Review: Urban Decay's Surreal Skin Cream to Powder Foundation

Click to go to the official product page on UrbanDecay.com

It took me a while to warm up to this product! Considering how excited I was about it and how much I wanted to love it, it actually took a long time (and many trips to Sephora) before I finally decided to buy it, and then many more weeks of swatching it on my jawline occasionally and not being particularly impressed with it.

Part of it has to do with the shade - I wear Hallucination in their other foundations, as well as their concealer, so I automatically chose the same for this one. And... it was just a little bit off. The shade was a wee bit darker than the other Hallucination foundations, and the undertones are kind of... different. The Surreal Skin mineral makeup matches me perfectly, but this one does not. So that has been my major gripe. (I could, of course, try a different shade, but at $34 a pop, that's not a great idea for me.

But as far as the application goes, it's quite lovely. It comes with its own brush (cruelty-free!) in a compartment underneath the pan, and it's not some dinky brush either. While I still think it is best applied with your fingers, the brush is actually really good for applying and blending. It does change from cream to powder instantly, and it feels really light on my skin, even after building the coverage a little bit. It does make my skin have a little bit of that powder texture, but hey, we can't ALL be MAC's Skinfinish Natural, right? :)

(I swear, my vehicle was not in motion, and I had not even left the parking lot yet when I took this photo.)

All in all, not bad. I'm actually liking it far more now that I've given it an honest try than when I was just messing with it. It's not my favorite, but for convenience (it's in a compact, rather than a bottle or a tube, and if you use the brush, you don't have to get your fingers dirty), it's pretty good. I'm not sure if the next lightest shade would be better for me - I guess I'll have to go play at Sephora some more :) But my ill-choice of color doesn't change the fact that it's a lovely foundation to apply.

And the compact itself looks awesome by the way - purple with the cool swirly designs on it. It's definitely an eye-catching object to pull out of your purse.