I have lusted over the Urban Decay Naked Palettes ever since I saw them, but haven't been able to get my hands on them - they are not readily available in South Africa, and when I have found them, they are way too expensive (like over R600!). So imagine my surprise when doing a little makeup shopping at Dischem, I discovered this little beauty (brick) at just R70:
Now I know that just because something looks similar to another product that it doesn't necessarily mean that the product is a dupe for it, but I have seen a fair amount of reviews that claim this is very similar to my coveted Urban Decay Naked 3 palette! Plus they look so similar :)
L.A. Girl has this new range of Beauty Bricks which are palettes of 12 shades of eyeshadow. They have Nudes, Smoky (blues, greys and browns), Ultra (nudes and purples) and Neons (bright, rainbow colours). I snatched up the Nudes palette as soon as I saw it as I mainly wear these colours on a day to day basis, but the other palettes looked awesome as well.
It comes in a cardboard outer box and the inside is a hard plastic. The double-tipped applicator has a brush on one end, and a sponge on the other. The lid has a mirror on it (not pictured as my camera was reflecting too much in it!) The brush is actually fairly good quality, although it is a little small for my liking to apply eyeshadow all over. In my opinion it works better to apply shadow in the crease.
Now for the swatches! There is a good mix of matt and shimmer shades - here I have swatched them all on my arm:
The colours are quite pigmented and the lasting power is also pretty impressive - I applied in the morning before work, and after a ridiculously hot day in Joburg (thanks heatwave!) I took as shot of how it looked when I came home in the afternoon. I didn't do any touch-ups, and as you can see, it has lasted really well considering I didn't use a primer and was sweating all day!
So there you have it - at just R70 from Dischem, this Nudes palette from L.A. Girl is an absolute steal - especially for those of you who, like me, have been drooling over the Urban Decay palettes and never had a chance to purchase! In fact, I loved it so much that I went out and got the Smoky palette too and will be reviewing that for you too shortly.
Have you had the pleasure of trying these palettes out yet? Please let me know what you think!
