Fall/holiday beauty launches are among my favorites. The colors! The packaging! The limited-edition sets! It’s enough to drive any beauty junkie’s bank account into the red.
Recently, I was able to dip into three of Urban Decay’s latest cosmetic creations, and below are the beautiful results of my makeup experiment:
Urban Decay Brightening and Tightening Complexion Primer Potion (above, $31): I used to be all, “Primer? What a waste! I don’t need that stuff!” Now, I’m all like, “Primer, where have you been all my life?”
When beauty experts told me that primer will create a smooth, stay-put makeup canvas, they weren’t kidding. The key is finding one that doesn’t make your skin feel sticky, or make you feel like you have a thick layer of goop on your face. If you’re lucky, you can even find one with skin beautifying benefits, like Urban Decay’s Brightening and Tightening Complexion Primer Potion. The formula is packed with peptides, which signal the skin to produce more collagen. The result? A younger-looking you!
The primer itself looks and feels just like a facial moisturizer, and almost “melts” into your skin, creating a gorgeous sheen, minimizing pores, blurring the appearance of fine lines, and preventing the dreaded “makeup cake.” This is one potion that is truly magical!
Urban Decay Super-Saturated High Gloss Lip Color in Naked ($19): It seems like I’m always on the hunt for the perfect “nude” lip color. The problem? My skin is the fairest of fair. Too “light” a lipstick and I look washed out. Too “dark” of a neutral and the whole concept of “barely there” goes straight out the window. Urban Decay Super-Saturated High Gloss Lip Color in Naked is just right: a sheer, pinky-red with brownish undertones.
What’s even more fantastic than finally scoring the perfect shade of nude is the pencil itself. A chunky little multi-tasking miracle that lets you line, color, and gloss all at once. It has a creamy consistency and glides on like butter, moisturizing your lips lickety-split, and adding gorgeous shine. And bonus: it’s not super sticky, so when winter winds start to blow, your strands won’t get totally stuck in the stuff.
Urban Decay "Fun" Palette ($36, also available in "Feminine" and "Dangerous"): I always get sucked into buying holiday palettes. Here’s the thing: Most of the time I end up using a couple of the eyshadow shades, the rest are duds, and then the entire palette ends up shoved in the back of a drawer, dusty and forgotten.
I can guarantee this won’t be the case with Urban Decay’s “Fun” Palette, a zip-up, clutch-style case containing 6 of UD’s highly-pigmented, color-me-beautiful shadows, plus a mini Midnight Cowboy lip gloss.
Colors range from glittery beige and metallic brown to vivid violet and shimmery teal, giving you the ability to create a wide variety of looks. The shadows are velvety smooth and you can blend them easily.
My favorite shadow in the bunch is Maui Wowie, a shade that has the perfect balance of glitter and sheer, champagne-like color. Even though it contains micro-glitter, it didn’t make me look like a disco queen, and didn’t sprinkle across my skin as the day wore on.
And even though brown is all around town this season, I love that this palette mixes things up with jewel tones. I’m the kinda gal who gets a bit scared using these colors all over my lids, but I’m a huge fan of using them wet to line my lids. (Cat eye, anyone?)
This little ditty is perfect for travel. Because it zips, your makeup stays protected. (There’s nothing worse than a smooshed, glittery shadow smeared all over your makeup bag.) Also, you can actually pop the inside out when the pans are empty, and throw things like bobby pins and hair elastics inside. Score one for recycling!
The one thing I wasn’t a fan of (and it’s seriously minor) is the “baby” size of the Midnight Cowboy gloss. It’s a bit tough to maneuver. But the color itself looks fab on top of deep, vampy wine hues, so who am I to complain?
You can find these fab products at Sephora, ULTA, select Macy’s, Sephora.com, Ulta.com, Macys.com, Beauty.com and UrbanDecay.com.
*Disclaimer: The product(s) reviewed in this article was provided to GalTime by the public relations firm that represents the manufacturer. All opinions are those of the author.
