What I'm Not Buying: Urban Decay Naked Petite Heat

Urban Decay has announced their latest Naked Basics palette, which is a mini mostly matte version of their Naked Heat palette: Naked Petite Heat. 

And I won't be buying. 

I'm excited to write this post and I feel like things could get a little feisty because this is, without doubt, the most jaw-dropping "we don't need this" eyeshadow palette release I have seen in some time. 

First, I would like to thank one of my readers for alerting me to this palette on Instagram. I would share their name, but their Instagram account is private, so I want to respect their privacy. I really love it when people tag me in posts about new product releases because sometimes I miss the unveiling of new releases. So, thank you.

Onto Naked Petite Heat. So, I'm confused here. This is obviously a Naked Basics palette:

But for some reason Urban Decay is not calling it that and not branding it in their Basics line. It's in the exact same packaging and has the same layout of five matte shades and one shimmer. Clearly Urban Decay is trying some rebranding and riding the coattails of their Naked Heat palette (my anti-haul post on that can be found here), but let's call this palette what it is: the warm-toned version of Naked Basics:

And if there is one thing that the makeup industry desperately needs, it's a warm-toned mostly matte palette. 

Sarcasm aside, what I don't understand is that Urban Decay has already given us this palette. And not just in Naked Heat:

(Which, by the way, despite the fact that the two palettes have different shade names, it seems pretty clear that the shades in Naked Petite Heat are the same as the mattes in Naked Heat, but we'll get to that in a bit.)

Urban Decay also already gave us that with the Naked Ultimate Basics palette:

Specifically, the first four shadows on the bottom row:

I suppose the reasoning behind not calling Petite Heat a "Basics" palette is that they already gave consumers the "Ultimate Basics" palette, so if they released another Basics palette it would somehow invalidate the claim that it was the "ultimate" palette?

I don't know; that's the best I can come up with. 

Let's look at swatches:

Do you know what I see when I look at these swatches? Literally every other warm-toned palette that has been released in the past two years. 

I literally laughed when I saw this palette because I just could not believe that after Urban Decay was already so late to the game with releasing Naked Heat that they would release yet another warm-toned palette when there's no one hurting for warm-toned neutrals. 

Let's look at the colors as pigments:

When you strip the shadows away from their packaging, I see three boring neutrals and three slightly less boring neutrals. The last three shadows would have been interesting a few years ago, but because of all the palettes that have been released since then, this is just more of the same now. 

So, let's look at all these other palettes, shall we?

There's the Kat Von D Shade and Light Eye palette, of course:

Specifically the warm quad:

And speaking of Kat Von D quads, there's also the Shade and Light Eye Quad in Rust:

There's Viseart Neutral Matte:

Specifically this section:

Viseart Dark Matte:

Which offers a similar, but more interesting quad:

And Viseart Warm Matte:

There's also the Melt Rust Stack:

Coloured Raine Beauty Rust:

Dose of Colors Baked Browns:

And Sassy Siennas:

Huda Beauty Obsessions Warm Brown:

Morphe x Jaclyn Hill:

Specifically, this section:

At the drugstore, theres's one of my all-time favorite palettes, Milani Earthly Elements:

And, of course, there's Colourpop Yes, Please!:

Off the bat I'm going to say that I think Naked Petite Heat is overpriced and that you can get more and better for cheaper. Naked Petite Heat is $29 before tax and shipping. If you buy through Urban Decay, there is only free shipping on orders over $50, so Petite Heat alone wouldn't be enough to qualify. Shipping is also $8, which is steep, epically for something this small. If you include shipping, this palette now costs $37, and that's not including tax. For upwards of $40, I do not think Naked Petite Heat is worth it. I would instead recommend Colourpop Yes, Please! for $16 and $6 shipping. Yes, Please! offers all of the colors in Petite Heat plus several more interesting shades and textures. 

In my opinion, this release from Urban Decay is redundant and unnecessary. If you have any of the above palettes, you have Naked Petite Heat already. The only people who I can really see wanting this are those who want to complete their Naked Basics collections or who want to have both Naked Heat palettes. That's it. Because there are so many other options available at this point that you either have these colors if you want them or you don't want them. 

Typically, in a post about a product like this, I would talk about how this is bringing absolutely nothing new or innovative to the makeup community. I would also mention that it's a product that perpetuates the idea of continually buying what you already own because a different brand releases it, it is part of a serial line, or because the layout is slightly different from what you already own. 

And all of that remains true about Naked Petite Heat. In fact, it looks like Urban Decay went out of their way to rename all the shadows in this palette so that people who already own Naked Heat will buy these exact shadows again. Urban Decay is not the only brand to do that, but this is one of the more blatant examples of it that I've seen. 

But also, I'm personally at a point in my consumer journey where I am not yearning for a brand to come out with something that I haven't seen before. Because I just don't want any more. And frankly, I don't know if it's even possible for a brand to do that at this point since there are only so many colors and I own almost all of them. 

This is something I would like to talk about. For a while now I've had fatigue from all of the makeup products that are being released at rapid fire. And it's something that I'm starting to see other people talk about as well. People have mentioned that a new product is launching weekly, but it really seems like it's happening multiple times a week and maybe even daily. It's too much and no one can keep up with that, mentally or financially, unless they are a beauty influencer who needs daily content. The market is so oversaturated that I feel exhausted by all of it. It's no longer exciting for me, and I guess you could say that I have burnt myself out. 

And this palette is an excellent example of unnecessary consumerism. It's a color scheme that is so overdone that it's laughable and is literally a part of two existing Urban Decay palettes (both of which are permanent). This is so obviously just a lazy release from Urban Decay and one that they know will sell. It makes me appreciate brands like Kat Von D and Anastasia Beverly Hills more because they don't have a new eyeshadow palette released every month. When they do release a palette (I'm talking more Kat Von D here), it feels like it was done so with purpose rather than trying to capitalize on a current trend. 

I do believe that there are people who would love to have Naked Petite Heat. I'm sure they love to do really warm looks and they like the idea of how compact this palette is. Thing is, it really doesn't matter how compact something is unless you are the type of person to literally carry your makeup in your purse or if you travel a considerable amount. Otherwise, we both know that you already have all of these shades and you are just bored and wanting to try something new. 

For me, I'm tired of all of these releases, especially ones like Naked Petite Heat, which is recycling old colors and releasing a product simply for the sake of it. I don't need or want this palette, so I won't be buying.