Urban Decay Naked Illuminated Powder Review

This evokes my 90's party girl clubbing phase, but it's still kinda pretty :p

I literally picked this up on a total whim in Mecca Maxima, Melbourne Central. I was shopping with my 18 year old cousin, who is a professional dancer, and I think I forgot I'm 35 and not in the clubs every weekend any more haha.

I have this in 'Luminous', which is a champagne shade designed to add shimmer/glitter/ 'luminosity' rather than colour. This is pitched as a 'shimmering powder for face and body' (read: face and body highlighter) - i prefer it on my body to my face, but in a pinch it could be used for a face highlight.

While pressed it remains quite loose - swiping it across your wrist and watching the shimmer particles fly everywhere makes you realise how hard it will be to apply this precisely.

Because of the bigger particles it also moves a lot, making it a bit of a gamble - it can go everywhere if it's so inclined.

The champagne shade is gorgeous, especially nestled in the pretty (if bulky) rose-gold matte packaging. The accompanying brush is thin but wide - it's okay but nothing special. The mirror has an annoying seal over it that clouds it, but once you remove that it's fine - but small. How I'm meant to put glitter on anything other than my face with it i'm not sure!

I seriously doubt I'll re-buy this, but I also think it will last me until I retire, so I'm not that worried. It falls firmly into the 'super pretty, but what was i thinking?' category...especially seeing as the $32 price quoted above is the USD price, and it's actually about $60 here, oops.

Oh well, it's nice to be frivolous sometimes, and me and my sparkly collarbones will do their thing :p

I was on my way out of the mall, and this stopped me dead in my tracks. I didn't even get out of the JCPenney Sephora because the sparkle mesmerized me. It was the most beautiful glimmering powder I'd ever seen.

This very sparkly powder is touted as a highlighter or illuminating powder but it is more glittery than glowy. I was excited to put this on using a brush but the sparkle went everywhere. I brushed it on my cheeks and found it on my arms and close within 30 minutes. With two hours, most of it was not on my face anymore.

However, being the optimist, and loving the sparkle, I decided I had to solve this problem. I didn't want to return my fairy dust to the store because I haven't found anything this sparkly before. It literally looks like magic in it's very generous size square box. Anyway, back to how to solve the problem. You can apply this with a damp beauty blender type make up sponge. The moist sponge adheres much more product on the face and the moisture keeps it from all falling off. Better yet, if you use a primer water on your sponge, can make this last several hours without too much glitter fall out.

I noticed the shade of the illuminator does not matter much because it is more of a glitter then a color. There is slight color but it mostly disappears if you have pale skin like I do. If you apply this with a brush, I think it would be better suited for a body highlighter. You will sparkle like a fairy queen.

If you want to have even more of a shimmery glow, I would use a separate hi lighter, maybe a cream type, first on the places you want hilighted. Then go back over those areas with the sparkle powder using a brush to get glitter all over or a dry sponge over the cream highlight to get a more in your face pop of shimmer.