Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balm – First Impressions
Recently I had the opportunity to try out the Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balm. Now, if you’ve seen my Tidbits – BB Creams, you know I have very specific requirements for what I consider a BB Cream. In my eyes, BB Creams are basically a multi-tasking skincare / makeup / complexion perfection product.
The Skinny from UD
The Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balm is the BB Cream with insane benefits. Unlike a lot of beauty balms, Naked Skin delivers measurable anti-aging benefits – and UD has the claims to prove it. And while many beauty balms are tinted to provide coverage, ours diffuses light with high-tech pigments to give you amazing, natural, NAKED-looking skin that keeps getting better every week. Blur flaws in seconds and get serious anti-aging benefits in just 8 weeks. Naked Skin Beauty Balm is invisible on your skin (zero rub-off)
- Perfects – Optical blurring pigments instantly even out skin tone and minimize pores, lines, wrinkles and redness
- Protects – SPF 20 shields skin from sun damage and Pepha-Protect helps inhibit DNA damage
- Treats – Vitasource and dGlyage firm skin, improve elasticity and provide measurable anti-aging benefits
- Primes – Extremely blendable formula creates a smooth finish so makeup goes on beautifully and stays put
- Hydrates – Moisturizing but never greasy, Naked Skin Beauty Balm hydreates skin instantly and improves hydration over time
The Proof
Many beauty balms provide a lot of empty promises and not much else. In a clinical study, after 8 weeks of use:
- 93% of participants had significantly firmer, more lifted skin
- 90% had significantly more radiant skin
- 84% had a significant improvement in fine lines
- Over 84% had significantly smoother and more hydrated skin
The Anti-aging details
- Pepha-Protect, derived from watermelon extract, is rich in vitamins and amino acids like citrulline. It helps protect skin’s DNA against hte damage caused by daily exposure to UV rays and free radicals.
- High-tech ingredients like Vitasource and dGlyage boost skin firmness and elasticity while blurring fine lines, wrinkles and other imperfections.
- Optical blurring pigments diffuse light to blur flaws while giving skin an ultra-definition flawless finish that looks luminous and youthful.
- Naked Skin doesn’t contain oil or paraben.
Here are shots outside in direct sunlight. 1 is the beauty balm unblended. 2 is slightly blended. 3 is blended out more. You can see by 3 it nearly matches the skin, though it is still not fully blended out in this image.
Price
$34 for 1.18 fl. oz
Where to Buy
Available from Urban Decay January 3rd. Will be available from Sephora, Ulta, Macy’s and Beauty.com starting Feb. 1.
1. is my naked face. You can see my rosacea in my cheeks and other skin imperfections. 2. I have the beauty balm on the left side in the picture (the right side of my face, which is the side I’m more self-conscious about) and bare skin on the other side. 3. I have the beauty balm all over the face.
The beauty balm on my face with nothing else. You can see where I have a rosacea flare up on my chin.
This is the Beauty balm with me wearing contour, blush, highlighter and finishing powder. I’m still debating if it’s too dark for me or not. In pictures, it looks too dark on my skin. In person, all I get is compliments.
My Thoughts
This is not a full review of the product, but it does contain swatches and my initial impressions. I think the UD Naked Skin Beauty Balm trades the foundation / concealer properties of a traditional bb cream for the perfecting power it has! My skin looks good enough with only the Beauty Balm on that I feel I don’t need foundation. It is moisturizing and it does have SPF, but because of my rosacea, I feel that SPF 20 is too low for my needs on a daily basis here in Florida. (I prefer 40-50)
I’ve done no retouching on these photos because I wanted you to see the skin and my imperfections.
To me, BB Creams are supposed to have the following properties – moisturizer, SPF, foundation, concealer, anti-wrinkle, brightening, nourishing. The UD Naked Skin Beauty Balm moisturizes, has spf, claims to be anti-wrinkle, brightening and nourishing. It trades foundation and concealer for optical blurring pigments to even out skintone, removing the need for foundation and concealer. Do I like it? Yes, very much so! Would I call it a BB Cream? No. I really prefer the name Complexion Perfection Balm.
I definitely think that the UD Naked Skin Beauty Balm is a complexion perfection product on me. My skin looks good enough to me that when I wear it I feel comfortable not wearing foundation. I think others may prefer it as a primer to a bb cream or foundation.
What do you think of the Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balm? I’ll be wearing it longer to continue testing it out and then report back!
Update:
After two weeks of continuous wear, I’ve got some additional thoughts. It’s too dark on me to wear on its own, even if I do get compliments on it, because I can tell it makes my face look darker than the rest of me. It’s a fantastic primer and works wonderfully with any foundation that I pair it with. It doesn’t wear off when worn on its own. It doesn’t irritate my skin. I really love it as a primer.
Product sent for consideration. All opinions are my own.
