Wednesday 2 October 2013

The Naked 2's Evil Twin (A Comparison)

Can you identify which is the real Urban Decay Naked 2 palette?


If you guessed the bottom one, you are correct! *applauds*

The coveted Naked 2 palette by Urban Decay is probably my favorite big eyeshadow palette I own. But, it is pricey, so you may be contemplating buying a cheaper one off Ebay. However, I'm sure we all know there are A LOT of fakes out there so in this post, I'll be comparing the REAL Naked 2 and a FAKE Naked 2.

[Warning: This will be a long post!]


Firstly, let's take a look at the COVER, which holds one of the differences between the real and the Naked 2's evil twin.

Here is the cover of the REAL one:

sorry about the rain drops, it was slightly raining when I took this

One thing to look out for is the colour of the tin itself, and the colour of the font. The tin isn't a flat out silver, but more of a light taupe colour. The font of the words "NAKED 2 URBAN DECAY" also isn't a plain black, it is more bronze.

Here is the cover of the FAKE:


Can you see the slight difference between the fake (top) and the real (bottom) tin's colour?


Another thing to look out for is the BACK.


The real Naked 2 palette should have it's product number on the back. My Naked 2 has a sticker with "A144" on it while the Evil Twin does not have a sticker at all. The back font is also a different colour, like the tin.


Now most importantly, how do the colour and quality of the eyeshadows compare?

Let's take a look inside!

Left: Fake                     Right: Real

So in terms of colour, the 12 eyeshadows look pretty similar right?

What about when we swatch them?

SWATCHES OF THE FAKE NAKED 2: 



Verdict: I accidentally chopped out "Foxy" and "Half Baked" from this photo but the pigmentation of the Fake is decent overall. The matte shades (Foxy, Tease and Blackout") are a bit chalky and "Chopper" could be a bit more pigmented.

SWATCHES OF THE REAL NAKED 2 :



Verdict: The texture of the real Urban Decay eyeshadows are more buttery and pigmented. The metallic shades (eg. chopper, snakebite, YDK) are much more vibrant and metallic. The matte shades also have decent colour payoff. Even the matte highlight, Foxy, is nicely pigmented (although it blends right into my skintone in the photo).


What else can we compare? Oh yes, the dual-ended brush that comes with the palette.

Top: Fake                Bottom: Real
The brushes are very similar, with identical colour and font. But I'm sure you can notice that with the real brush, the side that the writing starts is the flat shader brush side. With the fake's, the writing starts on the side with the fluffy blending brush. So they are reversed.

I will say that the quality of both brushes is pretty much the same. Both work well and are equally dense.

Also, the REAL blending brush side has more dark-coloured bristles...


...while the FAKE blending brush side has less dark-coloured bristles.



And those are my points of comparison! In summary, although the quality of the FAKE Naked 2 is below that of an authentic one, the quality is still decent enough, and I still use the fake palette whenever I am experimenting and don't want to abuse my real one.

If you want to simply test out the colours of the Naked 2 to see if it suits you, a fake one could be of interest to you but I still think the REAL Urban Decay Naked 2 is amazing and well worth the $50. With 12 good quality eyeshadows, that makes it $4+ per shadow.


Where I got the fake Naked 2 palette: With Love Kirsten (an Australian jewellery store, who DID claim it was not authentic , so it's all good)

Where I got the real Naked 2 palette: BeautyBay (free shipping worldwide!)


I hope this comparison post was helpful!


xoxo,

Sheri

Disclaimer: The fake Naked 2 palette was provided for free however, all opinions expressed are 100% honest.

14 comments:

  1. Kind of scary to think that you could be purchasing a fake. At least you knew what you were getting yourself into! Others may not have been so lucky. Thanks so much for sharing.

    http://bigbeautybag.blogspot.com/

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  2. Sheri, this is a great post! Thanks for the valuable information. Not a lot of people are willing to buy fakes and test them out, hah! You're the best. *u*

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    1. (Even though the product was provided, I mean) xD

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    2. June, I agree that not a lot of 'people' are willing to buy fakes but you'll be surprised by the number of young teenage girls buying the fakes haha :)

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    3. haha yep! They let me pick some jewellery but I chose this instead because I wanted to do a comparison! Thanks <3

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  3. I remember encountering the fake palette on a Facebook 'shop' run by teenage Aussie girls. They claimed it wasn't authentic and it was sold at $25 :)

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    1. Ah yes, price is also another factor. This one was being sold for $10 I think :) So it was obvious.

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  4. Great post! Very interesting comparison!

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  5. A lot of my friends ordered from that site, thinking it was real and they ended up getting a refund I think lol.

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    1. LOL I think it did state it wasn't real though xD

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  6. Love these kinds of posts! Great comparison Sheri.. I admit I used to be very terrible at spotting fakes... but since becoming a beauty blogger and realising how easy it was to spot if you knew what you were looking for, I'm so sceptical of any discounted prices on stuff like this :P
    xx

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  7. It's quite amazing how counterfeit cosmetics are even a thing - whoever manufactured this really tried hard LOL. Especially with the brush! This is a super useful comparison though, and very thorough as well :) At least the fake you bought was disclosed as such and sold for much cheaper as a result.

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  8. thanks so much for the comparison!! ^_~

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  9. I love these colours. If I use eyeshadow at all, I most times only use exactly these colorways. I think that they look best with brown eyes. :)
    World of Plastic

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Thanks so much for reading! Your comments make my day.