Jun 4, 2011

Urban Decay NAKED: comparison and dupes!


this is the "ultra-light" version of how it looked when i did all the comparison swatches for the Urban Decay Naked palette :D
so maybe you get an idea that this palette is not *too* essential to me - i won't miss it when it's gone, except for the one shade i really like in there, Darkhorse ;)

click here to see my overall review and swatches of this palette.

now let's begin with the comparison swatches of each shade - at the end i will show you my version of a dupe palette to the Naked, like i have also previously done with the Chanel Ombres Perlées palette here.


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.
 i think MAC Shroom is a nice dupe for it but it's not a very unique shade in general (which i will have to say much more often than i like with this palette). Shroom has a better shimmer - fine but not as flat as Virgin.

MAC Shroom - UD Virgin - NARS Abyssinia
MAC Shroom - UD Virgin - NARS Abyssinia


Sin

is a light peachy pink flesh shade with frosty, almost metallic finish. it's highly pigmented, soft and blendable.
i think it looks like MAC Grand Entrance a lot - same frosty metallic finish, both soft and fine in texture. Grand Entrance still has the better texture and more flatshimmer - it's like a pale gold shimmer compared to Sin's almost white flat sheen.
top: MAC All That Glitters and MAC Grand Entrance, underneath UD Sin and Giorgio Armani Mediterranean palette (LE this summer - the light peachy shade), bottom: NARS Nepal (in Pleasures of Paris palette)
MAC Grand Entrance - MAC All That Glitters - UD Sin - Giorgio Armani - NARS Nepal


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.
it's like a matte version of MAC Era eyeshadow, i also swatched it against bronzers since i don't own so many matte shadows. but i think the closest shade in my collection is a satin eyeshadow in my nude-28-pan palette from Zoeva (same as Coastal Scent's).

Benefit Hoola - MAC Era - UD Naked - NARS Zen -  top: Dior old "The Browns" palette (bottom left shade)
some shade in 88-palette - a shade from the nude-28-palette - MAC Era - UD Naked - NARS Zen - Benefit Hoola - Dior palette


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.
it reminded me of some MAC Pigments, especially Sunnydaze since this also has the silver glitter. Sunnydaze is more cool gold than Sidecar. if you have purchased the pigment set with Jigs&Jives from MAC's last holiday collection: it's pretty similar to Sidecar without the annoying fall out. in real it's much more similar than on my swatch pic, you can't see it's sheen on there.

top: some loose eyeshadow by Rival de Loop - MAC Jigs&Jives - bottom: MAC Mauvement - UD Sidecar - YSL Pure Chromatics palette #3 (taupe shade)
loose eyeshadow by Rival de Loop - MAC Mauvement - UD Sidecar - MAC Jigs&Jives - YSL Pure Chromatics palette #3 (taupe shade)


Buck

is a medium milk chocolate brown with a matte finish. it's finely milled  and has a good pigmentation but applies not as well as Naked.
this shade gave me a hard time finding a dupe as a result of my rather small variety of matte eyeshadows. i ended up swatching it next to bronzers and blushes and some shadows of various Zoeva/Coastal Scents palettes.

top: NYX blush in Taupe - MAC Harmony blush - bottom: Benefit Hoola bronzer - UD Buck
some shade in 88-palette - some shade in 28-nude palette - UD Buck - MAC Harmony - NYX Taupe - Benefit Hoola


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.
here i only show you a swatch next to the shadow in the Giorgio Armani palette (which shimmer looks much more classy than UD's) - but i ended up choosing a shade from the 88-shimmer-palette as better dupe since it's always nicer to have an affordable alternative. see its swatch at the end of this post.

