The friend zone: How to navigate finding friends as an adult
The friend zone: How to navigate finding friends as an adult

Sarah Gill

Supper Club: Fearne Cotton’s haddock burrito, punchy salsa and homemade guacamole
Supper Club: Fearne Cotton’s haddock burrito, punchy salsa and homemade guacamole

Meg Walker

New life has been breathed into this Victorian Portobello home thanks to a revamp that’s full of personality
New life has been breathed into this Victorian Portobello home thanks to a revamp that’s...

Megan Burns

This rustic four-bedroom home in Westport is on the market for €449,000
This rustic four-bedroom home in Westport is on the market for €449,000

Sarah Finnan

My Career: Archivist at Guinness Eibhlin Colgan
My Career: Archivist at Guinness Eibhlin Colgan

Sarah Finnan

Irish visual artist Ciara O’Connor on using embroidery to explore women’s lives
Irish visual artist Ciara O’Connor on using embroidery to explore women’s lives

Nathalie Marquez Courtney

How an interior stylist turned this period Cork apartment into a quietly luxurious home
How an interior stylist turned this period Cork apartment into a quietly luxurious home

IMAGE Interiors & Living

This picturesque, split-level home in Delgany is on the market for €995,000
This picturesque, split-level home in Delgany is on the market for €995,000

Sarah Finnan

March 28: Today’s top stories in 60 seconds
March 28: Today’s top stories in 60 seconds

Sarah Gill

Real Weddings: Keelin and Darren tie the knot overlooking Dingle Bay
Real Weddings: Keelin and Darren tie the knot overlooking Dingle Bay

Shayna Sappington

Image / Beauty

Future Icon: Which Urban Decay product beats the Naked palettes hands down?


By Aisling Keenan
17th Dec 2018
Future Icon: Which Urban Decay product beats the Naked palettes hands down?

As much as I might adore their setting sprays, palettes and concealers, there’s one Urban Decay sleeper product that blows my tiny mind every time I use it, AND I have the picture to prove it…

Urban Decay crept up on me.

Not literally, of course. But I didn’t realise every second thing in my makeup bag was theirs until I had to list off to someone what I use. Every second word was ‘Urban Decay’ and it dawned on me just how iconic so many of their products are.

Sure, the original Naked palette has been discontinued – but not before it was replaced by four or five spectacular alternatives. Naked 2, 3, Heat, Cherry, even the non-Naked related Backtalk palette all more than make up for the missing OG Naked. And from pigment to range of shades to range of textures to price, they’re virtually unbeatable.

Urban Decay Backtalk Palette, €43

But while I’m enjoying this reflective love-in about their palettes, I can’t even admit to those being my favourite UD offerings.

The setting spray I go through like water? Nope. Their Brow Beater brow product I buy every month? Not that, either. (I really wasn’t lying when I said I used a lot of their stuff)

But as it turns out, their EPIC mascara is the one that I’ll never stray from for as long as they continue to make it. I believe it should be (and has every right to be) one of their lauded icons.

MASCARA HERO

Perversion is the best mascara I’ve ever used, hands down. I pair it, as I think it should be paired, with the Subversion lash priming white mascara for full effect, but even without that as a booster it’s still up there with the best in the biz. And there’s a lot of competition in the mascara market – Lancôme’s Hypnôse, YSL’s Effet Faux Cils, Glossier’s Lash Slick and Maybelline’s Great Lash are all iconic in their own right. But for me, Perversion when paired with Subversion, is outstanding.

Urban Decay Perversion Mascara, €23.50 and Subversion Primer, €21

Before I scar your retinas by showing you a close up of my face with and without the mascara on, I’d like to state, for the record: There were no lash extensions, lash curlers, other makeup or lash treatments involved in this pic… Just little old me, before and then after Perversion.

You can see why I love it so much. Thanks to whichever UD genius came up with this formulation – my eyes, and the general public who have to witness my eyes, are forever grateful.

Featured image: @urbandecaycosmetics on Instagram