Urban Decay Naked Skin Foundation and Optical Blur Brush Review

UD’s Naked Skin Foundation has been everywhere since its release. With good reason. It really is a great foundation. I waited a bit before purchasing (I posted a picture on Facebook when I did), mostly because I wanted to see what everyone else thought of the foundation first.

When I finally purchased it, I was at ULTA with my toddler (note to self: do not buy foundation with a toddler in tow). Obviously things were a tad rushed, so rather than actually applying the foundation to my jawline as I should have, I held up the transparent plastic thing that UD claims will give you your shade number. I bought 1.0, which I expected because my friend Phyrra was 0.5, and generally I’m just a tad darker than her. Luckily the ULTA SA put in a little sample shade pack from UD. Because that 1.0? Waaaay off. I was a lot closer to the 2.5 in the shade pack. I returned it a little later when it was obviously much too light. Later, Urban Decay sent me the foundation (and the brush here), and it turns out that 3.0 is the best match for me.

Naked Skin is definitely more liquidy than most foundations. You can see it is just barely not watery, and the 2.0 and 3.0 shades are actually very close. The coverage is in the light-medium range, and very easily builds for more coverage. It doesn’t need much blending, I can get nearly flawless coverage with just my fingers. I didn’t have any issues with the foundation changing colors later (that oxidation is one of my biggest pet peeves) and everything still looked perfect at the end of the day.

Any foundation that gives me such great looking skin (you can’t even see that foundation) and lasts for well over 12 hours is definitely one I can recommend.

Urban Decay also recommends their Optical Blurring Brush for use with the foundation. I’m not usually a foundation brush girl (I prefer to apply with fingers and then complete my blending with my Beauty Blender sponge).

While this is a pretty big brush, it’s still smaller than my big kabuki brushes. It’s slightly domed and the bristles are a bit stiff, but do bend easily and are fairly soft.

I’ve been using the Optical Blending Brush to slightly stipple and blend my foundation, and the results have been much better than my Beauty Blender. I have noticed that there are some foundations that the brush is better for, and some that the Beauty Blender is better for. In general, the brush works better with more liquid foundations, the thicker the foundation (such as the new Stila Stay All Day foundation, which I’m reviewing tomorrow) are better off with the Beauty Blender.

Do you use a brush or a sponge with your foundation? Do you have a great blending trick that you can share?

You can buy the Naked Skin Foundation at Sephora, ULTA, and the Optical Blurring Brush at Sephora or ULTA.

Check out more tips, hacks and product reviews in the Foundation Guide!

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