Quo Holiday 2012 Back To Basics Palette (Naked Dupe): Review, Photos, Swatches

Hey all! Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I have swatches of a lovely, Canadian NAKED dupe today though!

 Quo is Shoppers Drug Mart's house cosmetics brand and the Back to Basics palette is part of this year's holiday collection. Best part? It's an almost dead-on dupe of Urban Decay's Naked, and it's only $25 (CAD). There is a downside: it's only available in-store at Shoppers Drug Mart, so it could be difficult to source for non-Canadians. Hopefully those of you outside Canada who want it can find a nice Canuck to CP it!

 Back to Basics has 12 neutral shades (each 1g) and a decent, full-sized eyeshadow brush.

None of the shades are named so I have numbered them from 1-12. The palette is standard cardboard with a magnetic closure. The magnet is strong enough that it shouldn't open while in your purse, etc. The outside design is beautiful and I find that overall, the palette has a higher-end feel to it.

 Swatches

All shades swatched over Urban Decay Primer Potion (original), under a daybulb with no flash, and separated by scotch tape. They are all applied with the palette's eyeshadow brush except where noted.

Each of these shades applied well. 1 & 2 would make great highlight colours -- I'm a sucker for shimmery whites & pinks.

4 applied well. 5 and 6 were less pigmented than 1-4 and required more swipes of the brush to get that level of opacity. They are still good; however, and 6's gold tone is gorgeous.

7 also applied well. 8 and 9 were patchy with the eyeshadow brush but I applied them here with my finger and they turned out much better. I definitely recommend that method or using a stiff brush to avoid patchiness.

These all had issues with patchiness but applied better with my finger. 11 is probably the worst in terms of patchiness and pigmentation; it's also supposed to have silver sparkles but they hardly register when swatched. It's not bad if you are looking for a softer, smoky crease or lid colour, but if you want a highly pigmented matte black, you won't find it here. 12 is better and has more noticeable silver sparkles.

Overall, the pigmentation and application of these shades was mostly good, with most of the darker shades (8-12) requiring the use of a stiff brush/finger to reach their potential. I do think the palette is worth the $25, as most of the shades are fairly easy to work with, with the exception of 11's patchiness.

I don't have Urban Decay's Naked palette to compare these shades to; however, this is a great post from Sparkled Beauty that compares the two. As you can see, Back to Basics is very close to Naked, and also a better deal in cost per gram.

Ingredients

I'm quite satisfied with this palette and it's quenched my thirst to get Naked (ha!) I can see myself using it frequently for quick, everyday looks or smokey eyes. If you can get your hands on it, I recommend it! Shoppers also has an awesome, free rewards program (Optimum Points) and frequent promotions, so it's possible you could snag this baby for less than $25 or get extra points by buying it. Check the flyers!

Have you tried anything by Quo? Do you own this, the original, or any other dupes?


Product purchased myself. All opinions are my own.