Urban Decay recently held a launch to celebrate the fact that they’ve recently revamped their prep, prime and set collection. But first, can we take a moment for the event’s food? It was held at Life Grand Cafe and they served up the yummiest food including sushi made with BLACK rice.

And the colour crazy didn’t stop there…

Anyway, let’s get back to talking product! Before, Urban Decay’s infamous setting sprays were in white bottles but that meant it ended up covered in foundation and grubby is not a good look. Now, thanks to darker packaging, they’re always going to look mooi in your make-up bag.

Urban Decay have also added four new primers to their line-up (R450 each) – one that’s tinted (Self-Adjusting), another that contains soft focus pigments (Optical Illusion), a third that mattifies (De-Slick) and a fourth that contains an SPF (Urban Defense).

I was given Urban Defense to try and thought I wouldn’t like it. Being oily-skinned, silicone-based primers generally just don’t work out for me. They tend to look amazing at first but then, as the oil builds up on my skin, things start to get muddy and everything ends up sliding right off. Thus, my plan was to hand it over to my flatmate, my designated dry skin test monkey, but now she’s going to have to wrench it from my cold dead hands ‘cos – SURPRISE – it’s awesome!

Sure, it’s silicone-based, but it’s not the first ingredient and the texture is super-duper sheer. You only need the teensiest li’l drop to smooth it all out over your face so the bottle will last forever. Once its on, you’ll immediately see the difference. Fine lines are gone and pores look a lot less visible. It’s you, just five years back in time.

The best bit, however, is that you’re now wearing an SPF of 30. BOOM. Just like that, you’re your dermatologists’ favourite client. And now you don’t have to worry about ensuring your moisturiser or foundation contains an SPF. You’re free to use the other things you love and not have to worry whether they contain sun protection or not, although in saying that you can never have enough sun protection. It’s still your best line of defense against premature ageing.

Anyway, as far as the ‘wear’ goes, I found that, because I only needed so little of it and because it’s so, dare I say, ‘finely milled’, it didn’t sit like an occlusive pool on top of my oilies nor did it aggravate them. As the day wore on, I merely needed to whip out an oil-blotting sheet here and there, the same as I would wearing just a daily moisturiser. Nice one, Urban Decay. Very, very nice.

But we’re not done yet. Let’s talk about De-Slick.

I was also given the De-Slick primer and thought it would be a slam dunk into BFF territory but, at first, I found it tricky to use. If you use too much of it, it sits like a thick, white paste on your skin so you’ve got to apply it VERY sparingly and use a light patting motion. This is the method I used first, applying it to just my T-panel, and even though I gave it ages to set, I found it ‘caught’ my foundation and left me with tide marks.

I then tried a second approach and now its working like a bomb. Instead of using it before applying make-up, I now use it afterwards, meaning I literally make up my entire face and then gently pat it onto my forehead and around my nose. This way, it doesn’t ‘disturb’ anything and boy oh boy does it work. Oilies? Forget about them. Your face will be as matte as blerrie Kylie Jenner’s lips. As the formula contains loads of oil-absorbs, silica and the like, everything kind of just gets sucked into that and, miraculously, it doesn’t end up going muddy. You can also apply any powder on top of it (once its bone dry) if you want to, but you’re really not going to need it. Another winner from Urban Decay, provided you use it cleverly.

Keen to buy? You’ll find it in the Urban Decay store in Sandton as well as Foschini For Beauty.

Love, love

Leigh