L'Oreal La Palette Nude 1 Review and Swatches

The L'oreal La Palette Nude 1 and 2 ($15.84, Walmart) are brand new for Spring 2015, and you have no idea how relieved I am that I finally found them...that means I can stop looking at the empty displays in every drugstore I go in! They've been teasing us for a few months with "coming soon" displays in CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, but I actually spotted it first on Walmart.com.  I went to the two Walmart stores nearest my house and it wasn't there, so I used the tool on their website to find out which Walmart stores were carrying this and I found a store about 35 minutes away that had both Nude 1 and Nude 2.  So exciting!! 

Anyway, I had very high hopes for this palette because L'oreal owns Urban Decay, and of course it's easy to compare these to the Naked palettes.  I'll compare this palette to the Naked 2 a little further down in this post, but first I wanted to talk about this palette on it's own.

Nude 1 is a collection of warm bronze and taupe-based nudes while Nude 2 (which I'll cover in a separate post) features cooler gray, rose and purple-based nudes.
The palette itself is larger than I thought it was going to be...it's very substantial and a little on the heavy side...so it's likely not going to be great for travel.
It features 10 shades and a double sided applicator with a sponge on one end and brush on the other.  I really didn't like the brush...it's a really small flat brush, almost like a mini concealer brush, that I didn't find very useful in applying shadows. A bit disappointing since I actually like the double-ended brush that's in my Naked 2 and use it all the time, but not a deal-breaker since most palettes don't have useable applicators.
It has a mirror that covers half of the lid, while the other half is a window so you can view the colors from the outside.

On the back of the palette, they show you 4 looks with instructions on how to achieve them with the shades inside.

Ok, I'm sure you're curious to see swatches and hear about the formula, so enough about the packaging!
If you were disappointed in the Maybelline Nudes palette like I was, you'll really be happy with this one! The pigmentation is so much better in this palette.  There's a combination of matte and satin shades here  (no glitter) and they both have different textures.  The matte shades feel powdery, similar to Tarte's Amazonian Clay formula, while the satin shades are really buttery and rival the feel of Urban Decay's formula. I would say that the satin shades go on smoother and slightly more pigmented than the matte shades, which go on a little bit streaky as you can kind of see in the swatches below.  But overall, the pigmentation for both is really good and is way better than the Maybelline Nudes palette (see my swatches of that here).

Here are the first 5 shades...there's a matte cream colored shade, a shimmery peachy bronze, a matte rust brown, a satiny bronzed gold, and a matte medium brown.

The last 5 shades are all satin/shimmers except for the first one which is a matte taupe brown.  Then there's a bronze, chocolate brown, silvery taupe, and shimmer pink-toned beige that's absolutely stunning (and doesn't show up well on camera, unfortunately).

Compared to the Naked 2, the La Palette Nude 1 has 10 shades, while Naked 2 has 12. The palette itself is about the same width, but slightly shorter lengthwise.

When I first looked at it, I could definitely see some similar shades, but as a whole, Naked 2 is mostly cool, taupe-based shades, while the La Palette Nude 1 has a mix of warm bronze based shades (like the Naked 1) and some cooler taupes (like the Naked 2).  So I would say that it's probably a mix of the Naked 1 and Naked 2, but I don't own the Naked 1, so I won't be able to do any swatch comparisons with that.

I decided to swatch a few shades that looked similar in the pans to see how they are alike (or different). The L'oreal shades don't have names, so I've numbered them in order from left to right.

First, I compared Shade #1 in the L'oreal palette with Foxy in the Naked 2.  They're both off-white matte shades, but you can see that the L'oreal one leans more toward white, while Foxy is decidedly more yellow next to it.

#1(left), Foxy (right)

#2 and Chopper are very similar...Chopper is a little darker but otherwise they're very close.

#2 (left), Chopper (right)

#4 and Half Baked are also very close, but Half Baked is a little lighter and more of a shimmery gold while #4 is a satiny gold-bronze.

#4 (left), Half Baked (right)

I thought that #7 and Snakebite were also pretty close dupes, but #7 is a bit warmer with some copper in it, while Snakebite is a cooler, chocolate brown.

#7 (left), Snakebite (right)

#8 and Busted actually look closer swatched than they do in the pan, but again, the L'oreal version is a bit warmer, while the Naked 2 version is cooler.

#8 (left) and Busted (right)

#9 and Suspect look similar, but in this case, the L'oreal version leans cool toward a grayish-taupe, while Suspect is a bronzy-taupe.

#9 (left), Suspect (right)

Finally, #10 and Bootycall look similar in the pan but when swatched, #10 is more pink, while Bootycall is a white-ish pink.

#10 (left) and Bootycall (right)

Overall, the L'oreal La Palette Nude 1 is a drugstore palette that can hold it's own with it's higher-end counterparts.  As you can see in the comparison swatches, there's little difference in pigmentation between this and Urban Decay, so while it's not an exact dupe, it's an amazing alternative for under $16.  In a way, since I own the Naked 2 palette, I'm glad it's a little different, because now I have new colors to play with!  But if you don't own the Naked palettes, there are some very similar shades to the Naked 2 in here (and I'm assuming some of the warmer shades will be similar to Naked 1).
I can't wait to review La Palette Nude 2, so stay tuned for that coming soon!