NARS Shimmer Eyeshadow in Lhasa

I've been on a taupe eyeshadow kick lately (well, more than usual).  And in general, I've been gravitating toward cooler toners.  Despite being a very pinky person, I often wear really warm tones.  I know that's sacrilege to some people, but we're all just going to have to deal.  

However, this fall and winter, I've really been going for cool purple, plummy tones.

I came across some swatches of NARS Lhasa eyeshadow and it seemed perfect for my current beauty proclivities.  NARS describes the shade as "lavender gray", but the swatches I'd seen online put it firmly in the cool toned taupe category.  The shade was released as part of NARS Spring 2012 collection, but has since been made permanent.

(daybulb)

(indirect natural light)

Some of the reviews I saw mentioned it being a tad bit sheer, but all the swatches were absolutely gorgeous.  I know, there's always a bit of YMMV with cosmetics, but seriously.  Look at those swatches above.  This shadow is sheer.  Very sheer.  Very uncomplicated.  And very disappointing to me.  

Maybe it's a difference in quality control between the initial run of the product and subsequent runs.  All I know is that the NARS Lhasa I have is not the rich taupe I've seen swatched in the interwebs.  It's not complicated.  It's not complex.  It's very straightforward and one dimensional.  My NARS Lhasa is a sheer purple gray.  *sob*

The only upside to this story is that Sephora had a promo where you could get '$20 off a $50 purchase'.  In reality, it was just a $20 gift card code with no minimum purchase.  So after all was said and done, I paid $4 for this eyeshadow and got free shipping and samples from Sephora.  That doesn't make up for the disappointing quality of this eyeshadow, but it does take most of the sting out of a disappointing purchase.

NARS Lhasa eyeshadow is part of the NARS cosmetics permanent range.  It contains 2.2 grams of product and retails for $24.

Overall:  4/10

NARS Pierre Hardy blush in Boys Don't Cry

I apologize in advance.  As I catch up from my hiatus and backlog, I'm sure I'm going to have most posts like this about items (to borrow a term from PinkSith) You Can't Have.

This is the NARS Pierre Hardy blush in Boys Don't Cry.  It released in Spring 2013 with the NARS Pierre Hardy collaboration collection.  The color is described by NARS as "grapefruit pink".  It's a chameleon color (meaning it's not true to pan at all, imo).

The gold is just an overspray that is quickly wiped away, but in the pan the color looks very coral leaning toward orange.  

On the skin, it leans much cooler and pinky red.  To me it is almost a watermelon pink.

After the overspray is gone, the blush has a satin finish.  It is incredibly pigmented and vibrant, a little dab will do ya.  The wear time is great.  Easily 8 hours before it fades.

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This limited edition blush palette is larger than a regular NARS blush (.16 oz) and contains a whopping .45 oz of product.  It has the typical rubberized NARS packaging, which means it is going to be dirty and fingerprint covered in about half a second and in a couple of years it will get tacky and gross.  SIGH.

You can still find some of these on eBay and occasionally on Amazon.

I picked mine up in the Spring at Sephora for $41.

Overall:  8/10

NARS Pure Radiant Creamy Concealer

I've had the new NARS Pure Radiant Creamy Concealer since it first launched and I have not gotten around to reviewing it.  I love the consistency of this product.  It has phenomenal pigmentation, good staying power and (applied carefully), I don't have an issue with it settling into lines.

The biggest surprise for me was that I didn't need the lightest color.  I picked up the shade Vanilla and it is a great match.  The pigmentation, as stated before, is phenomenal.  I have some pretty serious under eye circles and this product covers them like a charm without needing to apply a ton of it.

I generally set the concealer with Laura Mercier's Under Eye Brightening Powder and it lasts a solid 6 hours before it starts to break down at all and a good 9 hours before it needs touching up.  I use this under my eyes, but I really don't ever use it to cover blemishes, so I can't really say how it performs there.

As I said, I do set it with powder, but even if you don't use powder, it dries down to a matte finish.  I think it's fairly unique in this as most of the really creamy concealers I've tried tend to not dry down well.

I was so excited to learn that NARS is bringing out a compact foundation in their Radiant Creamy line, but was soon disappointed to learn that it will contain the same shade range as their Sheer Matte and Sheer Glow foundations.  I've heard the formulations on those products are great, but since NARS seems to think that all very light complexions are also jaundiced (I'm not kidding, those foundations are SO yellow), I will be passing on it.  But at least the concealer is awesome!

