NARS

NARS, You’re a Peach for Introducing 6 New Shades of Radiant Creamy Concealer

August 3rd, 2016 by Karen 14 Comments

I like eating peaches…and I like wearing peach-toned under-eye concealer.

What does this have to do with NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer?

Well, the whole “eating peaches” bit has absolutely nothing to do with it. I’m just super obsessed with peaches right now, and I got a huge box from Trader Joe’s last week, so I’ve been in peach heaven.

But the thing about peach-toned concealer is marginally related, because NARS just added six new Radiant Creamy Concealer shades to the line, and a couple of them have peachy undertones, woo-hoo!

Back when NARS first released their creamy, full-coverage Radiant Creamy Concealers, it shook up the makeup world. A lot of peeps fell in love (myself included), because of how good they were/are at doing so many things.

And they completely cover everything.

EVERY. FRICKIN’. THING.

Yet somehow still look natural.

nars radiant creamy concealer swatches 1 — From the left, NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer in Chantilly, Vanilla, Creme Brulee (NEW) and Canelle (NEW)

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The Six New NARS Hardwired Eyeshadow Shades for Fall 2016

July 22nd, 2016 by Karen 22 Comments

Could there be a hidden corner of the human brain tucked away near the back that makes us hardwired to make grabby hands whenever we see shimmery, sparkly, glittery things?

Solely based on my experience, I think the answer to that is “yes,” LOL! Because homegirl wants ALL OF THE GLITTERS. 🙂

All of them…

I definitely feel that familiar, inescapable tug in my gut when I open the NARS Hardwired Eyeshadows.

NARS is adding six new shades for fall, coming exclusively to Sephora starting August 1, and holy wow! — the shimmer.

Like the previously released Hardwired Eyeshadow shades, these shine bright enough to see from across a room — heck, or across town. Maybe from across state lines, even.

These highly pigmented powder shadows have varying levels of glitter, shimmer and pearl, so you get a lot of light reflecting back when you pop them on your skin. It’s very eye-catching.

nars hardwired parallax — Wearing NARS Hardwired Eyeshadow in Parallax on my lids

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The New NARS Sculpting Multiples: Twice as Nice and Coming Soon to Sephora

July 18th, 2016 by Karen 15 Comments

The new $39 NARS Sculpting Multiples are twice as nice, because you get, not one, but two shades in each stick — two shades of creamy NARS Mutiple goodness, which you can wear on your eyes, your cheeks, your lips, or to sculpt and highlight yo’ face.

A regular single NARS Mulitple stick also sells for $39, so these are double-your-pleasure duos.

One of the shades in each duo is a lighter shade for highlighting, and the other is a darker shade for contouring.

I’m not really a big contour-er (is that a word?), but if you are, that’s what the darker shades are for. Me? I’m more about the highlight (although I will also play with the countour shades too). 🙂

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An Ode to NARS

July 13th, 2016 by Carolina Braina 29 Comments

NARS Best Makeup Products — Wearing NARS Duo Eyeshadow in Corder on top of NARS Pro-Prime Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base on my eyes, NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Dragon Girl on my lips, and NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer in Custard, NARS Bronzing Powder in Laguna, and NARS Blush in Amour on my complexion

Yesterday I played the lottery for the first time in my life.

And just like I think everyone does when playing the lottery, I started fantasizing about what I would buy if I won €100,000,000…

You know what the first thing that popped into my head was?

Nope, it wasn’t a big house in the hills or a round-the-world getaway (although those would be nice).

It was the entire NARS makeup collection!

Can you imagine that? Hundreds and hundreds of those sleek, rubberized cases and tubes (side note: you can easily clean them up with duo-phase makeup remover).

AHHHH!

But anyways, I didn’t win…

And since they say that to be happy in life you should focus on the good things you have rather than the things you don’t have, today I decided to focus on the products in my NARS stash that bring me happiness on a daily basis!

Wanna see what they are?

NARS Duo Eyeshadow in Isolde ($35)

In the event of a fire, you’re supposed to leave all of your belongings where they are and get to the nearest exit.

Well, I really hope we never, ever have a fire in our building, because I’d have a really, really hard time leaving the NARS Duo Eyeshadow in Isolde behind (should I grab it or not?).

I know I might sound like I need to re-evaluate my priorities, but if you’ve ever tried Isolde, I think you’ll understand.

I can’t imagine my life without it.

The shadows have the most gorgeous metallic finish (no chunky glitters in sight!), and they’re so pigmented, creamy, and smooth that I can’t think of many other shadows that compare (I’m thinking of the Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill Intense in 5 Gold Blitz and Pure Ganache from the Zoeva Cocoa Blend Eyeshadow Palette).

And if that’s not enough, they practically blend themselves and last longer than probably anyone could need.

NARS Bronzing Powder in Laguna ($39)

NARS Bronzing Powder Laguna — If you look at a pan of NARS Bronzing Powder in Laguna or swatch it with your finger, you can see teeny, tiny sparkles running through it, but I’ve never really noticed them once applied…

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NARS Fall 2016 First Impressions

July 6th, 2016 by Karen 16 Comments

Ooh, the NARS Fall 2016 collection makes me wanna unleash my inner artiste!

Look at all those pencils… My goodness. I’m tempted to grab one of my adult color books.

