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I’m back again with another Urban Decay Naked Palette look. I am no makeup artist, just a lover of makeup and applying it :). I did a look with the  the Naked 2 here a while ago too. I think most makeup lovers picked up one of these palettes along the way, so I want to cover all the bases.

This time I did a really easy and achievable Smoky eye using the aptly named Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette.

Urban Decay Naked Smoky PaletteYou can check out swatches of the Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette here here too, if you want to see all of the shades on the skin.

First up I primed my eyelids with the Paese Eyeshadow Base. I just used my finger to apply it.

Paese CosmeticsEyeshadow primerbeautynook blogThen over top of it, just to set it and to get rid of the tacky feeling, I used the lightest shade in the Naked Smoky Palette ‘Thirteen’ all over the eyelid.

Thirteen Naked Smoky PaletteEyeshadpw lookThis step isn’t really necessary, but I just added a little of the shade ‘Combust’ into my crease to begin the story 🙂

Combust Naked Smoky Paletteirish beauty and makeup blogmakeup and beautyTo lay a base for the darker shadows on my lid, I grabbed the Nyx Jumbo Pencil in Slate.

Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencil SlateI applied this to the moving part of my eyelid, one eye at a time and blending as I went as these set pretty fast.

irish beauty blogbeauty blogbeauty bloggerTo blend out the edges of the Jumbo pencil more and deepen up the crease, I took the shade ‘Password’, which is a grey toned matte brown.

Password Naked Smoky PaletteI used a clean Mac 217 blending brush to buff this into my crease, and to make sure there was no harsh edges.

simple eye lookNext is the fun part 🙂 I loaded up my brush with the colour ‘Armor’.

Armor Naked Smoky PaletteAnd patted this onto where the Jumbo Pencil was. Be sure to pat, there is alot of fallout. You can always apply more of this at the end to intensify the look so don’t worry if you blend some away finishing the look.

Real TechniquesI decided to darken the outer v so I took a tapered blending brush and grabbed the darkest shade in the palette ‘Black Market’.

Smoky paletteLouise Young brushI basically just drew a V with the brush on the outer part of my crease and lid.

irish beauty blogirish beauty blogThen, you guessed it more more blending 🙂 I cleaned my 217 off again and diffused the edges of the black.

Mac 217smoky eye lookIf the colour gets too muddied, just apply more and blend the edges. Don’t worry if the edges of your eyes get a bit messy, you can just clean it up with you concealer.

easy smoky lookurban decayUnder the eye I added some ‘Black Market’ with a pop of ‘Armor’ in the middle and blended it up to meet my top lid

smoky palette makeup lookirish makeup blogger beautynookI curled my lashes and added some healthy coats of mascara. You can by all means add lashes and some liner on the top lash line at this point if you want to make the look even more dramatic.

I decided to add some gel liner to my inner waterline. Rather than going for black, I went with the Inglot AMC Matte liner in 78, which is a grey colour.

Inglot AMC 78 Gel LinerbloggerI wrote a whole blogpost about how I apply liner here so I won’t bore you with all the details. I use a pencil dipped in the liner to get the job done though :).

So I tightlined the top.

Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette Tutorial (30)And the bottom.

Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette Tutorial (31)You can see the difference with or without liner here.

Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette Tutorial (32)Last set. I added some highlight to the inner corner. I took the shade ‘High’ in the Naked Smoky Palette.

Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette Tutorial (34)And applied a good helping with a pencil brush.

irish makeup blogIt just adds a brightness to the look. You can see one eye with and one without here.

irish blog beautynook

And there you have it, there’s my hopefully easy smoked eye look using the Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette.

irish blogirish beauty blog beautynook

I added a light pink lip and some peach blush to finish it off.

irish beauty blogThat’s my look with the Urban Decay Naked Smoky palette complete. 🙂

xxx

When I say top five eyeshadow brushes, I don’t mean you have to run out and buy these specific brushes. I just mean having similar brushes in your life will make your eyeshadow application a little bit easier.

I’m a firm believer in letting your eyeshadow brushes do the work for you. Obviously, makeup lovers tend to accumulate alot of brushes over time, but if you take care of yours, I think 5 (or so) will get you through any makeup look.

First and foremost, you need a blending brush.

irish beauty blog blending brushes

Blending brushes can be used for pretty much everything.

irish beauty blog

The Mac 217 is probably the most infamous blending brush, but most brands have their own version of them nowadays. I use a blending brush for applying my crease colour and blending it out softly . As they have a rounded top, you use the higher bristles to apply the products and then diffuse it using the whole of the brush. It’s handy to have two blending brushes in your collection so if the one you are using gets too much product on it, you can switch, but you can always just wipe it off as you go. Noone wants a muddy crease line do they? 🙂 A blending brush works just as good for applying colour all over the lid to, so it’s a bit of a multi tasker in your arsenal which is never a bad thing.

 

For more defined crease work a tapered brush will come in very handy.

nima brush beautynook

These are just examples of what I use, but again anything similar you can get your hands on will work fine. You just want a soft(ish) brush with a more pointed top. It will let you isolate the colour more when adding it to the crease, so you get a more distinct line there, but you can still use it to feather out the colour if it’s looking a bit too harsh.

irish beauty blog beautynookA flat brush is a great one to have in your collection too and is definitely a part of my top five eyeshadow brushes list.

flat shader brushesSomething you can pack colour onto the lid with. It’s great to have a bigger one and a smaller one, but whatever your budget allows is really ok. You just don’t want something too big, unless you’re just using it for washes of colour all across the lid.

beauty blogI think a pencil brush is another essential brush to have in your collection.

pencil brushLike a blending brush, they can be used for a plethora of reasons. To apply colour under the lash line, above the lashline, in the tear duct, on the brow brone, or for applying very precise lines in the crease, if you are being particularly fancy.

irish beauty blogFinally, I think an eyeliner brush is a must.

nima brush inglotI think which one you choose comes down to comfortability really. Whether you are a bent liner brush gal, a straight thin brush, or one of an angled variety, there’s one of to suit all.

top five eyeshadow brushes

There are so many brands out there now that do fab eyeshadow brushes, for all different uses and price points. Sigma, Zoeva, Louise Young, Real Techniques, Mac the list is endless. And us Irish have some fab brands on our doorstep like Nima Brushes and Blank Canvas Cosmetics which is pretty brilliant.

When it comes to real hair or synthetic, just remember don’t apply liquid products with real hair brushes, it will soak up all the product and it will probably damage your brushes in the process too. Synthetic brushes are much more suited to this and you can apply powder with them aswell.

There you have it my top five eyeshadow brushes. I hope that was somewhat helpful, if you’re in the market. If you have any more questions, just ask me in the comments sure 🙂

Thanks for reading.

xxx