New Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balms

Just in time for Summer Urban Decay have launched two new Naked Skin Balms - one bronze tinted for those wishing to add a little warmth to their complexion and one suit all illuminating balm...


New Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balms
New Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balms

There really isn't all that much to be said about the packaging, what you see is what you get. Slickly designed with a squeezy tube design and at 30ml perfect for popping in a bag be it travel or your everyday make-up case. The only thing I would like to flag up is that due to the squeeze style container and light texture of the liquid more often than not more product leaks out per application so do tread lightly to prevent mess and waste. The fragrance is a bizarre one - I can't quite place it. At times I find it to ring almost cheesy (yes really) and others medicinal...maybe I have finally lost the plot after all.

New Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balms
New Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balms

Although the new Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balms come in two shades both offer the same benefits: oil free, even's out skin tone (i.e redness), blurs imperfections such as enlarged pores and fine lines, firms the skin and contains an SPF20. I have tried out both shades and do agree on the most part about the aforementioned claims but would have to state that the Urban Decay Naked Skin Illuminating Beauty Balm didn't help to refine and somewhat disguise my enlarged pores - rather it emphasised them to a certain degree.I guess that is always the problem with illuminating products, they encourage light to reflect off the face and sometimes that can make open pores seem more visible. I only truly noticed this when worn alone, if I apply the Urban Decay Naked Illuminating Skin Beauty Balm under my foundation or even use it as a highlighter my open pores didn't appear to be any more noticeable than normal. In my opinion the Urban Decay Naked Bronzing Skin Beauty Balm is best worn alone in the style of a BB Cream or tinted moisturiser. Yes the coverage borders on sheer but it will bronze the skin looking unnatural (read orange), feeling heavy on the skin and it will even out the skin tone. This is what I would use for a trip to the beach when I want to wear as little product as humanly possible. Both options are fairly universal, obviously deeper complexions won't benefit all that much from the Bronzing Beauty Balm in terms of tint but it will add a lovely glow to the skin.

New Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balms
New Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balms

Neither of the new Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balms are truly traditional BB Creams, yes they can be worn alone but offer very little coverage (think along the lines of a tinted moisturiser). You can of course use in conjunction with a concealer etc to up the cover but in my opinion most will use the Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balms as a primer or liquid highlighters. As a primer both offer a muted radiance effect - think lit within glow rather than full out shimmer, help to prolong make-up wear and despite being oil free I find that they keep my currently de-hydrated skin plump and moisturised. Neither formulation has a tendency to cling to dry areas nor will it overwhelm oily skin (i.e encourage it to produce more oil) and due to the light weight texture they are very comfortable to wear. As mentioned you can use both Naked Skin Beauty Balms as a light highlighter - the illuminating version reminds me of Benefit High Beam Liquid Highlighter and oddly the bronzing version is somewhat akin to Benefit Sunbeam Liquid Highlighter. Regardless of how you choose to use the balms I did find that the light, almost runny texture was best applied using my fingertips, I found my brush ended up loaded with too much product to really control application.

You can find both of the new Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balms via House of Fraser - here.
This post contains press samples.