Giorgio Armani Mediterranean Palette (summer 2011) - UD Half Baked
Giorgio Armani Mediterranean Palette (summer 2011): gold shade - UD Half Baked


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.
i think from all those lookalikes, MAC Go eyeshadow probably is the closest.

top: MAC Bronze (bottom left in 6 Dashing Lassies palette) - underneath: Giorgio Armani Mediterranean palette (dark brown shade) - MAC Mulch - MAC Go - UD Smog - Estée Lauder Clove
Giorgio Armani dark brown shade - Estée Lauder Clove - UD Smog - MAC Go - MAC Bronze - MAC Mulch


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.
luckily maybe i won't have to miss it too much since there is a pretty similar shade in one of my Dior palettes although not as complex.

top: NARS Cordura - bottom: Dior Ready To Glow palette (dark brown) - UD Darkhorse - Edward Bess Dusk
Dior Ready To Glow palette (dark brown) - UD Darkhorse - Edward Bess Dusk - NARS Cordura


Toasted

is a frosty rosey brown. high pigmentation, soft and fine.
looks quite similar to MAC Sable.

top: NARS Fez (bottom left in Pleasures Of Paris palette) - bottom: MAC Sable -  UD Toasted - MAC Chocolate Brown Pigment
MAC Sable -  UD Toasted - NARS Fez - MAC Chocolate Brown Pigment


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.
a nice shade that hasn't found a real dupe in my collection. the effect when it's applied and you don't look at it too exactly like you would look in the make up mirror is a lot easier to dupe, of course.
in the end i went for the YSL-shade as the closest although the Dior maybe is a bit more similar but is discontinued. both MAC shades are too red and too sheer.

top: YSL Pure Chromatics palette #3 (dark brown) - underneath: Dior "The Browns" bottom right shade - UD Hustle - MAC Twinks (top) - MAC 100 Strokes (LE, bottom)
Dior The Browns - YSL Pure Chromatics #3 (dark brown) - UD Hustle - MAC Twinks - MAC 100 Strokes


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. maybe as a soft grey wash. but am i wrong assuming that it was intended to be a black with shimmer? even as a grey shade it's bad, though.
all of my alternatives are superior to Creep. the shimmery black in the Hourglass Prism duo remains best and unbeaten. how can one look back after experiencing such a pigmentation? (in the swatch it's only 1 swipe in the Hourglass - while several in the others, like 6-7 for Creep)

Calvin Klein Night Dust - UD Creep - Hourglass Prism (black side) - MAC Dark Soul Pigment


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.
out of the 3 i like NARS Tzarine best since it has that gold microglitter but also is more complex in its shimmer, but i think intensity and finish-wise, MAC Knight Divine is a better dupe.

MAC Knight Divine - UD Gunmetal - NARS Tzarine duo (silver side)
MAC Knight Divine - UD Gunmetal - NARS Tzarine duo (silver side)


i also compared the little brush that comes with the Naked palette: it's similar to the Sigma ss252 but stiffer and firmer. it's thicker than the MAC 195, but should work pretty much the same since the material is more similar - so i think you could also use it to apply concealer or cream shadow. thanks to its density it applies the pigment intensely but because the bristles are so sleek, there is not much pigment sticking to it to begin with. it works well with the highly pigmented shimmery shades by UD though but you'll find it more difficult with other brands/sheer or more firmly pressed shadows.

MAC 242 - Sigma ss252 - UD - MAC 195
MAC 242 - Sigma ss252 - UD - MAC 195


 here are the original swatches:

original Naked
original Naked



and to sum it up - here is my DUPE palette:
(i forgot to put a bit of moisturiser on my arm before i did the first part of the swatches - that's why it looks a bit sheerer and washed out in comparison to the other swatches.)
DUPE Naked
DUPE Naked: MAC Shroom - MAC Grand Entrance - shade in 28-nude palette - MAC Jigs&Jive - some shade in 88-palette - some shade in 88-shimmer-palette
DUPE Naked
MAC Go - Dior Ready To Glow palette (dark brown) - MAC Sable - YSL Pure Chromatics #3 (dark brown) - Hourglass Prism (black) - MAC Knight Divine



puuuuhhh, that was a lot! i hope you found it interesting/helpful. do you own some of the dupe shadows?



30 comments:

  1. Brilliant post! I also own a Naked palette and now I see I don't really need to buy some other eyeshadows (I had no idea Shroom was dupe for Naked).

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  2. thanx a lot, this was really helpful...and i recognized that i own a lot of mac dupes so maybe this UD palatte isn´t that necessary=)
    http://beautynized.blogspot.com

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  3. Da sieht man mal wieder wie schnell etwas ersetzt werden kann :) Bis auf den "Grand Entrance" von MAC habe ich kein Dupe (ok das Paket liegt noch in Frankreich bei einem Freund. Ich muss es noch Ende Juni bei meinem Besuch abholen).

