Naked Flushed || Strip

The Naked Flushed palette has been on my wish list for a good year now, after seeing some of my friends using it and being fascinated by the idea of having all three products (bronzer, blush and highlight) in the same place. I picked it up in the New Year with some Christmas money, and you know what? I didn't even know that there was going to be several shades to choose from.

 

Strip was easily the most toned down of the options; I like a subtle blush and highlight and an ashy, cooler toned bronzer, and this seemed like the most likely palette to fit my preferences. Although Urban Decay can be a pricy brand, I don't think you can grumble at £23.50 for three products, and the packaging is so neat (I'm a sucker for any palette that closes with a satisfying 'click'.)

 

 

Sadly, I do have some bits to pick apart about this palette. It's definitely not something that I regret purchasing, since the shades are perfectly up my street, but as for formula...lets just get to it. I'm all for pigmentation - there's nothing more annoying than being excited to try out a new face powder and it not even slightly showing up on your skin, but man this bronzer is pigmented. I tried this (admittedly, not the best plan) with five minutes to go until I had to leave my flat, and quickly entered a panic situation of "oh my days I look like an Oompa Loompa." We've all been there. You can't get away with using this without tapping the excess off the brush, I promise you, it'll end in tears. It is however, so easy to blend that it is possible to rescue the situation (praise the lord.)

 

The blush is as pretty as pretty can be, and surprisingly, since I'm in no way a blush girl, this is my favourite part of the palette. The shade is described as a "deep mauve blush", but it isn't as scary as it sounds and looked quite subtle on my skin. I have to say, I'm not sure where the highlighter fits in with this colour scheme. Both the blush and the bronzer are suited to pale skin, but the "gold shimmer highlighter" is kind of on the dark side of the spectrum. Don't get me wrong, its a gorgeous gold highlight, it just seems a bit odd that it would be slotted in to this scheme. It would look beautiful with a tan!

 

 

I adore that this palette is easy to travel with, like hello Summer holiday essential its nice to meet you. There's a considerable amount of each product included for the price; the only other qualm I have is that the powders have a lot of fallout. You have to be gentle with this palette, when applying the bronzer and when dipping your brush into the shades. I can't decide whether this is a positive or negative review, since I do reach for this product on the daily - when you buy a make up item with such high expectations, its difficult not to find issues unless the product is literally ideal in every way. I do think that face palettes are some of the hardest products to get right, so I think Urban Decay did a good job considering all of that.