatic.  The lighting is exactly the same for both.

For the next look, I used Suspect, Pistol, Verve, YDK, Busted, and Blackout.  This look is darker, but still very soft up close.  I created a false wing by angling the corner up with a clean stop, rather than applying a dark color to create the wing.  I like doing this because it still gives a nice, somewhat sultry look, without going very dark.

Third, I tried every other color, starting with the first pan on the left.  Therefore, I used Foxy, Bootycall, Tease, Suspect, Verve, and Busted.

Finally, I tried using every other color, starting with the second from the left.  I used Half Baked, Chopper, Snake Bite, Pistol, YDK, and Blackout.  The pictures for this one are not here, because my experiment was unsuccessful in the application order I chose.  Had I used just three of those colors... and probably any three of them, I believe the results would have been better.

I still feel this experiment was a good one, because it shows both the versatility of the palette, and the likelihood that you will get a good result without needing much experience with blending colors. 

Overall, this palette is a great value for the money.  I like to wear pink eyeshadow, and it suits me, so I will get a lot of use out of it.  If you don't like pink, you will not like this palette, so in that case I would suggest you go with Naked over Naked 2.