NARS

NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer Update: Six New Shades Join the Full-Coverage Crew

December 28th, 2017 by Karen 17 Comments

nars radiant creamy conealers swatches new top — There are six new shades of NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer ($30 each).

Waaay back in 2013 when NARS introduced the Radiant Creamy Concealers, they were revolutionary, but there were only 10 of them. They had lots of pigment and a spectacular satin finish that covered everything — dark circles, blemishes, cat scratches on your cheeks (which, yes, I can attest to from personal experience). They covered EVERYTHING, and they shook up the makeup world.

Since then, so many other brands have come out with their own full-coverage, mousse-y concealer thangs (see: Urban Decay and Kevyn Aucoin).

Fast forward to 2016…

NARS added more shades; the makeup world rejoiced!

Time hop to today, and now there are six more shades, bringing the grand total up to 22. By comparison, MAC has 16 in their Pro Longwear Concealer range and 23 in their Studio Finish Concealer range, and Urban Decay has 14 in both their Naked Skin and All Nighter concealer fams.

nars radiant creamy conealers new — Fun fact: You can also use the NARS Radiant Creamy Concealers as highlighters or contour shades.

Most of the newbies have yellow or golden undertones (extra ideal if you have lots of yellow in your skin tone).

nars radiant creamy conealers swatches new — Truffle, Walnut, Sucre D’Orge, Tiramisu, Marron Glace and Cafe Con Leche

I know a lot of people who love using Radiant Creamy Concealer to hide dark circles, and I wish I loved it for that too, but it settles into my fine lines after a few hours, so I primarily use (and love using them!) as an alternative to foundation.

For all-day natural-looking medium coverage, I like to mix a teeny, tiny amount of Ginger and Caramel (two of the old-school shades) with either MAC Strobe Cream or BECCA Backlight to thin them out a little. Then I pat that on my cheeks and around my nose with my fingers.

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NARS Wanted Eyeshadow Palette: A Cyber Monday Special

November 26th, 2017 by Karen 20 Comments

WANTED:

A new NARS eyeshadow palette
A piping hot gingerbread latte
A tuxedo-clad Nick Jonas to feed me chilled green grapes while I recline on a velvet fainting couch

Two days only!

If you love NARS and collect their palettes, don’t let NARS Wanted leave you wanting. It’s only going to be available for two days, first online only on Cyber Monday, November 27th, on the Sephora website, and then again two days later on November 29th on the NARS website and in person at NARS boutiques (here’s their store locator).

Ridin’ rose gold

It literally took me days to figure out that the image on the palette is a closed eye. Maybe I was too preoccupied by the rose gold action happening inside.

I love this mix of colors. The colors are flashy enough for fun but flexible enough to incorporate into responsible life looks. There are pinks, warm and neutral browns, coppers, cranberries, bronzes and a bit o’ beige for balance. Most of them are new colors, but I recognize some old faves, like matte beige Biarritz and dark brown Coconut Grove (oldie but goodie).

The BIG news: a new powder eyeshadow formula

Here’s the big thing, though: everything in the palette has a new reformulated powder formula. It’s supposed to be more pigmented than the current NARS shadow formula, but I’m not completely sold on how much more pigmented they are yet.

Granted, they are pretty pigmented, as NARS shadows usually are, but they seem maybe just a tad more pigmented than usual.

They do feel NARS soft and silky, though, and I easily get 12 hours of wear time with them.

Now, with a reformulation, you expect things to be better, and I expected there to be less fallout than usual with these, but the fallout is typical of the current formula, which isn’t all bad, because I don’t get a ton of fallout from NARS shadows anyway. I have to do a bit of cleanup underneath my eyes and on my cheeks when I use this palette, as I do with other NARS eyeshadows.

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NARS Fall 2017 Audacious Lipsticks: Vibeke, Linda, Dayle, Louise, Aya and Kirat

October 24th, 2017 by Karen 8 Comments

nars audacious lipsticks fall 2017 2 — Falling for fall lips

Oh, François! You know…even though I’ve dropped so many hardcore hints that you need to add a “Karen” to your Audacious Lipstick line, and even though you keep ignoring said hints, you’re still my number one makeup guy. I’m not mad atcha’ for not including K-Money among the new fall shades of your Audacious Lipsticks.

