Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Urban Decay Naked Heat Palette, Alkaline 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil & Torch 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil



Admittedly, I'm not much of a Naked girl. I always buy the new release, play with it for a week or two, and then it gathers dust in my expansive collection. But something was different when I spotted the first promo images of the new Naked Heat palette.



This palette launches June 30 on Urban Decay's website, July 10th on Ulta and Sephora websites, and July 13 in-store. I purchased mine during a one-day preview that Ulta offered last week. I stopped playing with everything else to put this to its paces.

Let's take a moment to talk packaging. It looks like a matchbox!

Very cool. I also love that the matches are a gradient to represent the deepening shades. Nice touch, Urban Decay!

Now, let's look at the palette itself. It's sturdier than prior versions.


It reminds me of the Naked Smoky, so let's check out the size comparison.


So Naked Heat is thicker. I can't explain how much sturdier the packaging feels.

Let's compare it to one of the metal Naked Palettes:



Clearly larger.

So, the packaging is a win for me. But what does the palette look like?




OOOHHHH. Color me hot, bothered, and impressed.

Urban Decay Naked Heat will retail for $54 and offers 12 new shades that weigh in at 1.3g each. Unlike prior Naked releases, this one is mostly mattes, and totally on trend with its fiery shades.

Let's look at the shades a bit closer.



Ounce is a shimmery highlight shade that I like on the brow bone.
Chaser is cool-toned perfect matte transition shade.
Sauced is a warmer, darker matte that gives a ton of fallout. This picture is pulling a bit light.
Low Blow is a warm nearly chestnut matte.


Lumbre is a coral shimmer with gold reflect. It reminds me of other shadows I've been loving recently.
He Devil is a chestnut red brown matte that does produce fallout.
Dirty Talk is a mid-toned red shimmer.
Scorched is a deep red shimmer with a metallic edge.



All of these shades look lighter than in the palette- blame the lighting.

Cayenne is a deep red matte.
En Fuego is a Burgundy matte.
Ashes is a deep purple matte.
Ember is a blackened Burgundy metallic shade and my favorite in the palette.


One of the major criticisms of prior UD Naked palettes was the Matte:Shimmer ratio. It seems that they've listened- and the formula's better than ever before.

Now, the important part. Here are my swatches, all done with a dry MAC 242 brush, cleaned between shades in a Color Switch.

In ambient light:



With flash on:



I know that there has been a lot of controversy surrounding swatches of this palette. I didn't manipulate this in any way or try to make the swatches look better than they are. I think it's a great palette, and actually better texture than the prior Naked palettes.


There are also two new 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils with this collection. I've read varying reports that they're LE or permanent; I tend to think they're not LE.



Like all others, these two shades retail for $20 each. Urban Decay makes one of my favorite eyeliners, but the price point keeps me from going into "collect them all" mode.



I'll readily admit that Torch, a burnt orange, really captured my imagination. I knew it would be tougher to wear than Alkaline, a wine with purple berry undertones.


Here they are, swatched:



Nope, I don't have anything like either of these in my current collection. These are certainly great additions to my collection.

Now, it's time to put the collection to the test.

I will note that my initial first impression somehow morphed from a simple testing look to a self-imposed challenge to create a look using only Urban Decay products. I blame the summer flu I was battling and the fact I hadn't eaten for two days at that point.

Here's what I was looking at:


Now, I spent my time and really played with about half of the palette. And yes, I'm having a natural/feathery brow moment. I also just don't want to be bothered with Instagram brows in real life.


I have to be honest, I kinda really dig this look, especially given my blue eyes:


My eyes never look this blue. Love this palette for that!

Let's talk through this look because I took tons of notes for some reason.

Eyes:

1. Use Sephora Collection tape to create cat eye shape.
2. Use Urban Decay primer potion.
3. Red Flag #1: There's no shade for a light skin tone to set eye primer in the palette. The lightest shade Ounce is shimmery, and Chaser is darker than my skin (but I think it'll be great as a transition shade). So I had to grab WOS from the UD Naked Basics. It's a bit disappointing that this isn't a one-palette look for me. I used the included brush just to try it out. It worked ok.
4. Using the bending side of the included brush, took Chaser as a transition. I am in LUST with this shade.
5. I deepened the crease with Sauced. Definitely tap this one off, but it did blend nicely.
6. I put He Devil on the outer V.
7. I put Lumber in the inner 1/3 of the lid. It reminds me of a color I've seen in the Sunset palette but not nearly as bendable.
8. Scorched is on the outer 2/3 of the lid. Hella fallout city, and I'm glad I didn't do my base first. It's not that different. Hmmm.
9. I layered Ember on the outer part of the lid. Ahh, there's some gradient. I adore this shade.
10. Remove tape, clean up with a wipe.


Not as bad as the other Naked palettes. Most of that came from Sauced & Scorched.

I did my face, and then went back to my eyes.
11. Tried the liquid liner, failed. Smudged Black Velvet on my upper lash line (that's why it's so thick- it's a pencil)
12. Used new liner Torch on the lower water line.
13. Buffed Sauced on the lower lash line.

For trial #2, I changed up the shades a bit but did pick up Ember both times. I also put the other new liner Alkaline on my lower lash line.



I really like this palette, and it's really on trend. I think I'll use this more than any of the other Naked palettes.

Red Flag #2: Both of these looks are similar, but I'll keep playing with the palette to see what other distinctly different ones I can produce. That said, most looks I've seen are relatively similar.

Whenever this collection is released, I'll swatch the lipsticks to see if I own something similar.

Bottom Line: I'm in love with this collection. Urban Decay hit it out of the park with this palette and liners.


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