The New Urban Decay Naked Heat Vice Lipsticks

DUUUDE. Urban Decay Naked Heat (we’re gonna talk about the new Naked Heat Vice Lipsticks in a second). Not to get to deep on you, but if you think about it, which came first? — nakedness or heat? Like, was it SO HOT that clothes were removed and nakedness ensued? Or were these people — if we’re imagining people dancing around a fire, don’t ask me why my brain goes there — were they naked first, so they were cold, and then they had to get closer to the fire to get heated? WHO KNOWS?

Yeah, chew on THAT for a bit.

Ooh, Urban Decay, there you go again, throwing another limited edition log on the Naked Heat fire. UD just added seven new Naked Heat Vice Lipsticks, all inspired by the original Naked Heat palette and lipsticks, and the petite Naked palette last month, and this release is like “Naked Heat Lipsticks Part Deux.” (Because everything sounds better in French.)

These $18 shades are warm like the colors in a big ol’ bonfire — burgundies, browns, wine — basically, lots of darker colors in metallic finishes with a sprinkling of peachy nudes, which, yeah, I know, #karenishashtagbasic, but I really like them.

So, I’m always a little thrown by UD’s Vice Lipstick packaging, because…I mean, it’s nice-looking, but when I pick it up, it feels so insubstantial to me and kind of…cheap.

But then I open them up (!), and these Vices feel and wear like a $$$$ Guerlain Rouge G.

They’re practically pure pigment in a bullet. With the exception of First Sin, which is sheerer than the others and more of a mid-level cream, when I slide them across my lips once or twice, BAM! — full-color smile. 🙂 And even though you’ve got all this color on your lips, the formula doesn’t pool in your lip lines. It’s smooth, intense and regal.

I’m also always shocked by how the Vice Lipsticks don’t have a noticeable taste or scent. They’re like a blank slate. I so often associate UD’s lip products, including their glosses, with mint, so whenever I apply one of these, I’m like, “Huh. There’s nothing going on there.”

I don’t mind most flavored or scented lip products (of course it depends, though), but I like that the Vices don’t even go there.

Key themes here: pigmented, warm and slightly metallic. The opalescent particles in the metallics are incredibly fine and understated, so they aren’t in your face, which is so unlike UD’s overall edgy rep. Even though these lipsticks are still moody and pigmented, they’re also elegant.

As for the nudes, I think Fuel 2.0 is beautiful. It’s a creamy nude peach, but it won’t make you look like it’s the early 2000s and you’re going to the club in low-slung bell-bottoms and a satin spaghetti-strap top (I’m currently cringing from the memory of this).

I also like the other nude shade, First Sin, a peach with a pink shift. It’s very much in the spirit of MAC Skew, an old love of mine. Similar level of pigment, but it isn’t as coral. They share the same DNA, though.

Most of the colors are sold out on the UD website, but they’re still available on the Sephora site as of this morning.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen