I love my Urban Decay Naked palettes with a passion, but at £38.00 per palette, it is an expensive love.
I had heard that W7 did good dupes for the Nakeds at just £5.99 per palette (although you can pick some of them up for less in B&M).
I decided to see what all the fuss was about and how well they stacked up against my beloved Nakeds.
I apologise for the swatches being on paper, but my arm was starting to react to all the swatching I have been doing!
URBAN DECAY NAKED VS W7 LIGHTLY TOASTED
Straight away, the W7 palette has nicer
packaging, although the brush isn’t as good, and there is no mirror. I
have never been a fan of the velvet texture on the Naked palette as it
can be really hard to keep clean.
From left to right, you can see that the shades on both palettes look almost identical.
NAKED
LIGHTLY TOASTED
There is very little difference
between the two palettes with these shades. The pigmentation is
slightly better on the Naked palette but both are so similar (and there
was quite a bit of fallout and kick up with some shades on both
palettes).
NAKED
LIGHTLY TOASTED
Again, the W7 palette matches the Naked
palette shade for shade. The quality of colour payoff and pigmentation
varies on the second half of the palettes – some are better in the Naked
palette and some are better in the W7 palette. Again, fallout and kick
up was a bit of an issue, but not massively so.
VERDICT ~ I am super impressed with how good a dupe Lightly Toasted is. Naked has
the slight edge when it comes to quality, but when you consider the
price difference between the two palettes, then the W7 palette is a
great option if you don’t want to spend too much money.
URBAN DECAY NAKED 2 VS W7 IN THE BUFF
The packaging on these two palettes is quite similar, but again the Urban Decay brush is better.
At first glance, from left to right, the palettes are almost identical, with a couple of slight exceptions.
NAKED 2
IN THE BUFF
The first half of both palettes are pretty
much identical. Pigmentation wise, the Naked 2 palette just has the
edge, but the colours look unbelievably close to each other.
NAKED 2
IN THE BUFF
The second half of the palettes are
slightly less similar than the first. Some of the shades are almost the
same, but there are a couple, such as Busted and Thunder, and Blackout and Onyx that aren’t as good a match as they could have been.
VERDICT ~ overall, the W7
palette is lovely, and is an almost perfect dupe for Naked 2, but the
last couple of shades let it down. Quality-wise, again, Urban Decay is
better, but In The Buff almost matches it for colour payoff.
URBAN DECAY NAKED 3 VS W7 IN THE NUDE
The packaging is again very similar, with a
rose gold metal tin with gold writing, although the Naked 3 is by far
the prettier one. I was surprised to realise that I have never done a
full review of Naked 3, so if any of you would like one then please
comment.
Again, at first glance from left to right,
you can see that the majority of the shades look very similar, but
maybe not as closely as the previous palettes have done.
NAKED 3
IN THE NUDE
The first half of both palettes look
identical to each other. There was very little difference between
pigmentation and colour payoff too.
NAKED 3
IN THE NUDE
The second half of the W7 palette doesn’t
match up quite as well to Naked 3 as the first half did. The shades are
similar but aren’t the same. I also found that there was a lot of
fallout with the W7 palette compared to the Urban Decay.
VERDICT ~ The first 6
shades of In The Nude are a perfect dupe for Naked 3, but it is let down
by the second half of the palette. For me, Naked 3 is by far the
better palette, although the W7 was close to getting it right, just not
close enough.
URBAN DECAY NAKED SMOKY VS W7 IN THE NIGHT
I don’t think that the W7 is supposed to
be a Naked Smoky dupe, but seeing as they are both smoky palettes, I
thought that I would include them. The packaging on Naked Smoky is
beautiful and makes the W7 palette look a little tacky in comparison.
These palettes don’t match up from left to
right like the others have done, but you can see that there are some
similar shades. The swatches have been done from left to right, so
whilst the shades won’t look the same, you will be able to see some
shades that look alike.
NAKED SMOKY
IN THE NIGHT
The first half of the palettes are quite
similar, although not identical. The Urban Decay shades are more
pigmented than the W7 ones by quite a long way.
NAKED SMOKY
IN THE NIGHT
The second half of the palettes are where
the biggest differences are. In The Night has more pink and purple
shades than Naked Smoky. In terms of quality, again the Urban Decay
shades have the edge.
VERDICT ~ Whilst not
being an exact dupe for Naked Smoky, the W7 palette is a nice palette
and has plenty of shades to create a variety of different smoky eye
looks. It isn’t as lovely as Naked Smoky though, but it depends what
colours you like to use.
1 LOOK 2 PALETTES
I decided to try to create a makeup look,
using an Urban Decay palette on one eye and a W7 palette on the other.
I did this twice, with Naked and Lightly Toasted, and Naked 2 and In The Buff. I would have carried on and done it with the other palettes, but my eyes needed a little break from makeup.
For this look, I used Naked on the right eye (left on the picture) and Lightly Toasted on the other eye.
Base ~ Virgin (UD) and Teddy Bear (W7)
Inner Corner ~ Sin (UD) and Wonderland (W7)
Crease ~ Smog & Hustle (UD) and Di Di & It’s A Dream (W7)
Lid ~ Half Baked (UD) and Twister (W7)
For this look I used Naked 2 and In The Buff.
Base & Inner Corner ~ Booty Call (UD) and Sand (W7)
Crease ~ Busted (UD) and Thunder (W7)
Lid ~ YDK (UD) and Wave (W7)
The looks were done super quickly just to give a quick visual at how similar the palettes are.
Overall, I still prefer Urban Decay but
that’s because I have a real love of higher-end palettes. However, if
you are on a budget, or object to the high prices of the Naked palettes,
then the W7 palettes are really good dupes, and amazing quality when
you consider the fact that they are just £5.99 each.
Have you tried the dupes? Do you prefer
high end palettes, or are you of the opinion that you don’t need to
spend a lot of money when it comes to eyeshadows?