The NARS Pure Radiant Creamy Concealer contains 6mL of product and retails for $28.  It has a doe foot applicator and comes in 10 different shades.

Overall:  10/10

Review: NARS American Dream Palette

The NARS American Dream eyeshadow palette #9976 was one of two limited edition release for Fall 2012 (the other was New Wave, which as of this writing, is still available at NARS.com).  The American Dream palette is sold out, however, all six shades are available in the permanent range, though, obviously, not in this packaging.

I don't have any of these particular shades in the standard, permanent packaging, so I can't really compare the quality of the LE packaging to the permanent line.  Sorry!

The palette contains six eyeshadows: (Belissima, Alhambra, Silk Road, Galapagos, Bali and Tzarine).    In total, the palette contains 9 grams of product.

(top row: swatched under daylight bulbs)

• Belissima - This shade is permanent as part of the Belissima duo.  It is a matte white with gold glitter. Despite the way the swatch looks, it does have decent pigmentation.  The glitter doesn't immediately fall out, as is an issue with some of the other glittery NARS eyeshadows I've tried *cough*NightFlight*cough*
• Alhambra - This shade is permanent as part of the Alhambra duo.  It is a metallic peachy gold with phenomenal color payoff.
• Silk Road - This shade is permanent as part of the Silk Road duo.  (Are we seeing a trend?)  The shadow is a warm rose pink with gold glitter.  The base seems a little frosty, but not straight up metallic.  The color payoff is good.

(bottom row: swatched under daylight bulbs)

• Galapagos - This shade is permanent.  It is a warm medium dark brown with gold and copper sparkle.  It is a very soft shadow with good color payoff.
• Bali - This shade is permanent.  It is a dark gray/brown matte eyeshadow.  It is buttery soft with excellent payoff. 
• Tzarine - This shade is permanent as part of the Tzarine duo.  It is a blue/silver/gray with gold sparkle.  It felt dry when I was swatching it, but it had great color payoff.

Unlike the other palette released in this collection, I think American Dream is very wearable across the board.  I think it is a nice collection of darker and highlight shades and for someone like me who really doesn't have many NARS shadows, this was a good opportunity to pick up some of their most popular shades at a better price point.

This product originally retailed for $55 and I got mine from NARS.com

Overall: 8/10

Empty: NARS Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer

Saturday I reached for my beloved NARS Pure Radiant tinted moisturizer and managed to squeeze out the last few drops.  Sadness!  I absolutely love this product.  But I'm pretty much on a foundation no buy until I finish up my Armani Maestro foundation.

I love the NARS Pure Radiant for the days that I'm in a big hurry or I'm feeling super lazy since it is so moisturizing and it contains SPF.  It gives me fantastic coverage and it feels super light on the skin.

As a side note, I can't remember the last time I finished a non-skincare beauty product.

What was the last beauty product you finished?

Take care,
indie

Review: NARS Cream Blush in Cactus Flower

So if you've ever read this blog before, you already know that I have a blush problem and in particular, cream blushes are a weakness of mine.  This first step is admitting you have a problem, so there :P

In several of her videos, Audra has talked about the NARS Cream Blush in cactus flower.  Cactus Flower is described by NARS as "delicate shimmering poppy".

It is a very red coral with a very fine gold microglitter that gives it a very glowy almost iridescent finish in the pan.  On the cheeks the gold is much less noticeable but if you like matte blushes, you'll probably want to pass this one up.  

sunlight

indirect natural light

daylight fluorescent bulb

The formula is very pigmented, just a light tap of my finger into the product is more than enough for one application.  It does sheer out fairly easily and the color is very wearable by someone like myself who is on the pasty side of pale.  The formula is very wet and has a lot of slip when first applied, but it dries down nicely.

I think this is one of my more favorite cream blush formulas.  It is super pigmented, glides on so smoothly and then dries down nicely.  I really love the subtle gold sheen from the microglitter - very reminiscent of their powder blush, Orgasm.

The NARS Cream Blushes contain 5.5 grams of product and retail for $28 wherever NARS is sold.

