We all know how we love Urban Decay’s Naked Palette, for its versatility and great pigmentation. It is very hard to find a suitable competitor. Many brands tried to come out with their own interpretations of the natural-look, easy to use palette.
However, I did find one that’s quite it; Stila In The Light Palette.
In this palette, you get 10 eyeshadow shades, ranging from light beiges, copper, browns, grey-blue and matte black. Not to mention a full-size Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner in Damsel. It’s packaged in a cardboard box and closed with a magnet. I never carry it during my traveling though; it seems a little flimsy and fragile.
Let’s go to the swatches:
First row L-R: Bare, Kitten, Bliss, Sunset, Sandstone
Second row L-R: Champagne, Gilded Gold, Luster, Night Sky, Ebony
- Bare is a matte ivory shade, it doesn’t really show on my skin, but I like it for highlighting the brow bone, or to clean up any mess that I’ve made.
- Kitten, Stila’s best seller, is a light peachy pink champagne with gold shimmers. This is great for the inner corners and a light wash across the lids.
- Bliss is a matte nude, leaning to pink.
- Sunset is a shimmery dark copper shade.
- Sandstone is a matte brown, great for the crease.
- Champagne is a shimmery pale gold, great for an allover lid color too.
- Gilded Gold is a golden brown with micro gold sparkles.
- Luster is a smoky dark brown with multicolor shimmers.
- Night sky is a gorgeous shimmery grey-blue.
- Ebony is a matte black; I like to use this as an eye liner too.
The swatches above were done using my fingers and no primer underneath. Most of the formulas of these eye shadows are great. I’d suggest wearing these eye shadows over an eye primer beforehand though, to boost the colors to their full potential, and of course, to prolong the wear. My favorite is Night Sky; I love this for an evening, smoky eyes look. My least favorite would be Gilded Gold and Luster, the texture of these is rather hard and chalky, and I had to dampen my brush a little bit to get the color out. But when they’re out, they’re gorgeous, especially Luster, such a deep smoky brown. Kitten, while lovely, I find the texture of it is a little too soft. I accidentally nicked it once and a chunk came out, I had to carefully placed and pressed it softly back into place, hence more the reason why I don’t carry this while traveling.
Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner in Damsel
Damsel is a matte dark brown. I love this! It’s creamy, glides easily and no tugging needed. This is the perfect dark brown-black shade for me. I also like to use this to fill in between my lashes. However, this is not necessarily smudge-able; it pretty much sets in right away. I actually like it because this thing is absolutely waterproof and won’t melt off at the end of the day. I had to use an oil based eye makeup remover for this. I could ramble all day long about this liner… To make the point short, I hope Stila makes this shade permanent, otherwise I’m going have to use this as little as I can.
This palette also comes with a 6-page lookbook to help and guide you to create different looks.
Overall, this is a great palette if you’re more into the neutral and natural looks. In comparison to the Urban Decay’s Naked Palette, the pigmentation is not as stellar, but it is still wonderful nonetheless. That’s actually a good thing, especially if you tend to be a heavy handed person. I personally like to layer my eye shadows to the desired pigmentation, rather than starting off bold, panicked then rushed off to brush off the colors in an attempt to lighten up the colors, or add a different color to camouflage it and I might end up with a weird, murky shade. Then in the end, I will have to wipe off the whole thing and start over. No, thank you, I like my peace in the morning.
Stila In The Light Palette is sold at $39 in the US but sadly this brand is not available in Indonesia. You can purchase it online through its website, or you can order it through Market Plaza like I did 🙂
