Magic Bag O' Samples: Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balm

Okay, so I finally caved and picked up the Urban Decay Glinda palette. I know, I know, I said that it didn't look that exciting, and I wasn't interested...but my love of all things Oz kicked in, and then Urban Decay sent a coupon, and one thing led to another, and...

*ahem*

Anyhoo, when my order arrived, it came with a deluxe sample of the new beauty balm, which I have been dying to try out. I adore the foundation, but generally use my Too Faced Beauty Balm for everyday makeup. It's pretty darn fantastic, but if this Urban Decay BB was anywhere near as awesome as the foundation, it might blow the Too Faced out of the water. So, Saturday morning, I decided to give it a shot.

It's not great.

Let's just break this down, shall we?

The Good
This leaves a really pretty finish. Your skin isn't shiny, but not quite matte, either. It's very similar to the finish you get from the foundation, which is a demi-matte. It's very natural, but just slightly more polished, and doesn't require powder to set. It comes in one "universal" shade that actually worked on my NW15, Casper-the-Friendly-Ghost-like skin. The product contains SPF 20, has a very light consistency, and feels weightless on the skin. You'll truly feel like you're wearing nothing.

The Bad
You'll also look like you're wearing nothing, and not in a good way. This provides absolutely zero coverage. I'll be honest; I'm genetically blessed in the skin department. Thanks to Mom and Dad, I have decent skin that doesn't require a whole lot of coverage. I do have a couple of dark spots that I'm lightening up, though, and a tiny bit of redness around my nose. This did zilch as far as evening skin tone. Not even that little bit of redness was covered. I ended up going to town with concealer to try to even everything out and fake a foundation so I could apply the rest of my makeup.

The Lowdown
This is not a beauty balm; certainly not according to Asian standards, and not even by the, admittedly more lenient, Western definition. This is, at best, a very, very, very lightly tinted moisturizer. Now, as far as skincare benefits go, I didn't notice any of the supposedly "immediate" effects, and I didn't use it long enough to find out if any of the long-term claims came to pass. It retails for $34, and is available at Sephora, Ulta, and the Urban Decay website.

Now, who would use this? I would say that if you have perfectly even skin, and just want something with a little SPF in it to toss on, this would do it...but so would sunscreen. You could use this under a foundation as a primer, I guess, but there are better out there that cost less. If you're looking for skincare benefits, a decent anti-aging moisturizer would do the same things, and you can find them at the drugstore.

I wanted to like this. Honestly, I wanted to love this. I just don't.

Final Verdict: 3 out of 10. If you can use this, you probably don't need it.