Review: Urban Decay Weightless Ultra Definition Liquid Makeup

Today’s post is a review on Urban Decay’s Weightless Ultra Definition Liquid Makeup. UD’s newest foundation, the All-Nighter foundation, has been getting a lot of coverage amongst the beauty community since it was released last year, but I had never heard much about this foundation even before the new one was even out.

I don’t use foundation regularly, and had been on a kick where I was only using BB cream for two or three years. However, at the beginning of last year, I was interested in finding a foundation that would be suitable for dry skin. This one was a recommendation from a friend, who also has dry skin and thought it might be a good fit for me.

The Urban Decay Weightless Ultra Definition foundation retails at $47 CAD for 30 mL. The bottle comes with a pump, and the range carries 24 shades. The friend who recommended this formula to me has dark skin, and said that she’s always had issues finding formula collections that have a dark enough shade for her, so she was impressed with the selection.

For me, I’ve always found that shades are either too pink or too yellow for me; there’s nothing in between. The shade selection in the Weightless Skin range is arranged by number; shades ending in .0 have warm undertones, and shades ending in .5 have pink undertones. Some of the darker shades have numbers ending in .75 as well, which means that it gives those with darker skintones more variety to choose from. I ended up buying in the 3 range, which just so happens to have the shade 3.25, a shade with neutral undertones. Although I would say that I have a warmer skintone, foundations somehow end up looking too orange on me, so I was happy to find something with a more neutral undertone.

As a reference, these are the claims of the foundation:

-Weightless formula that blurs imperfections
-Gives you the buildable coverage you desire while looking and feeling like you’re wearing absolutely nothing
-Uses light-diffusing spheres to ‘blur’ imperfections for a luminous, demi-matte finish -Oil-free, paraben-free, fragrance-free, and loaded with nourishing ingredients

The formula is very thin and liquidy, and therefore has quite a light coverage. It can be built up to medium coverage, but I would say that there are other foundations out there that are better for full coverage if that’s what you’re looking for. I mainly use it to even out my skintone and cover random spots of redness I sometimes get, and find that this foundation is perfect for that. It claims to dry to a luminous, demi-matte finish, and I think that is a very apt description – there is a hint of dewiness after the foundation has dried. This foundation also has no added fragrance.

I get frustrated with wearing foundation because a lot of them accentuate the dry patches on my skin. The watery formula really helps keep it looking skin-like. Although it isn’t 100% immune to accentuating dry patches, I would say that I am generally satisfied with how natural it looks on my skin without using a primer; when I use it with the Shiseido Glow Enhancing Primer underneath, it’s almost doesn’t highlight my dry areas at all. Another reason why I’ve never really liked wearing foundation is because a lot of them feel very heavy and mask-like on my skin, even though I’m not a full-coverage girl and usually only use a light layer of foundation. The Weightless Skin foundation really does feel weightless and natural when applied. My favourite way to apply this is to use a makeup sponge to pat it into my skin, which gives the lightest coverage. For higher coverage, I would use a foundation brush instead.

Last week, Stashy asked me if this foundation oxidized, and I told her that I hadn’t tested out swatches next to each other, but I didn’t think that it did. Well, I went and tested it out, and look at the results!

Freshly applied vs After 15 minutes

This foundation actually oxidizes like crazy! I was shocked that I never really noticed my face looking any darker than the rest of me. I turned to my fiancé, showed him the swatches, and said, “have you ever noticed that my face is darker than the rest of me??” but he said no. It might be due to the light coverage of this foundation, which means that it doesn’t apply in a way that looks like a mask of foundation that is clearly too dark for me.

As this foundation wears off on me, it wears off evenly instead of fading in weird patches. I would say that it lasts on me for a full work day before it starts to look like it needs to be touched up.

These are the ingredients used in the Weightless foundation:

Water, Cyclopentasiloxane, Butylene Glycol, Silica, Cyclohexasiloxane, Dimethicone, PEG/PPG-18/18 Dimethicone, Sodium Chloride, Camellia Oleifera Leaf Extract, Litchi Chinensis Pericarp Extract, Tocopheryl Acetate, Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate, Tribehenin, Palmitoyl Oligopeptide, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7, Sodium Hyaluronate, Glycerin, Dimethicone/PEG-10/15 Crosspolymer, Dimethicone/Polyglycerin-3 Crosspolymer, Isopropyl Titanium Triisostearate, Polysorbate 20, Disodium Cocoyl Glutamate, Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate, Propylene Glycol, Carbomer, Cetyl PEG/PPG-10/1 Dimethicone, Hexyl Laurate, Polyglyceryl-4 Isostearate, Caprylyl Glycol, Phenoxyethanol. All shades may contain: Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxides

Pros:
-Wide shade selection
-Comes in a pump bottle
-Looks natural
-Formula feels light on the skin
-No added fragrance
-Wears off evenly

Cons:
-Oxidizes
-Expensive
-Only buildable to medium coverage

Overall, the pros far outweigh the cons, although the oxidization is a biggie. I really love the formula of this foundation, but I’m not entirely sure if I would repurchase because of the oxidation.

What foundation have you been loving lately?