Urban Decay’s ‘Naked’ Relaunch Is a Hit. Now Comes the Hard Part.

Urban Decay’s most beloved product is making a comeback.

Last month, the brand relaunched its famed Naked palette — a set of 12 playfully named, neutral-to-bold eyeshadow hues — for a limited-edition re-run, sold exclusively in the US at Ulta Beauty and on its own e-commerce website.

Urban Decay retired the product, a motif of 2010s beauty that was featured in countless YouTube tutorials and glossy magazine articles, in 2018. It had been a staple for creating the smokey eye look that reigned supreme in the early 2010s and was popular enough that Urban Decay extended it into a franchise with more palettes. In eight years, the original product sold over 30 million units and generated over $1 billion in sales. But by 2018, with the no-makeup makeup look on the rise, it began to feel more like a relic than icon.

But beauty consumers want what they can’t have. At the end of July, in partnership with retailer Ulta Beauty, the brand began hinting at a revival on its social channels, stirring up buzz online. A coordinated “drop” of palettes to key influencers and press, alongside some well-timed videos with popular creators, helped set the scene for its August 4 relaunch. On Reddit, comments about the teaser reached a fever pitch: “if it’s Naked that would be everything.” “Take my money right now.” “If it’s Naked then that would be so ICONIC.”

It was a smash success: The brand sold through what it anticipated to be five months worth of stock in just three and a half weeks on its own e-commerce site, while at Ulta Beauty, it became the number one product in its first week of launch, and is expected to sell out by the end of the month. Its launch also had a halo effect for the rest of the brand, with overall basket size on its e-commerce site lifting 25 percent, according to the brand.

“We wanted to engage with our community,” said Stéphanie Binette, Urban Decay’s general manager. “[We know that] some of them may have left the brand, and now they’re back.”

In a beauty market where legacy labels constantly find themselves fending off competition from newer, more nimble start-ups, hero products that strike a nostalgic chord with consumers can give them an advantage. For mature brands, a successful product relaunch can provide buzz, serving to both re-recruit legacy customers and also reach out to new ones. Clinique managed to buck a downward trend in its make-up sales when a product it has offered since the 1970s, a lipstick called Black Honey, started to trend on TikTok in 2023.

But pulling off a single nostalgic-driven moment is one thing, ensuring that a brand remains in the zeitgeist is another. Within its parent company L’Oréal, Urban Decay is housed under the “Luxe” division alongside the likes of skincare maker Kiehl’s and cosmetics line Lancôme. Luxe is the conglomerate’s slowest-growing division, though in its half-year results, the company said the division was accelerating sequentially, and that Urban Decay was contributing to a “rebound in makeup.”

To translate Urban Decay’s summer success into long-lasting momentum, it will need to deploy trendy new launches in a timely fashion, and convince customers of its relevance in today’s market.

How to Get Relaunch Right

If Urban Decay wanted to make a splash, Naked was the right product to do it with. It had such a cult following that after the news of its discontinuation broke in 2018, the brand hosted a “funeral” online with designer and TV personality Nicole Richie reading the palette’s eulogy.

At the time, brand founder Wende Zomnir said in a statement that it was “painful” to leave it behind, but that it was “essential to evolve.” The makeup climate that Naked thrived in was an era where maximalism reigned supreme. YouTube and the early days of Instagram helped to popularise complex, product-intensive techniques such as dramatic “cut crease” eyeshadow, contouring and ultra-defined brows. Current trends lean more towards a fuss-free natural look, including fluffy, untamed brows, fresh-looking skin and flushed cheeks.

But even still, there is an appetite for nostalgia-fuelled beauty products, particularly tied to aughts or “Y2K” era fashion. (The Naked palette originally launched in the sunset of that era, but can still benefit from its halo effect.) However, despite the product’s popularity and heritage status, there was no guarantee the relaunch would have a big impact, said Binette. The brand currently plans to keep it as a limited run.

“There was always commentary from a fraction of consumers [about the palette],” said Maria Salcedo, senior vice president of merchandising at Ulta Beauty, adding the retailer was aware some shoppers still felt it offered superior quality in terms of formula and shades. Salcedo said there is also general customer interest in brown, taupe and other neutral eyeshadow shades, which the Naked palette offers.

To ensure the relaunch hit the right note, Urban Decay worked on a social media strategy that tapped into the nostalgic moment. It partnered with longtime creators like NikkieTutorials and MannyMUA to create a series of videos where they “passed the baton” of the Naked palette to a fresh crop of newer creators. with another video, featuring the TikTok creator Isabel Clancy, known for her comedic throwback-style videos, garnered just over 3 million views.

Timing is key, said Christine Schmitt, a senior associate in strategy firm Kearney’s consumer practice. Launch too soon, and brands will only reach a smaller group of early adopters; too late, and run the risk of feeling “like a fad and no one will be excited about it,” said Schmitt.

Choosing the right retail partner also matters. Working with Ulta Beauty, which has a broad distribution of stores in the US, including in more suburban and rural areas, ensured the product would reach everyday shoppers as well as those seeking hot new brands.

Another key part of the relaunch was modernising — but just enough. The shades are the same as the original palette, as is the velvety case, but the formulas were updated to be vegan, a more modern concern, and improve the blendability and wear. Salcedo said some improvement was needed to ensure the launch didn’t feel “gimmicky.” ”I don’t think it would have been such a success if we hadn’t slightly improved based on the consumer needs,” said Binette.

Still, some shoppers just don’t like change. 61-year-old retired school district administrator Elizabeth Hamlin, from Michigan, has bought Urban Decay products since 1993 (the year the brand originally debuted), and said their gritty, offbeat image appealed to her. “You could do so much with [the Naked] palette,” she said. But she said she felt the new version faded faster, and oxidised slightly after application.

Turning a Relaunch into a Renaissance

An era-defining product can be a mixed blessing. As popular as it was when originally launched, and as fond as nostalgia may be towards it, it can be hard for brands to convince consumers both new and old that the brand is still current.

Like many contemporaneous legacy makeup brands, including Benefit, Bobbi Brown (whose eponymous founder started Jones Road Beauty in 2020) and Becca Cosmetics (which parent company Estée Lauder shuttered in 2021), Urban Decay faces stiff competition from new indies, like Saie, Kosas and Westman Atelier, all of which trade on a more fresh-faced look.

Bringing the palette back as a limited-edition product offers dual benefits: it’s enough to get customers talking again, but also reassures them that the brand isn’t moving backwards.

Schmitt said it’s key for a brand like Urban Decay to also use the moment to compete on innovation. “They have to show that the product performance is also still relevant, because that’s ultimately what’s making products resilient over time,” she said. Reformulated products can go a long way to achieving this, when executed correctly.

It’s also a way for Urban Decay to align itself with current trends. Binette said Urban Decay is often thought of as a “colour” brand, which typically means it’s associated with dramatic looks but “those colours could be brown…it doesn’t have to be those bold colours,” she said, noting opportunities in lips and eyeliners.

The brand’s next moves, how it chooses to innovate and market, will be key to kickstarting its long-term growth. Binette said it is in early stages of a brand refresh, but it already has valuable learnings.

“What we see with some of these trends is less colour,” she said. “But there is not less product.”

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