The Bronzer shade is a medium-dark golden tan in a satin finish. It has a silky, soft, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has medium-high pigmentation and semi-opaque to opaque buildable colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is lighter and less orange than MAC Give Me Sun! Mineralize Skinfinish Natural, and more golden than MAC Golden Bronzing Powder.
The Highlighter shade is a light-medium peachy champagne beige in a frosted finish. It has a silky, soft, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is darker and less bright than MAC Soft and Gentle Mineralize Skinfinish, and more pigmented and less sparkly than NARS Miss Liberty Highlighting Blush.
The Blush shade is a medium-dark rose-coral in a soft matte finish. It has a silky, soft, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is lighter and more coral than MAC Desert Rose Powder Blush, lighter and much more pink than MAC Pinch Me Powder Blush, and more pink than NARS Deep Throat Powder Blush.
Add this to my ever-growing "loves" list of Urban Decay products. I read some mixed reviews on this palette when it originally launched earlier this year, but I had no problems with texture or pigmentation. All three shades went on beautifully: smoothly and evenly with great colour pay-off. And they actually look stunning mixed together, too. I didn't take a photo of a mixed swatch, but the effect is like a warm rosy bronze with a champagne shimmer-sheen — seriously stunning and makes skin look perfectly healthy and glowy. When Urban Decay says, "the universal shades are versatile enough for any skintone," they really mean it. The bronze shade isn't too orange or reddened or yellow; it's actually a universally flattering bronzer that should work on all skintones and undertones. Even darker skintones will notice a nice warmth to their skin. I love that the highlighter shade isn't too bright or light, too, and unlike many highlighters out there, it won't look ashy at all on darker skintones. Actually, those who are very fair might find it a bit too dark to be a highlighter. The blush shade somehow blends together a cool-toned pink and a warm coral so it, too, works on everyone. Plus, it isn't too dark or too bright that it'll overwhelm any complexion. I think only those who are extremely fair will see this palette as being a touch too dark, though I find that with a nice, fluffy brush, it's easy to blend out well. The best part of this palette, aside from the portability aspect, is that you get serious bang for your buck. At $35 CAD, you get 14 grams of product ($2.50/g), which makes it cheaper than NARS ($6.67/g), MAC ($4.17/g), and Tarte ($5.54/g).
Haha, nice to finally see a proper review on this from someone I trust. I kept looking at this but it's like the last thing I'd spend money on at this point. I had to pass on a $10 Smashbox blush the other day because I might possibly be all blushed out, if there is such a thing. I'm kind of hoping they'd come out with different colour variations of this palette - that would be exciting! But then they can't call it Naked anymore.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great blush palette for those who don't have a ton of blushes, or for someone who travels a lot. Though, to be fair, I love it and I am neither of those things... It's one of those products that takes the guesswork out of choosing from a ton of shades, and it's foolproof 'cause you know it'll look good...
DeleteAnd, Liz, there's no such thing as being "blushed out." NOT IF YOU'RE A BLUSH WHORE.
I would love different versions of this palette, too. Maybe they can call it "FLUSHED" instead of "NAKED." :P