Yes, I just referred to myself in third person. With my street name. KAY. MON. EEE.

NARS has six new limited edition fall lippies, and there’s a lot of brown! It’s very autumn leaves. Some of the colors look similar to existing Audacious shades at first glance. I mean, I thought they’d be easy to dupe, so at first I was like, “Eh, show me something I haven’t seen before,” but they’re actually tweaked a li’l bit.

Like Dayle, which is the light purple, looks like it could dupe Dominique in the tube, but it’s quite a bit paler on the lips, and it’s the same with most of the other new colors — they look similar to existing shades but really aren’t.

The only shade that really does seem to be super similar to an existing shade is reddish brown Louise, which could be a stand-in for Sandra, one of the permanent shades.

The Audacious Lipsticks are a separate line from the original NARS lippie collection, with its classic colors like Honolulu Honey, Schiap and Jungle Red.

The Audacious lippies are the ones with the magnetic cap that automatically twists and clicks into place, and they’re all, across the board, intensely pigmented. I think of them as the solidified version of the NARS Powermatte Liquid Lipsticks.

If the idea of sheer lipstick makes you wanna toss your head back and go “HAHAHAHA, NO SON!” they’re for you. They’re intense, long-lasting, and they don’t settle into fine lines. They’re a lot like the Urban Decay Vice Lipsticks like that.

Big surprise, the one I’ve been wearing most of this new batch is nude warm beige Vibeke. It looks so good with warm golden brown eyeshadows and peach blushes.

nars audacious lipstick fall 2017 — Vibeke, Linda, Dayle, Louise, Aya, Kirat

nars audacious lipstick fall 2017 swatches comparison — Lipsticks from the current line that look similar to the new shades: Kirat (new) and Liv, Vibeke (new) and Catherine, Linda (new) and Jane, Louise (new) and Sandra, Dayle (new) and Domnique, Aya (new) and Deborah

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NARS Man Ray for NARS Holiday Collection: The Kiss Has It in the Bag

October 12th, 2017 by Karen 7 Comments

So, I know it’s like totes cliché to be a makeup lover obsessed with lip prints, but I am. It is what it is. And the bag in the new NARS The Kiss Velvet Matte Lip Pencil Set ($49) has the cutest lip print.

It’s from the new NARS Man Ray Holiday collection (available now), which has lips all over the place! — on the packaging, the pans, and even gracing this shiny gold makeup bag.

And these lips here are speaking to my soul. I love that they’re a little uneven and fussy looking, like they’re p*ssed about someone parking in their designated spot, haha!

(OK…leave it to the accessories hoarder to go off on the bag five minutes!)

To their credit, the NARS LE holiday bags are some of the best holiday bags around. I have a black one with blue lips on it from a few years back, and it’s still going strong.

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NARS Man Ray for NARS Holiday 2017: Overexposed Glow Highlighter in Double Take

October 6th, 2017 by Karen 6 Comments

Wha-wha!? Double take! I had to do a faux one when I saw NARS Double Take up close for the first time. It’s the new highlighter in the NARS Man Ray Holiday 2017 color collection.

I mean, look at the pan. There are lips on it…but it’s a cheek product? It’s a little confusing, but dang if it isn’t pretty, so I’m just going to let myself be confused and go with it, LOL! Heck, I still might even put it on my lips sometime to see what happens…

The limited edition warm golden formula feels super soft and dense — a little like the MAC In Extra Dimension powders, only finer and creamier. When I flick a brush across it, the powder particles cling to the bristles and don’t go flying everywhere.

nars double take swatch — Ooh, shimmery golden purr-fection…

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NARS Man Ray for NARS Holiday 2017 Color Collection: Fetishized and Intensely Blush

October 6th, 2017 by Karen 12 Comments

Is it 1983? Am I in a Duran Duran video (OMG, I WISH!)? Fetishized and Intensely are totally worthy of stylish ’80s video dudes, which says a lot. Simon Le Bon would be raiding John Taylor’s makeup bag, and Simon would be all, “Hey, can I borrow your bright NARS blush?” And John would say, “The reddish coral one? Sure. You should try layering it with the tangerine one. Grab that too, and while you’re at it, could you please hand me my fuchsia lipstick?”

I gotta have blush that applies smoothly, and both of these totally do. They’re from the NARS Man Ray Holiday color collection, and they pack POW.

