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Round-up: Urban Decay Afterglow Blushes Overview & Thoughts

Urban Decay Afterglow 8-Hour Powder Blush ($26.00 for 0.23 oz.) is a new (well, sort of a re-release, but not quite) and permanent formula that features twelve shades that range from peach to purple to plum. The majority of the range have a satin-matte finish–not really shimmery, but they’re not fully matte, and instead, they have a light luminosity to them–and a few shades had more noticeable shimmer when swatched. However, these shimmery shades were less impressive (with the exception of Rapture) as often the shimmer didn’t bind with the powder so you didn’t see the effect of the shimmer on the skin. The pigmentation is typically semi-sheer to semi-opaque, with some of the richer shades being semi-opaque to fully opaque, which is about what you’d expect, given they’re supposed to have “buildable color.” The powder is thinner with a very silky, smooth consistency that can sometimes kick up some excess powder in the pan, but they look and perform better buffed and blended into the skin. Most of the shades wore for the eight hours as promised. I would love to see more cool-toned neutral shades in the range, and I think the shimmer-based formula could use some improvement.

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Fran Avatar

I’m really tempted by several of these. I like a blush that can easily be applied in a subtle fashion, I like this kind of finish, I like the fact that there are so many different cool-toned colors in the range. I’m especially tempted by Bittersweet, Rapture, Crush, Obsessed, and Quickie. Quiver and Bang, too, although I probably wouldn’t wear either very often. The only thing that could have made this better for me is if one of the brown/neutral shades had cool undertones. My wallet can’t handle all of that at once, so I want to check them out in real life before purchasing, make sure the shades look as good on my face as I think they will. I think it’s really nice that Urban Decay came out with so many new, permanent singles for cheeks, lips, and eyes for summer.

pePear Avatar

Indecent is so far my favorite but I’m not sure that they will show true to pan color on my light medium skin tone.Rapture and Bittersweet are unique little things for me but I don’t a big fan of plum or purple blushes.

A Avatar

Not for me, but I really love the look of Rapture, so pretty and unusual! I’d be tempted to get Video if it weren’t for the existence of the new Clinique blushes.

Nancy T Avatar

I think that Rapture will most likely be the only one of these that I’ll be picking up, even though I truly love some of the brighter shades here like Crush or Quiver. But for my brighter ones, I’m going for Clinique Cheek Pops because of their luminosity, I think they’ll just be more forgiving on me.

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