Guide
What’s with the hype around the Urban Decay Naked palettes?
by Natalie Hemengül
The new Naked palette is here – and is kindly asked to leave again
2.2.2021
Translation: Veronica Bielawski
Urban Decay has shot itself in the foot with its newest launch: meet the «Naked Wild West» eyeshadow palette.
Urban Decay has once again outdone itself in its lack of originality. Yesterday, Trendmood, an Instagram account for beauty releases, published first images of the new Naked palette. What was the source of inspiration for this Urban Decay palette? The desert. Not very original. Especially not the implementation. A bit of snake look here, some standard brown shades and muted shimmers there... top that off with two blue-green colours – the would-be eye-catchers – that are a meagre attempt to hide the laziness of the palette’s creators.
Urban Decay presents: the Naked Wild West.
Can you hear the shitty flute playing in the background?
Apparently so can the beauty community. The comments under the announcement post are more interesting than the palette itself.
They really thought that putting one shade of green makes it not the most boring and already done before pallet.
Well, that doesn’t quite sound euphoric.
You might be wondering why, exactly, I'm so upset about this palette. After all, it's not the first astonishingly average pallet to sport this proud a price tag. Well, I'm not the biggest fan of the Naked series to begin with, so I admit I’m easy to rile up. But I was open to being blown away by a creative new launch. I was open to giving the brand another shot.
The community seems to feel the same way.
I’m bored.
Naked wasn’t always boring
Let's take a quick look at the (success) story of the Naked series to understand where the disappointed mood in the comments is coming from. In 2010, the edgy brand Urban Decay, released its first Naked palette. It was quite the understated palette for an otherwise colourful brand. «Naked 1» is a huge success. According to Refinery29 (link in German), the palette has brought in over a billion dollars to date. And it won’t bring in any more than that. Why? Because eight years after its release, the cult palette was removed from Urban Decay’s product range. For whatever reason. In any case, people mourned this loss. And I don’t mean figuratively.
People really were sad.
Urban Decay itself even published a funeral video at the time, with notable personalities from the beauty scene gathered around a coffin, mourning the passing of the palette.
The Naked 2 and Naked 3 are launched. And they’re also quite successful. Not least because they stayed true to the «Naked» theme – earthy, skin-tone colours. The concept made sense. Naked Heat, a very warm, dark palette also joined the line-up later on. And then Urban Decay made a mistake. They began to exploit the name of the series. They started creating palettes that had little to do with the core concept of the «Naked» series. The colour schemes went out of control. Since then, the name has served only to guarantee sales. In the meantime, Urban Decay has «delighted» us with the Naked Smoky, Cherry, Honey, Reloaded and Ultraviolet.
And now, the Wild West.
Into the desert with you, Naked series!
While the new palette is a move closer to the original colour scheme that the Naked palettes were loved for, Urban Decay has forgotten something important.
It's 2021.
You can find hundreds of other palettes with similar colours. And at lower prices. And probably of better quality. This wasn’t the case back in the day, and that's the only reason the palettes were a hit.
They just need to drop the naked theme.
Being «Naked» has officially been sucked dry. It's time to leave the old cash cow in the stable.
Therefore, dear Urban Decay team, let the «Wild West» palette be the last of its kind. I’m done with the Naked series and hope you are too.
We need to normalise moving on
Natalie Hemengül
Senior Editor
Natalie.Hemenguel@digitecgalaxus.chAs a massive Disney fan, I see the world through rose-tinted glasses. I worship series from the 90s and consider mermaids a religion. When I’m not dancing in glitter rain, I’m either hanging out at pyjama parties or sitting at my make-up table. P.S. I love you, bacon, garlic and onions.
Beauty
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