Overall: 9/10

Review: NARS Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil in Mexican Rose

I originally I saw the NARS Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil in Mexican Rose in a favorite spring products YouTube video by Tanya Burr.  I had a bunch of coupons and rewards bucks at Beauty.com, so I picked it up for less than $10.  The NARS Velvet Gloss Lip Pencils typically sell for $24.

I purchased this pencil weeks and weeks ago and it's just been sitting on my vanity.  I don't really know why I didn't wear it, but I didn't.  I finally picked it up last weekend and applied it and was incredibly unhappy.  I wasn't expecting it to be quite so bright and so I promptly took it off and put on something more sedate.  I was ready to list it on Make Up Alley for a swap when I decided I should give it more than a 5 second test run.

So a couple times this week, I wore it all day.

NARS describes the color Mexican Rose as "hot pink" which is pretty spot on.  It is a bold color, but I'm trying to wear more lip products and sometimes I just need to force myself out of my comfort zone.  And after a couple days of wearing Mexican Rose I have to say I'm kind of in love with it.

NARS describes the Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil formula as "Spectacular shine in an innovative, lightweight formula and enriched with Vitamin E plus a blend of moisture-rich hyaluronic spheres that make lips appear fuller".

The formula reminded me a lot of the Clinique Chubbystick on initial application.  It is closer to a lipstick formula than a gloss, but it really is moisturizing and it does stay glossy and moveable for quite a while.

This wore probably 6 hours on me before I felt like it faded to the point that I needed to re-apply.  A big part of that is that the formula stained my lips pretty significantly.

I haven't tried the Yves Saint Laurent ROUGE PUR COUTURE Vernis À Lèvres Glossy Stain, but it makes me wonder if the formulas aren't similar.  Has anyone tried both?  Thoughts?

The big downside for me to this product is that unlike the Clinique Chubbysticks, the NARS Velvet Glosses aren't twist up pencils.  You actually have to sharpen them.  UGH!  Thanks to the incredible pigmentation and wear time I haven't had to sharpen mine yet, but apparently when I do, I need to freeze the pencil first.  This is a recipe for disaster.  I guarantee you that I'm going to put the pencil in the freezer so I can sharpen it and then I'm going to find it at Christmas time when I'm trying to make room in the freezer.  There is no way I am going to remember. 

Contains .09oz of product.  Retails for $24 wherever NARS is sold.

Overall:  8/10 - love the color, love the formula, hate the sharpening.

Review: NARS Illuminator in Copacabana

Next up in my highlighters series is the NARS Illuminator in Copacabana.  The NARS website describes it as:

Light the skin from within. A collection of light-reflecting liquids that glide on to refresh and enhance the complexion with shimmering incandescence. Deceptively sheer, decidedly luminous.

This is in the shade Copacabana which is "glistening pearl".   It comes in 3 other shades, Laguna (brown with gold shimmer), Orgasm (peachy pink with gold shimmer) and Super Orgasm (peachy pink with gold glitter).

The picture below is a deluxe sample size, not the full size.  I picked it up a while ago in my NARS VIB pack from Sephora.

The swatches below were taken without a flash.  It's just using my office lighting.  As you can tell, it is INCREDIBLY iridescent.  I thought the MAC Cream Colour Bases were reflective, but they don't hold a candle to the NARS Illuminator.  This stuff is so shiny.  

It does sheer out, but again, it's really iridescent.  I haven't tried any of the colors so I really can't speak to the different results you might get - especially from the one with glitter rather than shimmer.  This product is pretty thin consistency, so I would assume that you could mix a little of it with your foundation for overall illumination or just use it for spot highlighting.

I actually ended up giving my tube of this product away.  It was just so reflective that I knew I was never going to use it.  I know that some people swear by this, but it is just way too frosty/shimmery for my taste.

A full size Illuminator is 1.1oz and retails for $30.

Overall: 5/10

Review: NARS Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer

At the end of February, I picked up a sample of the NARS Pure Radiance Tinted Moisturizer in Finland (the color, not the country) at the NARS counter of my local Nordstrom (before it was in wide release).  I did a first impressions post here.  I loved the product, but $42 for something labeled a tinted moisturizer is pretty steep in my book, so I held off ... for a while.

Mid-March I went ahead and picked up a full size tube, again in Finland, the lightest shade.  Unlike a lot of tinted moisturizer lines which offer a very limited color range, the NARS line has a whopping 9 shades.  

