Urban Decay NAKED palette - big installment!

so finally i caved in and join in the queue of the Urban Decay Naked owners. for me though, it will be only temporarily because at the end of this installment i will put this palette up for adoption ;)
today is the first part with overall thoughts, swatches and so on. i will have a huge comparison-swatches post tomorrow followed by several different looks there can be done with it.

i'm not an owner of any palettes by UD yet, and i still refuse to be/become one - i have to admit that i'm too much of a packaging pedant for those hideous bulky and cheesy cardboard designs. i have to draw the line under the Eyeshadow Primer Potion and the Deluxe Eyeshadows which are fun and different - but already borderline.
i don't doubt the quality of their shadows particularly, but mostly the palettes contained more colours i would only wear once in a blue moon than shades that could make it into a favourites-list. second, their eyeshadows mostly have frosty finishes - let's say it's more difficult to impress with a nice quality shimmery eyeshadow (when you already lost with the packaging), it's not that difficult to produce good frosty shadows.
when i first saw the promotion pics, i would have instantly bought the Naked palette but luckily the swatches came earlier than the stock on hqhair.com & co. most shades seemed too warm and not unique enough to me so i couldn't justify to deviate from my principles ;) and i let it pass again and again.
but when i heard it came back in stock on hqhair.com some weeks ago, plus they had a 10%-off code around, i snapped it to get a real impression since i know i could always give it to someone out there who will be more happy with it than i could ever be.

delivery took quite long this time due to the custom duty office, but the real reason (i heard) would be that hqhair didn't specify the sender's address on the packages. i even heard of cases where the girls extra had to pick it up at the custom duty office where they were requested to pay duty although there would be no need if the package came from a country of the EU. luckily my package took long to arrive but it did directly.

of course you have already seen the palette again and again on many different blogs, so i don't need to describe or explain the packaging and the additional goodies to you - i'll just let the pictures speak for themselves and will add a list of colour/finish descriptions. all shimmery shades are finely milled and soft, my only issue is the sheer Creep and the glittery bits in Sidecar and Gunmetal. otherwise this would be a fantastic palettes for everyone who loves neutrals and warm brown shades, for people who love shimmery soft eyeshadows, who like big palettes. it would be a great gift, too.
for my part, i dislike the packaging and i also own too many similar shades (you'll see tomorrow :P).
it costs 32£ (with discount 28.80£) and contains 12 eyeshadows of 1.3g each. the mini Primer Potion contains 3.7ml. very good deal in fact. 

a nice synthetic brush that comes with it instead of the double-sided 24/7 eye pencil before.

baby Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion cute but i already have the full size

first six shades in cloudy lighting: Virgin - Sin - Naked - Sidecar - Buck - Half Baked

first six shades in sunlight: Virgin - Sin - Naked - Sidecar - Buck - Half Baked

• Virgin is a pearly cream shade with pink undertones. a bit too much pearl to use as brow bone highlight for my taste. it's finely milled and pigmented.
  
• Sin is a light peachy pink flesh shade with frosty, almost metallic finish. it's highly pigmented, soft and blendable.
• Naked is a matte tan beige. it's finely milled and has medium pigmentation. it applies a bit blotchy on bigger areas and directly on primer or skin, but is nice when used over a base powdery shade. this is a good sculpting shade, looks a bit like bronzer to me ;) it's great that they also added a few matte shades in this palette. working with different finishes allows your eye make up appear much more dimensional than using only frosty or matte finishes.
• Sidecar is a frosty peachy-golden taupe with lots of fine silver glitter in it - FALL OUT city!!! the glitters end up all over the face - you have to wear it bravely as an intended glitter sun-goddess look if you don't want to re-do your foundation. otherwise it's soft and highly pigmented.
• Buck is a medium caramel brown with a matte finish. it's finely milled  and has a good pigmentation but applies not as well as Naked.
• Half Baked is a metallic rich gold which pulls a little too much orange on me. very high pigmentation but it seems not to be hard to do a good rich gold shade - you find gold shadows which are just as nice in most Zoeva/Coastal Scents palettes. 

last six shades in cloudy lighting: Smog - Darkhorse - Toasted - Hustle - Creep - Gunmetal

last six shades in sunlight: Smog - Darkhorse - Toasted - Hustle - Creep - Gunmetal

last six shades in sunlight *click to see the shimmer!*: Smog - Darkhorse - Toasted - Hustle - Creep - Gunmetal

• Smog is a shimmery rich bronzey brown with golden shimmer. it's highly pigmented and softly pressed. it blends seamlessly but the shade is not very special.
• Darkhorse is my favourite shade of all: it's a cool dark brown with lots of gold shimmer and sheen. the most complex shade in the palette while the others are a bit plain. it has a very good pigmentation and applies and blends evenly. this would be a great smokey eye shade or outer corner colour. you could surely use it as a liner.
• Toasted is a frosty rosey brown. high pigmentation, soft and fine.
• Hustle is a dark chocolate brown with fine pink shimmer. medium pigmentation compared to some other shades in this palette, a nice colour for a warm smokey eye since it's not overly frosty. blends out well.
• Creep is a matte black with lots of fine multicolour shimmer. it's firmly pressed and very sheer so not useful as a crease/outer corner colour or for black smokey eye. also too low pigmentation to use as a liner colour.
• Gunmetal is a dark frosty steel grey with silver glitter bits - again fall out alert. otherwise with good pigmentation and blends out nicely. would be much better without the glitter. 

most shades last pretty well on me - i haven't worn all of them yet. they don't crease within 10h+ (applied over UD Primer Potion). 

what about you? how do you feel about Naked?
stay tuned for the next parts ;) i have a few nice lookalikes for you.