I thought I'd jump ahead of the blogging queue of swatches and reviews (in the UK that is) of the Naked2 Palette. As you may know, the UK got their first chance of getting their hands on the much awaited palette on Friday night via the Debenhams website selling for £36. The palette will be sold officially from today (Monday 8th) online and then in stores from the 6th February 2012.

So if you don't already know, the hype of this palette comes after the original Naked palette became the world's best selling palette (or there abouts!). It definitely has won a lot of awards and has become a makeup wardrobe staple for many.

Naturally, the sequel caused a bit of a commotion when it arrived at the UK too (an hour earlier than expected), with people claiming they were going to die if they didn't get it and so on.

Anyway, thanks to the lovely PR people at Urban Decay I managed to get my hands on the palette and some of the new Spring products that I'll be blogging about separately. 

Many bloggers have said that this palette is a lot cooler than the original Naked palette and to some extent it's true but I find it's not as cool as I was led to expect. Here's a close up of the shades, to get a better view:

 

The palette comes with a generous sized mirror in the lid (filling the entire lid), a double ended Good Karma brush (with the crease brush on one end and shadow on the other) and instead of the usual primer sample, you get a lip junkie in the shade "Naked" (very coordinated!).

On to the swatches then:

And up close:

 

 

• Foxy (cream bisque - matte finish)
• Half Baked (golden-bronze- shimmery finish) 
• Booty Call (cork - shimmer)
• Chopper (copper shimmer with silver micro glitter) 
• Tease (pale purple-brown - matte)
• Snakebite (dark bronze shimmer with metallic base)
• Suspect (pale golden beige - shimmer) 
• Pistol (light greyish brown - shimmer)
• Verve (oyster - shimmery)
• YDK (cool bronze shimmer with metallic base)
• Busted (deep brown -shimmer)
• Blackout (blackest black - matte)

As you can see the colours are slightly more silver-toned, but nevertheless browns/neutrals. My favourites from the original Naked palette were Half baked, Smog and Darkhorse. In this palette, Half baked is the only repeat which I still love and Snakebite is very similar to Smog (a warm chocolatey brown). Darkhorse can be recreated with Snakebite and Blackout mixed together though so all is fine if you have to choose between first or second Naked palette.

I would recommend Naked2 simply because there are more matte colours (which are harder to find in good quality) and also because the packaging and the brush is better too. Some of the colours are also very similar, like Bootycall (NP2) and Virgin (NP1) and Snakebite (NP2) and Smog (NP1).

As for the lip junkie, the colour is very wearable by many skintones, it's a pinky shimmery neutral:

So there you have it, the Naked2 palette in swatches; Urban Decay products are available to buy from Debenhams and House of Fraser stores or online at beautybay.com, hqhair.com and lookfantastic.com. 

What do you think of this palette? Will you be buying it if you haven't already? And which do you personally prefer?

<3

Everyday Look - FOTD

Recently I've taken to going for a minimal makeup look, as Summer is looming (so I'd like a more natural look) and partly because my husband complains when I spend a while doing makeup. So of late I've cut out eyeshadow, which only really shaves a minute or two off my makeup regime, but every minute counts eh?
Also, looking at the poll I conducted on my facebook page (here), most of the votes had been for the natural/everyday look, so here's one that I use. I tend to like a pop of colour on my lips when I'm wearing such a minimal look, so for this look I used OCC lip tar in Anime, but for an all natural look, you can use browns or peaches =)

Products used:
> UDPP in Sin
> Eyeliner (either MAC fluidline, UD 24/7 eyeliner or Ink for Eyes in Zero, or Sleek Inkpot!)
> Khuraira ACC in Light 
> Dior Iconic mascara
> Sleek blush in Sunrise
> OCC lip tar in Anime 

I used UDPP in Sin all over the eyelid, up to the brow bone. I then used UD 24/7 eyeliner in Zero for the topliner and bottom. After applying concealer to under the eyes, I used Dior Iconic mascara for top and bottom lashes, followed by the Sunrise blush by Sleek on the cheeks. I chose this colour cos it's a bronzer-type shade, but Rose Gold is also a good choice for a natural everyday look, just with a bit of gold flecks for some shimmer.
After using Vaseline on the lips, I added OCC lip tar in Anime to the lips for a pop of colour.

Et voila:

What do you think of this simple look? I think it's very wearable and for most skin tones aswell as Sin is a neutral shimmery colour.
Let me know your thoughts/suggestions for more natural looks!

<3