Urban Decay Afterglow 8-Hour Powder Blush in Paranoid, Score, Video, and Rapture

Last year, Urban Decay launched a blush formula called Afterglow 8-Hour Powder Blush. It is described as "a blendable finely-milled powder blush that sweeps on beautifully and delivers eight hours of streak-free colour." The Afterglow formula is "infused with light-diffusing pigments to enhance and perfect the skin" and "leaves a sexy, lit-from within glow." Afterglow 8-Hour Powder Blush currently comes in 14 permanent shades, of which four are exclusive to Urban Decay's website. They are housed in gunmetal square magnetic compacts, each featuring a clear Urban Decay logo on the lid. Each highlighter contains 6.8 grams of product, and retails for $32. They are available both in-store and online at Sephora and online at Urban Decay.
Clockwise from left: Paranoid, Score, Video, and Rapture
Paranoid, Score, Video, and Rapture

Paranoid is a medium-dark warm tan brown with gold shimmer-sheen in a frosted finish. This is a permanent shade, and is exclusive to Urban Decay's website. It has a soft, silky, 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 darker and more brown than Urban Decay Video, lighter than MAC Sweet as Cocoa, more brown than MAC Sunbasque, more brown than Becca x Jaclyn Hill Amaretto, and darker and more brown than Becca Wild Honey.

Score is a medium warm pink-peach with gold micro-glitter in a frosted finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, silky, 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 slightly peachier than MAC Dainty, lighter and more pink than MAC New Romance, more pink and less sparkly than NARS Super Orgasm, more pink than Becca Flowerchild, and more pink and more shimmery than Too Faced Love Hangover.

Video is a medium warm pinked brown in a satin-matte finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, silky, 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 more pink than Urban Decay Paranoid, warmer and more brown than Urban Decay Fetish, more brown and more matte than MAC Warm Soul, warmer than MAC Prism, and similar to Too Faced Baby Love.

Rapture is a medium-dark cool plummy mauve with gold shimmer-sheen in a frosted finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, silky, 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 more purple than MAC Plum Foolery, cooler and more muted than MAC Breath of Plum, cooler and more muted than TheBalm Cabana Boy, cooler and more muted than Tarte Blushing Bride, and lighter and more muted than NARS Sin.

The Afterglow 8-Hour Powder Blushes are beautiful in execution — they have a silky, finely-milled texture that goes on smoothly and evenly, and they're very nicely pigmented so that they give off semi-opaque buildable colour pay-off that is easy to control and blend out. They have a beautiful luminosity to them once they're on the skin, and the more you buff them, the more glowy they look, but never in a way that is outright shiny or sparkly so they won't emphasize skin texture. They wear well on the skin, even for oily skin types, and the eight-hour claim is true. However, I do think they could benefit from adding more neutral shades with various finishes to the range that may be more wearable or universally flattering on all skintones. As it is, the formula is wonderful, but brands like MAC, NARS, Tarte, and even Clinique have far more comprehensive colour ranges that make it hard for Urban Decay to compete with in this category.