Feeling hot, hot, hot…
If you haven’t heard about the Urban Decay Naked Heat Palette then you must have been living under a rock. Hello! Welcome back! We’re a nation currently obsessed with slogan T-shirts, Love Island and you’re now only allowed to eat food if it looks good in pictures. You also might want to listen up because the beauty world is going a bit nuts for this new release and I’m here to drop the deats…
I managed to get my hands on the Naked Heat Palette when I was in New York because as per usual the U.S have scored it first, however it’s due to drop in the U.K on the 27th July and word on the street is that it will be available on Urban Decay. There’s been various different Naked Palettes released over the years, but this one is piggybacking on the warm shadow trend with 12 colours that lean on the orange/red end of the colour spectrum. There’s a mix of mattes and shimmers (seven mattes and five shimmers to be exact) and it will be £39.50 when it’s released. If you want to see it in action, hear the pros and cons and read a colour-by-colour breakdown then keep on scrolling.
Ounce. A creamy pearliest bone. If I’m honest I can’t see me getting a tonne of use out of this one, although those that enjoy a brow bone or inner corner highlight will I’m sure find use for it.
Chaser. A matte flesh tone with a hint of pink. I didn’t think much of this shade at first, but I’ve been using it as an all-over colour for more complex lid looks or just wearing it on its own and actually it adds a bit of warmth to my lids and does a good job of evening things out.
Sauced. A red-toned matte coffee shade. This is unsurprisingly one of my favourites from the palettes (as it’s most similar to what I usually wear!). I enjoy it buffed into the crease or worn alone on the lid.
Low Blow. A yellow-y baby poop matte. There isn’t an easy way to describe this one, but it’s my favourite and most used so far. It’s a great one for just blending all over the lid and leaving it at that as it creates a natural looking moody shadow.
Lumbre. A golden, rose-gold duo chrome. I don’t have a lot of love for this shade, although it’s pretty the texture is gritty and the finish too metallic for my tastes.
He Devil. A burnt red matte. The texture is probably the least smooth out of the mattes in there, although the colour is a good one for blending with. I personally find it a bit too red, although I’m sure it would look good in capable MUA hands.
Dirty Talk. A high-shine metallic copper. This is my favourite from all the shimmers. There’s something a bit MAC Antiqued about it and the bronze base just makes it an easier one to wear. I have a feeling that Amber on Love Island would be all over this colour.
Scorched. A metallic finished rosy copper. If the palette could lose any colour, I’d say that it would be this one. It’s so similar to Dirty Talk, just with a bit more pink in it and out of the two I much prefer the latter.
Cayenne. A warm chocolate matte. This shade looks good enough to eat. I’ve found it to work best with Dirty Talk, although it blends nicely with the other mattes too.
En Fuego. A deep paprika matte. This shade doesn’t grab me as we start to enter the dark side of the palette, which I just know I’ll get very little use from. It works well, but for the looks that I like to do it won’t be used often; it’s much more suited to dramatic IG makeup, although I might try using it as a liner.
Ashes. A rich aubergine matte. I find this to be powdery which means that it lacks pigment and blendability. Whenever I try to use it, it just makes me look like I have a black eye. PASS.
Embre. A deep plum with a pink metallic duo-chrome. This is such a weird one and definitely one to swatch for yourself because I’m not sure that that description explains it too well. It’s not for me because it’s just a bit too smoky and metallic, however I can appreciate that it’s an extremely unusual shade.
THE PROS
There’s no denying that it’s a pretty looking palette. Aesthetics aside though, the textures perform well; with the mattes being creamy and blend-able and the shimmers giving a serious hit of shine. There’s some kickback when I squish my brush into the colours, but it somehow does a disappearing act and doesn’t end up on the tops of my cheeks. Day-to-day I’ve been wearing the left side of the palette to create a warm-toned matte lid look (have a watch of the video below to see it in action), although I have given the shimmers a test too – Mark said I look like I have sand on my eyelids, which I *think* he meant as a compliment.
There’s a humungous mirror inside, which always gets a thumbs up from me and the palette is functional to use; you can actually fit your brush comfortably into each of the pans and I like that the shade names are printed clearly. In terms of longevity, worn without a primer they don’t last long (although no eyeshadows do on me), however with a layer of the NARS Pro-Prime Smudgeproof Eyeshadow Base underneath it wears with minimal creasing all day.
THE CONS
I mean there are much more important things in the world to be irked by, but I can’t help but turn my nose up at the packaging. There’s something a little tacky about it all and it’s not the slimmest palette in the world, although it does improve on previous incarnations for the fact that it’s not made of felt and open and closes firmly. The brush is pretty pants (as with most, if not all, that are included in palettes), and I’d rather that they made the palette smaller than having a spot for it to nestle in.
The other con though concerns the shadows themselves. Lumbre is way too gritty and glittery for me to ever use and I’m not sure that I’ll find a way to utilise En Fuego or Ashes. The line-up as a whole does pull extremely red. This is not a palette for newbies to warm eyeshadows, but those who truly don’t mind things looking orangey and Olsen twin-esque on the lids.
In conclusion, I’m won over. There’s hype around it, but rightly so. I was resistant to fall for it at first because I definitely didn’t need this palette as it’s basically an amalgamation of all of my favourite warm eyeshadow singles that I use daily (MAC Soba, MAC Saddle, Anastasia Beverly Hills Caramel etc etc). However since I bought it I have been experimenting more with my eyeshadow, love how my favourites look on my lids and feel like an Olsen twin whenever I put it on, which is basically what I’m looking for in an eyeshadow palette. I think this one will be hanging around in my daily makeup grabs for a long while. If you fancy picking one up when it launches officially in the U.K on the 27th July, then grab one here and be prepared to sharpen your elbows.
Photos by Lauren Shipley
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