Urban Decay Naked Palettes: Drifting Farther Out of Reach?

When the the Orginal Naked palette was released it retailed at $48. This was when it came with the dual sided pencil. 

The price then increased from $48 to $50 with the upgrade to a brush, which is the same price Naked 2 retailed for. 

During the Holiday season, the price of the Naked and Naked 2 was increased to $52 to meet the price of the newly released Naked 3. 

Just moments ago I went onto the Sephora website to research a  completely unrelated product, and saw that all of the Naked palettes are now retailing for $54!!! 

The price is the same on the Urban Decay Website. 

I guess I should feel thankful that, for the time being, Ulta is still selling them for the regular $52 (a price that I still have not fully adjusted to). 

It's been less than 6 months since the last price increase but, 

at the rate this is going, by the time Christmas rolls around again these could very well become

 $60 palettes!

 I'm not seeing any changes or evolutions in the palettes to make them any better than the previous generation. 

A price increase of the original NAKED palette from $48 to $50 with the exchange of the dual-ended pencil to the shader brush was warranted, but I don't understand why the most recent increases are. 

If anything the quality of certain shadows in the NAKED 3 are not as impressive as the shades in  the first two palettes. 

However, Urban Decay has been on a roll lately. 

I feel like this is a company that is very in tuned with the market and a company that is continually meeting the needs that their consumer base didn't even know they had. 

For example: 

the release of the NAKED Basics palette

their new line of Revolution Lipsticks

the NAKED Lipglosses

Face Powders (in both a pressed and loose form)

the NAKED Skin foundations

the new Perversion Liners

and the recent Electric Palette

Right now it seems like everything Urban Decay touches turns to gold. 

They can do no wrong, which is why the prices on everyone's Holy Grail palettes are slowly creeping up. And now, that Lorac is no longer being carried at Sephora there's no looming threat from the Lorac Pro or the Lorac Unzipped palettes on that front.

If I were Urban Decay I would be reluctant to increase the price of my most popular palettes any further. 

I feel like those who have already purchased all of Naked Palettes (or any of the Naked Palettes) are thinking to themselves:

"Well damn! I'm glad I got that sh*t when it was cheaper!"

Those who might have been waiting for, as Capt. Jack Sparrow would say, 

"The opportune moment" to make their purchase might find themselves even more reluctant to do so. 

Urban Decay has started a notoriously neutral trend that is still going strong. 

This has given rise to countless other brands releasing their own versions of Naked or Neutral palettes. This means more viable alternatives and more 'dupes' on the market with price tags that are more appealing.  

Check out these videos from Beauty Broadcast:

"Drugstore Nude Eye Favorites"

"All Eyes on Metallic Neutral Shadows"

If you've actually made it to the end of the post, thank you for reading my rant and I encourage you to leave a comment and tell me what you think about the price increase.

If you own any of the NAKED palettes how do you feel about it and do  you think it's worth the investment? 

Those opinions, even though there are a lot of them all over the internet, becomes more important every time Urban Decay increases the price to consumers.

Thanks for reading and remember:

Don't Just Wear Makeup,

Let it Inspire You!