Hi Phyrra! Thank you for the thorough review, this is very helpful! Your skin looks much smoother and more evened out with this cream. I am curious though, because I’m almost exactly your skin tone/coloring – do you feel like it’s not at all too dark once blended in? In the second to last picture I think I can see a demarcation line between your face and neck so I worry it may be too dark for me, but it’s hard to tell because in the other pictures it looks pretty good. What do you think about the color? Thanks 🙂
SasquatchSwatch Hi there! This is not actually a full review. This is more my initial impressions of the Beauty Balm. I think it looks slightly dark in pictures. However, in person, it doesn’t seem noticeable (when normally, people comment if my foundation is too dark). I wore it out for NYE and received compliments about how ‘flawless’ my skin looked. So I’m still deciding on that 🙂
Phyrra Okay, thanks! I kind of want to try this now 😀
Phyrra SasquatchSwatch Hi, Phyrra! I have the same concerns as Sasquatch up there. I bought the Holika Holika BB creams on your suggestion (love them, by the way!) and I think that’s about as deep as a color can go on my face. How much darker would you say the UD BB cream is compared to the Holika Holika one you have?
pumpkindollyy SasquatchSwatch It’s a lot darker than the holika holika bb cream. You’re better off using this as a primer. While I like how it makes my skin look, it’s definitely darker than my coloring.
However, it works just fine as a primer. when I wore it out without foundation, I got a ton of compliments on my skin and no one noticed it was too dark except for me.
In the past people would notice my foundation was too dark and would comment that I either looked sunburnt or too peachy. So for my own peace of mind, I’m only wearing it as a primer now.
To be honest, I’ve never gotten into BB creams, but this was interesting to read about. I think it looks nice on your skin – I thought it would be so orange from the swatch. I agree though, higher SPF is always better, especially since we often don’t apply enough of foundations/moisturizers to receive the full SPF protection. UD’s antiaging claims about DNA are just silly, but the rest of the description sounds really promising.
Catherine bcf I’d love to see the study information. I do know that having a routine where you daily apply moisturizer does make a big difference in skin, so I’m always curious for the science behind the claims!
Catherine bcf
I agree with you. We don’t apply enough foundations on regular basis but we can apply moisturizers to receive SPF protection on the regular basis.
http://www.biothecareestetika.com/en/treatments/body-treatments/cavitation/
I’m really impressed that actually blended into your skin. From the hand swatches, I was like O_o but on the face it was perfect! I think that’s a lot more like what the Asian ones aim to do for their market, hence why they actually can get away with just the one or two shades, and which a lot of Western companies tried and failed to emaulate (cough, Garnier).
I’ll be waiting for your final thoughts on this!
lenatallina I didn’t blend it in fully with the hand swatches, I was still trying to show how it gradually blended. I should have done one more swatch of it fully blended in.
I was actually lucky enough to get a little sample tube of this from a christmas order, and I’ve worn it out a few times. It’s very different in texture than my typical go-to BB cream, Missha’s Perfect Cover (the red tube) in 21. It’s also very different in texture from their tinted moisturizer (which I use in Halo). I found it to have a lot of slip and moisturizing texture, perhaps even more so than the tinted moisturizer. (That might be because I use the tinted moisturizer on its own, while I applied the BB cream to already-moisturized skin.) Their tinted moisturizer seems to absorb faster on me, and also have better coverage, interestingly enough. (MIssha’s Perfect Cover, for comparison, has much heavier coverage and is quite thick–I tend to thin it out with a bit of moisturizer so it’s easier to apply & soaks in better.) The BB cream seemed to blend out very easily.
I was surprised this color worked on you, Phyrra, since it came out of the tube scary-dark to my eye! That said, it blended in just fine for both of us, which is really interesting. I’ll have to see some other reviews. So far, I’m not sold on it–it seems a bit too translucent for my taste. I’ll have to try it out over freshly-washed skin before I definitely decide against buying it, though. I’m very intrigued, to say the least.
hazakaza It does look scary dark. that’s why i showed it unblended, slightly smudged, then partially blended. I think it’s far easier to see it when it’s on half of my face.
It’s definitely translucent. It’s not like a traditional bb cream in the sense that it does not offer full coverage.
I think this would be perfect for me! I love the Holika Holika BB cream you recommended–I feel it gives full coverage without feeling heavy, but for some looks, I’d like something a bit more sheer (disclaimer: I have not worn foundation in years, so I’m used to a nearly naked face!). I’m just a bit scared by the price, so I’ll have to wait until Ulta or Sephora has a 20% off code that includes UD.! 😉
MamaElf I’m so glad you like the Holika Holika! It’s a great BB cream to me.
Do you know if it’s vegan?
cariexx I don’t know if it’s vegan. I know it states that it’s cruelty-free. Once I have an update about the vegan status, I will be sure to post.
Phyrra thanks!
I would love to try this! I love products like these that don’t mask, just perfect. Looking forward to seeing this one come out!
Claude_online Very cool!
Hmm interesting. I tried it, and I just think that it would work well as a primer, but I would use this as a traditional BB cream to replace my foundation.
Thanks for the review! <3
glitteryglossy It’s not a full review. I definitely agree it would work well as a primer.