    Besitzen tu ich generell wenige neutrale Töne wie diese, deswegen kam mir die Naked Palette sehr entgegen.

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  4. That post must have taken you ages to prepare, with all the swatching and comparing.

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  5. das war definitiv einer deiner besten posts!!!! ich bin total begeistert, so was hab ich noch nirgendwo gelesen - vielen lieben dank für deine mühe!!!!

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  6. Wow, schöner Post! Danke! Liebe Grüße, Irina

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  7. Vielen Dank für diesen tollen Post! Da steckte sicher viel Arbeit, Zeit und Mühe drin. Ich habe mir die Naked bestellt, aber ich habe auch nicht sonderlich viele neutrale Töne in meiner Sammlung. Dupes wären in meinem Fall also eher Zufallstreffer.

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  8. Amazing post! I have alot of dupes for the colors in the Naked Palette as well. I recently got the Armani summer heat palette and now find myself reaching less and less for the NP

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  9. Woah, thank you so much, that was a wonderful comparison (and review before)!

    When the palette was launched I was initially very interested, but really shimmery and metallic shadows are just not quite my thing (my puffy-lid-look-phobia ^^) and I'm pretty sure there are too many in here for me to love the palette if I had it.
    Quality aside, I think I'm better off with the many matte-ish shades of the 28 neutral, which is why I ended up skipping the UD.
    But Smog and especially Darkhorse look wonderful to me too!

    The only dupe shade I own is Knight Divine. Regarding the ck shadow though, I don't have this one but bought Bashful and Smoky Grey on sale. I'm going crazy about the latter lately as it's one of the veeery few greys that don't pull blueish or purple on me. <3 Sort of makes me wish they hadn't discontinued the whole line.

    xx

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  10. This post is AMAZING. The pics are great and so sharp. ITA that the colors aren't that hard to dupe--as a matter of fact, it looks to me you found even better quality dupes lol. I can totally see why you wouldn't miss it! I think what I like about Naked though is how all the colors are in one handy palette--if/when I have to travel, it'd probably be the one eyeshadow palette I packed with me.

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  11. Incredible post, well done! It must have taken you ages to photograph all those swatches. It's so useful and the colours have come out so well. I adore your blog, could spend all day on it :)

    http://athingforbeauty.blogspot.com

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  12. wow, super Vergleich! Du gibst dir echt immer wahnsinnig viel Mühe, echt toll. Ich habe mich spontan in MAC Go verliebt!! hoffe, der war nicht limitiert? lG

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  13. Hm, ist zwar ein schöner Vergleich, aber "Dupe" bezeichnet normalerweise doch eine billigere Alternative?

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  14. wow, ein wirklich toller Vergleich, da hast du dir jede Menge Arbeit gemacht!

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  15. Was für ein ausserordentlich gutes Posting!
    Sehr brauchbar und hilfreich für alle Naked Freunde. Ich besitze auch die Naked, bin aber begeistert von deinen Dupe-Farben. Vielen Dank für die ganze Mühe!

    LG Petra

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  16. Holy s***! Ich interessiere mich zwar absolut nicht für die Naked-Palette (zu warmstichig-schmutzig für meinen Kolorit), aber die Mühe, die du dir mit diesem Post gegeben hast, ist wirklich unglaublich!

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  17. thank you all for appreciating this post!

    @mateja: shroom is a dupe to virgin, but not to naked.

    @krisi: great that i could prevent you to get dupes!

    @naddy: wenn du noch wenig neutrals hast, ist diese palette ja perfekt für dich ;)

    @marox: yes, i was busy with swatching, photographing, cleaning my arm, moisturise it, rate and cut the pics, etc... but when i see my effort is so nicely appreciated, it's very worth it!

    @erdbeerküsschen & irina: dankeschön!!!!!

    @buntewollsocke: dann wirst du sie sicher mögen! ich finde du kannst schoko und karamell-töne super tragen.

    @productdoctor: i also the quality of the armani palette is far superior to UD (plus the "feeling"). if you liked naked, i have no doubt anyone wouldn't like the mediterranean palette by GA since all four shades have lookalikes in the naked palette.

