Review: Crown Brush Over Exposed Palette (with a Comparison to Urban Decay Naked 3)

Purchased by Me 

I've done several different reviews and comparisons of Urban Decay Naked palettes to more affordable palettes over the years, and I know that there are even more dupes for the Urban Decay Naked 1, 2 and 3 palettes popping up every day. I haven't seen too many reviews of these Crown Brush palettes though, which made me want to purchase and review one for you. Next on my must-try list are the Coastal Scents Revealed Palettes, which I hope to get (and review) soon. Are all dupes created equal? Of course not. So let's take a look at this one...

Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette ($54)

Crown Brush Over Exposed Palette ($21.95)

Keep reading for my full review and comparison...

Crown Brush is, of course, best known for makeup brushes. But Crown also sells makeup, and back in October of last year, they released the Exposed eyeshadow palettes that are similar to Urban Decay Naked 1, 2 and 3. Each palette retails for $21.95, but they occasionally seem to offer deals where you can get these palettes for $17 each + free shipping, which I believe they offered on Instagram a while back.

I purchased the Over Exposed Palette (similar to Naked 3) since I already own Naked 3. I thought it would be helpful to compare the two here for you. I purchased the Crown version via HauteLook for $18, back when HauteLook was offering free shipping on all orders for Cyber Monday (remember when I posted about that? Geeze, it feels like that was a million years ago!). HauteLook regularly features Crown Brush on their site, so I'm sure you'll have a chance to grab these over there again soon if you want them.

I've been using this palette off and on since I received my order from HauteLook, so I'm ready to give you my verdict. Let's take a look:

Front 

The Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette contains 12 eyeshadows that are 0.05 oz each.

The Crown Over Exposed Palette contains 12 eyeshadows that are 0.05 oz each (full disclosure: Crown lists the total weight at 15.6 grams, which converts to 0.55 oz. So I divided that number by 12 and technically it comes out to 0.045833333 to infinity. So I just rounded up to 0.05).

The packaging for both palettes is the exact same size in length, width and thickness. The Crown packaging is not as sturdy as the UD packaging. I'm not sure what type of metal that Crown uses for their packaging (aluminium or tin, I'm guessing) but it feels thinner than the UD packaging. 

The Crown palette does open and shut easily (no sticking or struggling to open or close it) but I do want to note that my palette arrived with a few scuff marks already visible on the paint, and I can see that possibly getting worse over time.

Back

Side

Crown palette: Product of USA, assembled in China

UD palette: Product of USA, assembled in Dominican Republic


Ingredients (click to enlarge)

You can view the ingredients in the UD Naked 3 palette here.

Crown Over Exposed Palette

Looking above and below, you can see that these palettes look extremely similar when open. However, I want to let you know that the mirror I received in the Crown palette is warped, and I've heard that this has been an issue for other people as well. It almost feels like I'm looking in a fun-house mirror when I look at my reflection, so it's not something I can use for makeup application.

Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette

I seem to have misplaced my brush that came with the UD palette, but you can take a look at that double-ended brush HERE. Here are some close-ups of the double-ended brush that comes with the Crown palette (this brush is NOT a dupe for the UD Naked 3 brush):

This brush comes with a round, fluffy blending brush on one end, and a flat brush on the other (the Urban Decay Naked 3 brush comes with two flat brushes--no round brush). More pics:

I really like this brush. The bristles are quite soft, and the flat brush does an impressive job at picking up and depositing these shadows onto the eye, while the round brush does a very nice job at blending. I've washed this brush a few times and have not lost any bristles yet.

Top: Crown

Bottom: Urban Decay

As you can see, the shades in the Crown palette all have numbers, whereas the shades in the UD palette all have names.

All shadows swatched over primer (Too Faced Shadow Insurance):

25 = Strange

26 = Dust

27 = Burnout

28 = Limit

Left to right:

25 = Strange

26 = Dust

27 = Burnout

28 = Limit

Shade 25 contains shimmer, so it's not really a dupe for Strange at all. Shade 26 is quite similar in color to Dust, but it does not contain the heavy amount of glitter that Dust contains. Shade 27 has a touch more champagne/beige to it than Burnout, but it doesn't have as much glitter at Burnout. Shade 28 is a satin-matte and you can really see the sheen over primer. This is quite similar in color to Limit, but the sheen keeps it from being a good dupe, since Limit is a matte.

