I bough this Urban Decay Naked Skin foundation following some rave reviews on YouTube. And despite a great initial start, this one ended up disappointing me. So let’s begin!
This one comes from Vegan-friendly Urban Decay, a brand I’m truly fond of. This is meant to be a full coverage, lightweight foundation that comes in 21 shades. It’s £27 for 30ml and claims to ‘understand the balance between luminosity, weightlessness and coverage’.
I’m in shade 0.5, which is their lightest shade. However, this one is very light, and borders on too pale for me – so a great one for the pale skinned among you.
Before
After
Not unlike the Clinique Superbalanced silk foundation, the application of this one was really wonderful. It’s the runniest foundation formula I’ve come across, but despite that, it gives really good coverage. After two layers most of my redness was covered, and I added a little extra concealer on the nose and the odd spot to cover-up. The lightness of the shade even lends me skin some luminosity, which isn’t easy when you’re as pale as I am.
I loved the demi-matte finish, which wasn’t as dewy as the Clinique foundation, but wasn’t as matte as many others I’ve tried. In the close-up my cheeks look super-smooth and I was really happy with how my makeup sat over the foundation. All-in-all, a great start.
Sorry for the ‘dead behind the eyes’ look in this one.
1pm check-in
And here we are again! It’s lunchtime and my makeup is giving up the ghost. However, to start on a positive note, my forehead is the least oily it’s probably ever been by lunchtime (given that I haven’t blotted or added any powder since this morning), so the forehead has held up well.
The rest of my face, not so much. Above my eyebrows, it’s actually looking a bit dry and cakey. On my nose the foundation is practically off, and blotting isn’t an option as I’m getting a lot of transfer on my fingers.
The worst part is around my mouth (where I have a big spot growing). You can see in the chin close-up that the foundation is separating and slipping off all around my chin-area, even though it isn’t any greasier than normal. I might expect this around 6-7pm, but not by lunchtime.
7pm check-in
I’m still at work as I’ve got an appointment at 7 – hence the weird yellow lighting in the loos. For this reason I’ve attached a flash and a non-flash picture. Neither are ideal but hopefully give you an idea of how we’re getting on.
My forehead is holding up okay, but my nose, the sides of my nose and my chin are all a bit of a disaster. The foundation is coming off, it’s creasing a fair bit under my eyes and I don’t feel good about it. The cheeks are still pretty smooth, which is something I guess.
My conclusion
Not unlike the Clinique Superbalanced Silk foundation, this one took me from delight in the morning, to sheer disappointment by the evening. Except I hadn’t made the mistake of buying the Clinique one 😦
Given that I have bought this foundation and it looks so good on initial application, I want to try this a few more times, and maybe mix it with other primers/setting sprays to see if I can make it go the distance.
Coverage – 8.5/10
This foundation has strong coverage game. It’s still not Doublewear, but it is almost full coverage and really does feel weightless on your skin (unlike Doublewear). A joy to apply!
Pore smoothing – 7/10
No special effects on the pores. By the evening, as the makeup was wearing off, it did that ‘dotty pore’ thing I don’t like. When used with my Clinique pore solutions cream stuff, my pores looked fine initially.
Finish – 9/10
This started with such a beautiful finish – probably my favourite yet. It’s demi-matte so slightly reflects light for a healthy-skin look that isn’t greasy or dewy. However I set this with powder and by midday – some areas of my face (above eyebrows for example) looked a bit cakey.
Fine lines and wrinkles – 8/10
The lovely, light finish of this formula meant it was good for fine lines and wrinkles, and didn’t seem to settle in any of them. Again, until later, when it got a bit cakey on my forehead, which didn’t look great.
Longevity – 5/10
This was the big let-down with this foundation. It wasn’t even a particularly hot day, and yet by lunchtime this makeup wasn’t looking good. I was so disappointed on that front.
Pros
- Good pale shades
- Gorgeous finish on first application
- Blends and applies so easily with brush or beauty blender
- Surprisingly good coverage
- Very lightweight
- Cruelty free.
Cons
- Longevity was not great – it didn’t go the distance
- Separated and slipped off in nose/mouth areas.
Keef’s comments
In the morning Keith liked the foundation coverage and the finish, although he did say…
It looks much more matte than usual.
This was interesting, as it was a demi-matte finish. I wondered if I had perhaps been over-zealous with my powdering routine this morning.
Have you tried this foundation? Did you manage to make it last a good long time?
Update!
I was so disappointed with this foundation that I tried it again today (Monday). I changed:
- The primer
- The application technique
- How much powder I used
- The setting spray.
While I can’t say which of these had an effect, the foundation DID last better this time. By lunch it was still holding up well…
By 6pm the foundation was looking a little ropier, but still a much better performance than the first time. A similar issue is starting to occur around the chin area.
Totally addicted to base 