    @2espresso: thank you!
    and that is also a reason why i searched for dupes and lookalikes for each shade: some people maybe only like 2 or 3 shades out of this palette, so i think it's nice for them to find dupes to those so they don't have to get the whole big thing, also they could check their collection to see if they may already have one of these lookalikes.
    and the ck shadows: i only own 2 (this black one and a matte cream beige) but like both a lot. the black is a softer and more subtle alternative to the Hourglass shade and the cream (102 moonstone) is a great brow bone brightener for me which i'm almost hitting pan of - a rare occasion in my big stash ;)

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  18. @JC: thank you a lot! for most shades i really think i already own better alternatives (best example must be Creep vs. the Hourglass black). i think it's a nice idea with the handy-travelling palette - but i doubt you could travel very often with this since it has a really floppy cardbox packaging.

    @pandora: thank you - i'm very happy that you like it here :)

    @lilith: danke schön - leider war Go ein limitierter lidschatten aus MAC's erster Starflash LE 2008. meins habe ich bei allcosmeticswholesale gekauft vor etwa 1 jahr aber ich sehe diese farbe auch immer wieder bei den wholesale shops auftauchen. die textur ist wirklich schön - typisch starflash.

    @ari: ich besitze einfach nicht soo viele drogerielidschatten und habe diesen post auch eher an jene gerichtet, die ein paar neutrale lidschatten aus dem höherpreisigen segment schon haben, sich aber keine dupes anschleppen wollen mit dem kauf der naked palette oder andersherum für leute, die die naked vllt. schon haben und sich ein paar neutrale andere lidschatten kaufen wollen und nicht fehlinvestieren wollen ;)
    auch für jene, die nur ein paar töne aus der ganzen palette mögen und sich gezielt auf dupe-suche begeben um nicht die komplette palette kaufen zu müssen.
    in meinem fall empfinde ich die komplette naked als dupe zu anderen e/s :P aber dass UD damit nicht das rad neu erfindet war wohl klar - einzig diese bis dato eher unübliche große häufung in einer mittel-end marke ist neu. und ein dupe ist ein dupe - bei den preisklassen kommt's ja nur auf die sichtweise an wer jetzt das dupe zu wem ist.

    danke @merlindora, @mrspetruschka + @mementomori!

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  19. Wow this was an amazing post! You have an impressive collection going. :) I have the Naked palette, but I agree with you on the issues some of the shadows have. I might actually give away mine and try to replace some of my favorites by referencing your post. Thank you for all your hard work!

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  20. its a great post, the ud shadows are beautiful but there are best alternatives

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  21. Awesome great job at finding all those dupes. I love these dupe posts!!

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  22. The GA one you showed should be 'Heat Palette'.
    Thank you for your comparison. It's a big project!

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  23. wow, toller post! da hast du dir aber ganz schön viel mühe gegeben :D
    mich lacht die ud naked irgendwie an, aber eigentlich depotte ich meine lidschatten gerne...
    die farben sind aber so schön, ich steh auf brauntöne :)

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  24. Grandioser Post! Vielen Dank :)

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  25. Wow, wieviel Mühe du dir gemacht hast! Wahnsinn!

    Vielen Dank.^^

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  26. Vielen Dank fuer den tollen Post!! Man sieht wirklich wie viel Muehe und Arbeit du da hineingesteckt hast!!! *___* Wahnsinn!

    Wenn man so viele Alternativen wie du hast dann benoetigt man die Naked Palette gar nicht mehr, aber fuer alle anderen die nicht so viel besitzen ist es wirklich eine tolle Palette! Nur schade dass man es online bestellen muss weil es hierzulande nicht erhaeltlich ist. Ich finde man sollte das eigentlich aendern....

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  27. Respekt für deine tolle Arbeit !
    Aber wenn man alle Farben jetzt haben viel, müsste man sich ja so viel kaufen (vor allem weil vieles in paletten sind),dass man das Geld auch ruhig ausgeben könnte. Aber wenn man nur eine Farbe oder so haben möchte ist das schon gut !(auf das Geld kann man auch hier nicht achten)

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  28. Wish I had seen this before I splurged on the Naked palette. Great post though. Very helpful!

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    Replies
    1. thank you! are you not satisfied with your purchase?

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