NAKED HEAT PALETTE - swatches & reviews

Say hello to one of the most talked about beauty item in the market right now, and also my most recent makeup purchase. At $83 for 12 shades and a double ended makeup brush, it is quite reasonably priced, but will also cause the average girl's wallet (like mine ahem) to experience some weight loss, ouch. However, I am pretty satisfied with my purchase, and I do think that if you only could get one Naked palette, this should be the one! The MUA said that these colours were meant to look like the colours of a flame and a burnt matchstick (think burnt red), which are one of my favourite shades for an eye look, so I snatched this up really quickly.

(p.s let's play a game, take a shot of whatever you're drinking each time you read the word 'palette' in this post, HAHA good luck)

The packaging 

The Naked Heat palette feels so much sturdier in the hand and looks more expensive than the other Naked palettes, but it definitely isn't too heavy to bring around. The velvet cover of the first Naked gets dust stuck on it so easily, and the tin covers of the other palettes made me think of tin biscuit cans LOL, so I was never tempted to buy them. However, after bringing my Naked Heat around for a day, I realized the printed words on the clear plastic cover get chipped quite easily, which can get pretty annoying if you have OCD tendencies or like your things in their original pristine state. Sigh, nothing to do here but do note that you should be more careful if you are to bring your palette around. :(

The palette also comes in a slide out box which is equally as gorgeous. Check out these burnt roses on the bottom of the box!

Swatches 

The Formula and Quality 

One of the reasons why I like this palette so much more over the other Naked palettes is because of its usability. The Naked Heat has 7 matte colours out of 12, and unless you really like your shimmers and glitters, this already means that you will get so many more looks out of this - for both day and night, and also you'll be less likely to need to use another palette.

I love Urban Decay's matte shades, they are so soft and extremely pigmented, as with this palette. Note that the matte shades do get quite a bit of kick up if you dip your brush in too hard. Then again, the colours are so pigmented that you should only be touching the tip of your brush very lightly into them, or else remember to knock the excess powders off your brush before you apply! That said, I have NO IDEA what is up with these 2 colours - En Fuego and Ashes, the last 2 and darkest 2 matte colours. They swatch so so so terribly, I had to rub so hard just to to get the colours out, and even then, it's still all patchy. And it's definitely not that I got a dud either, I swatched these 2 shades using all the other tester palettes in sephora and they were all the same. ??? Urban Decay what is you doing ??? 

• Quick Fix: Rather than the fingers, it seems that the brush picks up more pigment which solves part of the problem, but it is still considerably less than the other matte colours. You may be able to get better pigmentation using MAC's fix+ or wetting your brush before you dip it into the colours, but I don't like doing that so I can't say. Then again, you don't really need that much of a dark colour to intensify the ends of your eye look, so it's actually not that bad. But it will most likely be a problem if you want to use these colours over the entire eye for a dark smoky look.

Low Blow, He Devil and Cayenne are uh-may-zing. Low Blow seems to apply darker than it looks, especially for light to medium skinned people. As such, for paler girls, this is a great shade to apply all over the lids for fuss-free days when you just want a natural matte look. For medium skinned tones, this is a great crease/transition shade. He Devil and Cayenne are quite similar, but He Devil has a redder undertone and Cayenne is more of a reddish brown.

The shimmer shades are crazy pigmented, and they apply exactly as they look. However, they are quite dark. If you use shimmer shades on the middle of the lid to brighten up your eyes and give it more dimension, you may have to dip into another palette, especially if you have lighter skin. Ounce might be okay, but it's a bit more sheer and would look better on the inner corners of the eye as it's a white/cream, or as a brow highlight. A gold would match these warm colours better. I can only use Lumbre for the middle of the lid, but even then it still doesn't brighten my eye that much. However, if you want to use the shimmer shades for all over the lid, you'll definitely keep reaching into them, the formula is almost unbelievable.

The Brush

I LOVE brands that give (good) brushes with their palettes, saving you a good $10-$30. This one here is double ended - a fluffy round side to blend the colours out at the edges for a smoky eye, and a flatter side to pack the colours on. They're also really soft and of great quality! The flatter side isn't too flat so it's actually perfect for blending in the crease, especially for people with smaller eyelid space (ugh daz me). It's a tad too fluffy to blend out colours along the lower lash line though, so you'll have to use another brush for that, but you could pinch the brush and use it that way, if you're in a pinch -heheh- and don't have a spare on you.

Should you get it?

It's a yes from me :>

Especially if you are warm toned, which most Asians are. You can also get so many looks out of the Naked Heat! Their many matte shades allow you to do just a one colour all over the lid simple look. Don't be too afraid of the darker shades here and the reddish undertone. Just apply less or grab a brown from another palette to blend out the reddish tones and make it even more wearable. It is also suitable for the office in my opinion. For a natural smoky eye, stick to the first half shades, and dab on a bit of En Fuego or Ashes to deepen the ends and crease of the eye. Precisely because they are less pigmented, you end up with a very wearable smoky eye. I did that for my lighter skinned friend, and she was surprised because she thought it would be way darker!

For reference, my friend is an NC25 or so, I used mostly He Devil (burnt red) all over her lids. 

Notice that though the colours may seem darker on her lids, when it's open it looks really natural and wearable!

For tanner girls, this would be such a natural everyday palette for you! Even when I mix and match these colours all over the lid, the resulting look is still very natural because these tones aren't too dark. They will most probably be just a few shades darker than your natural skin tone. I've been using this everyday, and I can change up the look by pulling in more pink/ gold/ purple from another palette. Oh, if you use shades exclusively from this palette, note that you'll probably want to choose outfits that are warmer tone or neutral, it's kinda hard to match this eye look with a blue outfit :>

My eye look: Sauced (light brown) all over the lid, Low Blow (warm brown) as a crease shade, Cayenne (reddish brown) on the outer 1/3, just a tiny bit of Ashes (purple) right at the end of my wing for some dimension, a swipe of Lumbre (rose gold) in the middle of the lid. (sorry for the weird tint, was still figuring out my camera!)

Took this with my iphone 7.


This won't be the palette that you'll want to start out with, but once you have a basic neutral palette with your browns and blacks, I'll highly recommend this! Beginners do be careful about its pigmentation. Always have a clean fluffy brush on hand to blend out if you overdo it! :)

That's all for now! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments and I'll answer them!

Till next time,
val <3