NARS says that Finland is "Lightest with a neutral balance of pink and yellow undertones".  You can judge for yourself from the swatch below.  I don't think it's neutral.  I think it's yellow.  But sheered out, it looks fine on my pinky skin.

I was surprised by the fact that this tinted moisturizer actually moisturizes.  I've tried several that were just runny foundations.  But this formula is very hydrating on my skin.  It contains SPF 30, which I love.  I really try to wear at least SPF 50 on my face though, so I usually go ahead and apply my regular sunscreen under the tinted moisturizer.  It isn't ideal, but it works.

So I know this is called a tinted moisturizer.  I think that name is incredibly misleading, but in a good way.  The amount of coverage that I get from this tinted product far exceeds the coverage I get from some of my foundations.

I still get a little oily in the T-zone with this product, but nothing bad and certainly no worse than I get from my regular foundations sans primer.  I don't wear this every day, probably more like every other day.  According to NARS, this product is supposed to "reduce the appearance of hyperpigmentation and dark spots for a brighter natural glow."  I will say that I have noticed some of my hyperpigmentation improving.  I can't say for sure that it's because of this product, but it's possible.

I feel like I'm pussyfooting around the issue, so maybe I should just come out and say it.  THIS STUFF IS MAGIC.  Ahem.  I feel better now.  

The only downside is that it has a fairly magical pricetag as well, $42 for 1.9oz.  Compare that to NARS Sheer Glow foundation which is also $42 but for only 1oz of product and I guess it's not so bad.  The Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer is also $42, but for only 1.5oz of product.  Gah, I don't know.  I still feel like $42 for something called a tinted moisturizer is insane.  But at the end of the day, I do love this stuff.  And I do feel like even at this price point, it delivers.

Overall:  9/10

Review: Nars Laguna Bronzer

I guess I should have pointed out in my last post that I am very fair.  I'm a MAC NW15ish.  I know there are a lot of great bronzers out there for people with deeper skintones, but I don't have any first hand experience with them.  If anybody does and would like to guest post, drop me a line.

Continuing with my series of bronzer posts, here's my take on the Nars Laguna Bronzer.

It's provides a great warmth either as a contour or all over the face for a sun kissed look.  I have dry to combination skin and it wears well on me.

I don't really feel like Nars Laguna is going to be a big surprise to anyone.  It's a great bronzer.  When you initially buy it, it has a gold shimmer, but that's just an overlay.  Once you get past that first layer, the product is matte.

For comparison, here are side by side pictures of pristine condition and after it has been loved muchly.

For me, this is a go-to bronzer.  It's a solid performer and I definitely recommend it.

Laguna is one of Nars best selling blush/bronzers so you can get it packaged in a several ways: alone, as a duo or a trio (above).  For a single, you're going to pay $34 for .28oz of product.

Overall 9/10

First Impressions: Nars Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30 / PA++

So this isn't a review per se.  I haven't given this product enough of a test drive to be able to say for certain that I love it.  But I'm pretty sure I'm going to love it.

I hadn't planned on writing this post and then this morning when I was trying my hardest to eek the last bit of product out of the tiny sample jar I picked up at Nordstrom last weekend, I figured I should own up to it.

The evidence:

It's getting warmer and going into spring/summer, I'm going to have to find a different foundation routine.  I've been using Neutrogena Healthy Skin foundation all winter and it has been fabulous.  But I think it's going to be too emollient for warm weather.

I'd heard great things about the Nars tinted moisturizer, so last week at Nordstrom I picked up a sample of Finland (the lightest shade).  I've been burned before many times with tinted moisturizer, but I have to say that this product is phenomenal.  Unfortunately it is priced accordingly at $42.  It's in wide release now, so you can get it just about anywhere - Sephora, Beauty.com, etc.

The product comes in a whopping 9 shades, so you shouldn't have trouble finding a shade that works for you.  This is especially helpful if you, like me, have been burned before by tinted moisturizers that just don't work on your skin tone. *cough* Origins VitaZing moisturizer *cough*.

The coverage from this product is on par with a foundation.  And it has a great level of SPF and it performs well as a moisturizer.  And a little goes a long way.  The sample I had was very small and yet I got three applications out of it.

And now, look at the pretty pictures from the press release: