Review: Urban Decay Lip Primer Potion

Disclosure: PR sample

Urban Decay's Eyeshadow Primer Potion is such a cult product that it's recognisable to beauty lovers all over the world from just an acronym - UDPP.  The lip primer potion (UDLPP, perhaps) is less well known, but over the past few weeks I've grown to love it just as much as its more famous sister.

First off, whilst many people hate the current packaging of UDPP, the lip primer packaging is both gorgeously pretty and perfectly functional.  A clear, waxy stick product, it twists up like a lipstick and is easy to smooth onto the lips.  It does drag a little until the product warms on the skin, however.

Applied, it's pretty much invisible - in this photo, I've applied the primer to the left side of my lips.  Whilst you can't really see it on the lips, you can feel it - it's much like a particularly thick and waxy lip balm, which sits on top of the lips rather than being absorbed.

To test out the effects of the primer, I applied one of my favourite lip products on top.  Le Metier de Beaute's  Lip Creme lipgloss is a gloriously pigmented, juicy creamy gloss, which has a habit of feathering into the fine lines around my lips.  Usually, I just apply a bit of liner underneath, so I wanted to see if the Urban Decay primer would prevent the feathering.

The top photo shows the lipgloss freshly applied.  The lip line is sharply defined on both sides.  The bottom photo shows the lipgloss after three hours wear.  Whilst it's undoubtedly wearing very well, the left side of the lips looks much sharper and cleaner than the right side.  If you click the image to view it in high resolution, you can see that there's minimal feathering on the left side, but quite a bit on the right.

Urban Decay Lip Primer, then, does indeed help to minimise feathering with bright, bold colours.  It also helps  lip products to apply smoothly; lipstick and lipgloss glide on over the top of it, with minimal dragging, even with matte finish products.  I've not really noticed any effect on the length of time my lipstick lasts, though - although that may be because, as a lover of red lips, all my red lipsticks are varieties I know last well in the first place.

All in all, I've been extremely impressed with Urban Decay's Lip Primer Potion.  If you like to wear strong lip colours fairly regularly, you'll probably find that owning one of these is a lot more economical than buying lipliner to match each strong lip colour you own.   My little purple tube now lives in my lipstick purse in my handbag, and I'll definitely be repurchasing when my sample runs out.

If you'd like to try it out for yourself, you'll find it at Urban Decay counters and online via BeautyBay.com, where it will cost £10.50.