I wanted this as soon as I saw the promotional images of it. I wanted it DESPERATELY. And my best friend hooked me up - before I had even seen it in Sephora! Not gonna lie, I might have squealed a little bit when I took the tissue paper off of it. I wanted to go home from our sushi lunch, scrub off my makeup and redo it using this for my BBQ birthday party with friends that night, but I wanted to take photos of it for the blog first. And, honestly, I chose a nap and a quick touch up afterwards over a complete new face. I know this information is not what you're looking for, but oh how I love the story telling. Anyway, I started using this and playing with it the very next day and now I feel like I'm definitely ready to give it my review.

First off... You know we're about to talk about packaging. It seems obvious that the packaging on this product would be simple, but I definitely wouldn't call it basic. I would say that the colour of the compact is a kind of golden taupe shade with a more grey-toned taupe embossed print on it. The packaging has a kind of rubberized feel to it, which I really like, and I feel like this won't look as grungey as some other rubberized packaging because it's not black so product and fingerprints won't show up as much on it. It has a sturdy feel to it in the hand and I wouldn't be at all concerned that my shadows weren't going to survive if I had to toss this in my purse. I'm also very happy with the mirror, which I feel is good quality without any warping in the reflection. Small detail, but important to me. Overall, I'm very happy with the packaging. Simple and convenient, but still definitely acceptable for the price point.

This palette contains 6 shadows that are very taupe toned. 5 of the shadows are completely matte finish and 1 has a very subtle satin sheen to it. Overall, I'd say that these have a very soft, smooth, buttery texture to them and they all have very good pigmentation and blendability. I don't think that we can expect any less from Urban Decay, to be honest, and some of my all time favorite Urban Decay shades are the ones that are matte. They always blend really nicely. I'm a little bit more picky about shimmer shades and don't always find UD shimmers to be the easiest to work with, but no one can say they're not creamy and pigmented. I digress. I really like the texture of all of these shadows. Some, at first, may seem a little bit powdery when you swatch them but I haven't had any issues with fall out when working with these.

One thing that I will say about this palette is that I don't think it's for everyone. Because all of these shadows are such soft shades, I don't think that they would have the necessary umph on darker skin tones. On my pasty pale skin, they show up beautifully and a few come off much darker than in the pan, but I feel like they could easily disappear on deeper skin tones. That said, I think they have the potential to work on a lot of different skintones for a very soft, subtle no-makeup type eye look, which I know a lot of people are looking for. What I would say for ladies with deeper skin tones is to definitely swatch it out and decide if this could give you what you're looking for. I definitely don't know what it's like to work with eyeshadow on a darker skintone, so I can't really recommend or warn against either way.

SKIMP - Pale Nude Satin

STARK - Pink-Nude Matte

FRISK - Warm Grey Matte

COVER - Muted Red-Brown Matte

PRIMAL - Muted Brown Matte

UNDONE - Deep, Smoky Brown Matte

Overall, I'm pretty much in love with this palette and I feel like it's going to get a lot of use, both alone and used in conjunction with other shadows. I feel like this palette is very versatile in that regard and will help to define a lot of different looks. Also, I feel like these kinds of shadows can add dimension to a lot of different shadows, particularly those that aren't so pigmented. 

This palette definitely gets my recommendation. Two thumbs. All that.

The Urban Decay Naked2 Basics palette retails for $35 CAD ($29US).