I sometimes happen to make a statement and then later change my mind, like when I said I wouldn’t be buying anymore palettes from Urban Decay until they started coming out with some new colors. In a way I haven’t really changed my mind, for both my newest additions from Urban Decay actually contain a few new colors – but is five out of seven really enough to justify the purchase? Anyway, “Naked” is something different than the usual palettes from Urban Decay. It’s an amazing palette of 12 neutral eyeshadows in a sleek, velvety case – and one of the more extraordinary facts about “Naked” is that it actually contains mattes!

I love the colors, and I hate the packaging. Who on Earth came up with the idea of covering an eyeshadow palette with velvet? It contains seven permanent shades which most of us are quite familiar with from before, and five completely new shades: “Buck” (matte nutmeg), “Creep” (onyx with gold sparkle), “Darkhorse” (bronze patina), “Hustle” (plum brown satin), “Virgin” (satin chamois). I’ll be the first to say how happy I am that they’ve left out those usual glittery devils this time.

You also get the same 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil as always, but this time it’s double ended so you have the brown “Whiskey” on the opposite end. I originally thought that “Whiskey” was the same color as “Bourbon” – I mean, it makes sense – but I can see from their website that “Whiskey” is indeed a new color. And also included is the little travel sized Primer Potion. We’re all familiar with that one now. Some people are also claiming that this palette contains full size eyeshadows, but that’s not entirely true. Urban Decay’s palettes usually range between 0.8g and 0.9g (the “Sustainable Shadow Box” is 0.56g while the “Deluxe Shadow Box” is the same as “Naked” with 1.2g per shade) and “Naked” is absolutely something else with its 1.2g per eyeshadow. A full size eyeshadow from Urban Decay is 1.5g, so as you can see it’s pretty close!

“Naked” is a permanent item, and costs $44 plus shipping from Urban Decay.

Photo © Alex Gambardella

So guess who’s been out hauling again? Yep, that’s right. That would indeed be me. Or I haven’t really been out, I’ve just used my precious Internet access to the rest of the (fabulous) world (of shopping). Lunacy? Maybe, but oh.. so fun! My collective haul has been sitting at MyUS, just waiting for my Converse Dr. Seuss All Stars to arrive so everything could be shipped combined, and today the glorious red and yellow box arrived!

Going Bananas, Lime, Sassy Grass, Zingy, Atlantic Blue, Crazy Cool, Shock-a-holic, Louder Please

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Some time ago I did a quick look through my Urban Decay palettes to see which shadows I actually owned, and which ones I’d like to add to my collection. I got some disturbing results which made me so disappointed in Urban Decay that I didn’t even post it back then. I even decided not to buy any more palettes from them until something changed, so I skipped their “Summer of Love” palette even though I absolutely loved the adorable hippie theme.

This fall Urban Decay launched another limited edition eye shadow palette, and for the first time it’s exclusively vegan. Rejoice! It’s simply called “Vegan”, and the artwork is immensely cute. I’ll happily admit to the fact that I need this mostly because of its packaging. I mean, there’s a little Chihuahua on the lid – and how am I supposed to resist that?

The palette contains: “Minx” (blue-green shift w/ glitter), “Urb” (metallic celadon w/ lots of silver/gold microglitter), “Gunmetal” (gunmetal gray w/ silver glitter), “Twice Baked” (brownie brown w/ gold glitter), “Smog” (deep coppery bronze) and “Half-Baked” (subtle lustrous bronze). You also get the regular travel-sized 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in “Zero” and a tiny bottle of Primer Potion in “Sin”. The three first colors are all new and luckily enough to justify the purchase to me.

I did notice that Urban Decay have raised their prices slightly, so the price is now $34 for six colors, a mini eyeliner pencil and primer potion – which would be about 204,- NOK with today’s exchange rate. Not too bad for a cute little palette with good quality eye shadows! Once again I’m sorry to inform you that Urban Decay doesn’t ship out of the US, but hopefully the adorable “Vegan” palette will be available from one of the international webshops soon.

“We don’t do animal testing.. How could anyone?”

Photos © Musings of a Muse

If you are anything like me, you feel kind of spellbound every time Urban Decay launches a new palette. I’m usually taken by their gorgeous packaging, but ever since I first tried Get Baked Shadow Palette I became a complete sucker for UD palettes, and they kept accumulating. I was actually just about to order their newest addition to the UD family, Summer of Love Shadow Palette, until I suddenly realized that the names of the shades sounded familiar. I decided to cross-check with my other palettes, and guess what I discovered? I already owned all four shades.

As of now I own six palettes from Urban Decay: Book of Shadows Vol. II, Ammo Shadow Box, Get Baked Eyeshadow Palette, “Alice in Wonderland” Book of Shadows, Preen Shadow Box and Deluxe Shadow Box, and I’ve listed the names of all the shades within these six palettes below. First is the name of the shade (I’ve listed the actual names of the ones in the “Alice in Wonderland” box), then how many duplicates I have, and lastly the name of the palette where you can find the shade.

• Perversion (BoS II)
• Gunmetal (BoS II)
• Ecstasy (BoS II)
• AC/DC (BoS II)
• Nylon (BoS II)
• Sellout (BoS II)
• Mushroom x2 (BoS II, Alice in Wonderland)
• Sphynx (BoS II)
• Half Baked x2 (BoS II, Get Baked)
• Twice Baked x3 (BoS II, Alice in Wonderland, Get Baked)
• Midnight Cowboy Rides Again x2 (BoS II, Alice in Wonderland)
• YDK (BoS II)
• Jinx (BoS II)
• Flipside x2 (BoS II, Get Baked)
• Homegrown x2 (BoS II, Alice in Wonderland)
• Misdemeanor (BoS II)
• Flash x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Preen)
• Painkiller x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Preen)
• Baked x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Get Baked)
• Last Call x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Ammo)
• Chopper x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Ammo)
• Polyester Bride x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Ammo)
• Maui Wowie x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Ammo)
• Grifter x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Ammo)
• X (Alice in Wonderland)
• S&M (Alice in Wonderland)
• Sin x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Ammo)
• Oil Slick x2 (Alice in Wonderland, Ammo)
• Smog x2 (Ammo, Preen)
• Mildew x2 (Ammo, Preen)
• Shattered (Ammo)
• Snatch (Preen)
• Toasted (Preen)

That’s a total of 33 different shades whereas 18 of these have duplicates in one or several of the other palettes I own. Rather depressing, don’t you think? I don’t know about you, but I seriously hope Urban Decay stops pushing out palettes without adding at least a couple of new shades in each new addition. I guess this means I won’t buy anymore palettes from UD until something changes then.

Disappointed? Hell yes.

Imagine the disappointment when I woke up and discovered that Mr. DHL had tried to call me while I was visiting Nemo in Dreamland? I quickly checked my tracking information, just to discover the message: “address information needed, please contact DHL”, so I did. Luckily I’m blessed with a Mr. DHL that now knows my name and where I live, so that wasn’t really an issue, but I returned his call too late to get my shipment delivered today. Bummer! But as you all know, I already have the perfect man in my life. He doesn’t only bring me roses, chocolates and jewelery – he also brings me packages, and today was no exception. He went out, collected my package from DHL, and made my Monday perfect.

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