Urban Decay Brand History
Wende Zomnir’s path crossed with Sandy Lerner while Wende was working in advertising after college. Sandy was a co-founder of Cisco Systems. In Zomnir’s Newport Beach, CA house in 1996 this brand started by the pair mixed and matched polish formulas, they even asked neighbors to help the glue fake nails on their displays.
In January 1996 they mixed up the industry by launching 10 lipsticks and 12 with names inspired by the urban surroundings such as Rust, Oil Slick and Acid Rain. At that time cosmetics was mostly made up of pastel shades or red.
In 1998 UD launched Midnight Cowboy, which was a basic beige shimmer eyeshadow but the twist was it had pieces of glitter added. Which at the time was a new concept. This is still sold today! Retails for $20.00 on their site.
You may not remember a time before social media but at that time there was no Instagram. Zomnir decided to reach out to New York’s “It” girls and would send them Urban Decay products to try and pass out to their friends.
The now well known Naked collection started with the original Naked palette which had 12 shadows and the dual brush. And as we all know now, that collection has continued to grow to include a number of Naked palettes now.
The brand has changed hands quite a few times:
- 2000 Moet-Hennessy Louis Vuitton purchased UD
- 2002 the Falic Group (owners of Perry Ellis fragrance lines) purchased UD
- 2009 Castanea Partners (a private equity firm) acquired Urban Decay
- 2012 UD was acquired by L’Oreal for an estimated $300-400 million. This means that while Urban Decay itself is cruelty free, their parent company L’Oreal is not.
To learn even more about the brand, check out my Youtube Video by clicking here.
I personally have the potion primer, setting spray, Naked Heat palette, Naked Ultraviolet palette and the Naked Foundation.
I have been able to create so many looks with the Naked Heat. It is very easy to work with. And the brush is a good one too! Click here if you would like to see each color in this palette swatched.
I was kind of surprised the Ultraviolet didn’t have more purple in it. But I have been really happy with these two palettes so far.
This was actually the first time I tried a full coverage foundation! I thought it would feel heavy on the skin but it didn’t. I just needed to make sure I really hydrated my skin before applying. I even did a wear test!
I have dry skin so I don’t think the setting spray does much for me, I need more of a hydrating spray.
I do like the eye potion primer, it doesn’t stop my shadows from creasing. However I don’t really have that problem. I think because my eyelids are not oily. But it does make the shadow stay more pigmented for longer while I am wearing it.
Sources: Forbes online issue 2/28/2018, Wikipedia/wiki/Urban_Decay
