Urban Decay Naked Ultimate Basics

Now, I know I'm super late on the band wagon here, but I'm doing it anyway. I wasn't ever really that fussed by the Naked Collection by Urban Decay, that was until the Naked Heat made an appearance & I spent the morning of that palettes release stuck to my laptop trying to get one (luckily I did).  Once I had one member of the Naked family it was time to expand, first on my list was the Naked Ultimate Basics palette.

I've always been a UD girl, just not a naked palette girl for some reason. When UD x Gwen Stefani happened I was straight on that, for both launches. For some reason the Nakeds just weren't calling me...until now.

Basic is in the name, but it's far from a basic palette. You can achieve almost every eye look you could want from this palette. So far since I've owned this, every time I've gone away or needed to get ready at someone else's house I've taken this little gem with me.
It's 12 shades of neutrals, 11 matte & 1 demi-matte which is pretty much the highlighting shadow in this palette. You've got everything on hand to Contour, Smokey, warm, blush and of course achieve a natural eye look. Oh and the brush that comes in the palette is a dream in its self, a blending & a smudge on each end!

True to any Urban Decay product, the pigmentation is perfect. I have no idea why but I always struggle with black shadows, like they aren't black enough or don't blend well. Luckily I finally have my blendable black shadow in the name of Blackjack.
The demi-matte shade Blow is a very subtle highlighting shadow, so if you want to have more of a glimmer while using this palette you unfortunately are going to need to use another product, in reality that's not that much of a pain as I'm pretty sure most of us have a fair few palettes in need of some attention.
All of the shades are well pigmented & easily blendable. My Favourites to use at the moment are Tempted, Instinct & Lethal.

Something I always love about UD products is the design of them. They are always eye catching and nothing like you've seen before. Also sturdy, which is handy because I drop a lot of stuff, so far this palette is proving to be indestructible.

Now for some swatches of this brilliantly matte palette, starting from the top left shade:

Blow - Pre-Game

Nudie - Extra Bitter

Commando - Faith

Tempted - Lockout

Instinct - Magnet

Lethal - BlackJack

I would LOVE to know how all these names come about because they are always so bloody snazzy, although I know the story about how the Naked 3 shadow names came about as my lovely local UD counter girl was telling me all about it.

I have to say, the Naked Heat started an expensive habit, I will always use the Naked Ultimate Basics palette, I feel like its a really underrated one, but I now need the Naked 3 which I will probably treat myself to while I patiently await the drop of BackTalk.

Whats your most used Urban Decay palette?

Emily-May x