The really intense coral-red one that looks like a ruby red grapefruit is called Fetishized, and the bright matte tangerine one is Intensely. They look almost tropical, don’t they? Almost summery? — which is surprising for a holiday/winter look, but not surprising, at the same time, since the Man Ray color collection is all around bright, pigmented and joyful.

nars intensely and fetishized blush swatches — Intensely and Fetishized swatches!

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NARS Man Ray for NARS Photoglosses in Zambeze, Muse, Off Limits and Kiki

October 5th, 2017 by Karen 5 Comments

nars man ray for nars holiday 2017 photogloss lip lacquer — From the left: Muse, Zambeze, Off Limits and Kiki

I love that the lips on these LE tubes of gloss from the new Man Ray for NARS Holiday 2017 collection look like regular ol’ lips. They’re even slightly asymmetrical, thank goodness! Because I gotta be honest, sometimes I need a break from the hyper-inflated Kylie-style lips everywhere.

The glosses are NARS Photogloss Lip Lacquers, a new limited edition formula, and — very importantly — they smell almost like vanilla cookies.

The thing about these glosses is that they’re SO pigmented. Like, you know how sometimes when you make tea and you put the tea bag in the hot water, but then you go do something else and forget about the tea, only to realize an hour later what you did, but you don’t want to waste it, so you drink it anyway even though it tastes crazy strong and intense?

That’s how these glosses look.

nars man ray for nars holiday 2017 photogloss swatches — Photogloss Lip Lacquer swatches from the top: Muse, Ambeze, Off Limits Kiki

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NARS Man Ray for NARS Holiday 2017: The Duo Eyeshadows and Velvet Eyeliners

October 4th, 2017 by Karen 25 Comments

Uh…who is this Man Ray dude?

For their holiday collections, NARS usually pairs up with an artist and thematically incorporates the artist’s work into the release. This year, that artist is Man Ray.

No, we did not just teleport into an episode of Futurama. ?

Man Ray was an American visual artist known for his photography in the ’20s and ’30s, and he was a big time contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements. You’ve probably seen his work on your day-to-day travels. My favorite of his pieces is this picture here. It’s called Glass Tears. The first time I can remember seeing it was in a magazine when I was in high school, and it haunts me to this day.

I wonder if Man Ray liked purple, because the eye makeup in this color collection has purple, purple, purple!

Exciting stuff, if you ask me.

I’m into purple on my lids and lash lines, especially purples with bronze and gold, and there’s lots of that happening here. If you’re a NARS Cordura fan or a NARS Mekong or MAC Sketch or Shale fan, you’ll probably be feeling the duos and liners.

nars man ray for nars swatches debauched montparnasse — Swatches from the top: Montparnasse Duo Eyeshadow, Debacuhed Duo Eyeshadow, Santiago Velvet Eyeliner, Nagoya Velvet Eyeliner

Before we jump into the eye makeup, let me back up a little first. The Man Ray for NARS Holiday collection launches this Friday, October 6th at NARS Boutiques and the NARS website, and it’s set up the same way that NARS has been doing their holiday collections for the past few years, with a color collection, which is like your traditional makeup LE collection with eye, lip and cheek products, and then there’s also a “gifting” collection with kits and sets.

The color collection contains 11 pieces and includes glosses, eyeshadow duos, a highlighter and liners, and there’s LOTS of purple, bronze and gold on parade, to which I have to say “YAAAAS!” 🙂

There are two $36 eyeshadow duos, each with a pan of wonderfully wearable, joyful, GORGEOUS purple shadow. The wearable aspect is a bit of a departure for NARS Holiday eye shadows, as 2015’s Steven Klein and 2016’s Sarah Moon seemed more serious, heavy, and…challenging to me. Like, am I really gonna wear a single pan of frosty white shadow on a Tuesday afternoon? Probably not.

These two new duos may not be as edgy as the NARS shadows from recent holiday collections, but I’m fine with that. I’ll take easy-to-wear stuff any day of the week.

The first duo, Montparnasse, pairs a satiny, reddish bronzed purple with a frosty, cool yellow gold. The second one, Debauched, partners a rich, deep golden plum with a smoky blackened purple containing red micro glitter.

nars montparnasse — Duo Eyeshadow in Montparnasse ($46)

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