29 = Buzz

30 = Trick

31 = Nooner

32 = Liar

Left to right:

29 = Buzz

30 = Trick

31 = Nooner

32 = Liar

Shade 29 is more mauve and not as pink as Buzz, and it does not contain the heavy dose of glitter that Buzz contains. Shade 30 is quite similar in color to Trick, but again, not nearly as much glitter as Trick (I really love shade 30 in this palette--in person it is a true rose-gold shimmer). Shade 31 is in no way similar to Nooner--it has almost zero pigmentation, even over primer. Shade 32 is also not a dupe--it's much more purple (actually more of a plummy grape) than Liar, and it's also darker than Liar.

33 = Factory

34 = Mugshot

35 = Darkside

36 = Blackheart

Left to right:

33 = Factory

34 = Mugshot

35 = Darkside

36 = Blackheart

Shade 33 is similar to Factory, but it actually has a pink sheen to it (sorry if you can't see that in my pic) that you don't really get with Factory. Shade 34 is similar in color to Mugshot but the pigmentation on this one is very weak, even over primer. Shade 35 is similar to Darkside but darker and not as multi-dimensional. Shade 36 is in no way similar to Blackheart--it is a vampy, purplish-reddish-brown matte.

So as you can see, there are really no clear-cut dupes in this palette. Some shades are similar, but either the finishes are different, or the colors are a bit off from the real thing (or both). Now that's not to say that there aren't some pretty shades here; I'm just pointing out that I don't believe any of the shades in this palette are dead-on dupes for shades in the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette.

For me, there are six stand-out shades in this palette (some are similar to shades in Naked 3, and some are absolutely not similar to anything in Naked 3). Those shades are:

29, 30, 32

33, 35, 36

Additional thoughts: You absolutely need primer with the shadows in the Crown palette. I'd say that's probably the biggest difference between the two palettes, since most of the shadows in the UD palette are beautifully pigmented and easy to work with, even without primer. But you NEED primer with the Crown palette, and even then, two of the shades just don't show up at all on my eyes. That said, I find the six shades I swatched above to all have good pigmentation over primer and a lovely, smooth texture that's easy to work with and blend. 

Over primer, most of these shadows tend to last all day (eight hours or more) before I see serious fading or creasing. Also, I've found that when I'm blending, these shadows don't become muddy--the colors stay true and vibrant (but again, you must use primer or this will not be the case). But I want to mention that after application and blending, the shimmers in this palette are still shimmery, but they become a bit more subdued and almost more like satin-shimmers after blending. This could of course be a bad thing (if the thing you love about the UD palette is the high shimmer/glitter/metallic shadows) or a good thing (if you the thing you don't love about the UD palette is the high shimmer/glitter/metallic shadows). 

As for fragrance, the Crown palette shadows pretty much smell exactly like the UD shadows. I have to hold my nose right up to palette to detect anything, and even then, I only get a slight, faint whiff of talc. No strong or weird scent to these. 

FINAL VERDICT:  I think this palette has some nice things to offer, but if you were a looking for a shade-for-shade dupe of the colors in UD Naked 3, or even just a few dead-on dupes, you're not going to get that here. That said, there are some unique colors here that are nothing like the colors in UD Naked 3, but I think this palette is priced a bit too high at $21.95. If you can get it on sale, and you like what you see here, then it may be worth considering. I do love the brush that comes with this palette, so that does help to justify the price. But please remember that you absolutely need primer with this palette--otherwise these shadows probably aren't going ti deliver on pigmentation and staying power (two of the twelve shadows don't show up on me, even with primer). In my humble opinion, ten of the twelve shades in this palette are totally wearable, six are gorgeous, and two are misses.

The products featured in this post were purchased with personal funds. For more information, click here.