Urban Decay Gets in a Slick

On a New York summer day, you can start out looking chic, sophisticated, and in control, and by 11am look shiny, harassed, and frazzled. Urban Decay is promising to keep our shininess under control while we worry about getting on with the rest of our lives.

Urban Decay’s De-Slick Oil Control Make Up Setting Spray ($29) is to control excess shine, particularly in the heat. It is a spray bottle that you apply once before make up and once after. Can I just say that this is the ugliest packaging I’ve pretty much ever seen? I’m sorry, Urban Decay, normally I love your kooky approach to packaging, but this just looks cheap. It really looks like a bad drugstore product that got discontinued and is now found in the bargain bucket bin. This gets chucked in the cupboard rather than displayed proudly on my shelves.

But you know, you can’t judge a book by its cover. Does this product actually work? I gave it quite the challenge. First I applied sunscreen and let it settle for about 30 minutes. Then I gave my face a quick spritz and put on my tinted moisturizer. I used a cream blusher (MUFE HD), did my eyes, and then gave my face a final spritz. At this point, I used no powder, but had no shine.

I then went out in the New York sun for a couple of hours, and ran a couple of hours. It was 90 out there. And sweaty. When I came back to the apartment 3hrs later, I was pleased. My make up was in place, and I wasn’t shiny at all, given the first tough test I gave it. Urban Decay promise it can do so much more than that, so I kept working it. This time I took it shopping and then sitting in the shade on a warm day for another couple of hours. Another 3hrs later, and I was shining. All that non-shine power had been broken down by the city heat and humidity.

 
I admit that I gave it a pretty tough test, but to be honest, those are real, New York summer conditions. I was really impressed after the first couple of hours. It was doing so much better than I thought, so it is an improvement over doing nothing, but unfortunately, it just doesn’t have the staying power to go a full day in the heat. Think of it as reinforcements rather than full on defense against shine on a hot day.