Coming July 15 to NARS boutiques and the NARS website, and sometime in August to Sephora and NARS counters, this one’s mostly about the pencils.

nars fall 2016 eyeliner — NARS Velvet Eyeliners from the left in Black Moon, Mambo, Curacao, Kaliste, London, Blue Lotus, Last Frontier, Las Pozas and Darklight ($24 each)

The big news? The new $24 NARS Velvet Eyeliners, which are coming in nine shades. They’re like smokey kohls…

They get soft and smooth, so you can smudge and smoke ’em out, making them great bases for smokey eyes looks and, of course, you can also use them to line your lash and water lines.

On my water lines, though, I get some transferring onto the skin along my lash lines, which isn’t a big deal to me, because I just end up smooshing and smudging them out anyway (’cause homegirl likes it SMOKAYYYY!), but it’s there.

The collection also includes two NARS contour blush duos, three eyeshadows and two red matte lip pencils.

nars fall 2016 contour blush — The $42 NARS Contour Blushes in Melina (left) and Talia (right)

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The Day in Beauty Vol. 20: The New $49 NARS Survival Kit 2, Connor Claire Cuteness and Wine for Yo’ Cat

June 25th, 2016 by Karen 31 Comments

We made it to Saturday, babe! Great job. 🙂 Wherever you are, I hope you have a nice weekend lined up.

I felt like switching up my makeup game today because I’ve been all about black eyeliner, beige and brown lids and nude lips lately. I love that look (it’s easy), but I felt like doing something different, hence the NARS Survival Kit 2 ($59), the second of two new limited edition sets coming soon from NARS (July 1 exclusively to NARS counters at Nordie’s). This one comes with two eyeshadows, two blushes, a mini gloss and a mini mascara.

This one incorporates color in a fresh way with everyday shades that aren’t intimidating, but also aren’t really typical of nude/neutral looks.

Beginning with Tokyo II Eyeshadow, a light satiny violet, which creates an absolutely gorgeous wash of color on the lids, ya know, if you don’t have a lot of time to get ready and you want to wear color, I think Tokyo II is a great way to go. Here I quickly buffed it on my lids with a domed brush and blended out the edges with a tapered brush.

Rich, warm reddish brown Galapagos, which is one of my absolute favorite NARS shadows, has tiny flecks of golden glitter. It also makes an appearance in the palette in this kit.

SO pretty and SO much hotness in smokey eyes, especially with a black base under it. Here, though, I decided to keep it simple, since I only gave myself 20 minutes to get ready this morning, so I used Galapagos as a liner by wetting an angled brush (the NARS #47, which I think is THE BEST angled brush for winged liner!), then applied Galapagos on my upper lash lines.

Wetting the brush intensifies the shadow and makes the brown richer and yummier and more milk chocolatey…and also makes the gold flecks really come through.

nars survival kit 2 k — Wearing NARS Survival Kit 2 on my eyes, cheeks and lips

Of the two blushes in this kit, Modesty and Daydream, Daydream is a satiny mid-toned peachy pink kinda like NARS Orgasm, but without the golden shimmer running through it. Sometimes I like colors like Daydream a little more than Orgasm, to be honest, because they don’t come with the same shimmery gold drama.

I mean, Orgasm’s really pretty too, but if you’re having a “big pore day,” it’s not always easy to wear.

And Modesty works well as a warm golden beige highlighter. I only need to use a little because it’s pretty shimmery and intense.

The kit also comes with a juicy, plummy red gloss called Phantasia. It’s so pigmented that it’s almost like wearing a liquid lipstick, but the glossy aspect of the gloss subsides over a few hours, leaving behind a soft stain.

nars survival kit 2 packaging — The NARS Survival Kit 2 packaging

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Sometimes Your Survival Depends on a Pretty Pink, and for Those Times There’s the NARS Survival Kit 1

June 23rd, 2016 by Karen 15 Comments

“I need makeup to survive!” she exhaled, placing the back of her left hand against her forehead melodramatically and tipping her head.

OK…so maybe eyeshadow, blush, gloss and mascara aren’t as important to your day-to-day survival as, you know, food and water, but they’re handy to have around! — especially when they come in chic limited edition packaging like they do in the new NARS Survival Kit 1.

The new limited edition set will cost $59 when it arrives in the Promised Land, also known as Nordstrom stores and the Nordstrom website, July 1st with a compact containing two powder eyeshadows and two powder blushes, a mini lipgloss and a mini mascara.

NARS Survival Kit 1

Naiade Eyeshadow
Audacious Mascara
Kalahari II Eyeshadow
Off Limits Blush
Mata Hari Blush
Party Girl Lip Gloss

I’d like to make a shout-out to Kalahari II, one of the eyeshadows in this kit. It’s a glistening taupe-plum, and I think it’s one of those “Ya gotta have it!” pieces from NARS. I’ve been wearing it for years (it’s also in the permanent collection). It lasts all day long and looks amaze-balls with bronze eyeshadow and/or liner.

nars survival kit 1 swatches — NARS Survival Kit 1 swatches

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The $325 NARS Cult Survival Kit: 11 Full-Sized Classics to Survive Work Days, Date Nights and the Zombie Apocalypse

June 22nd, 2016 by Karen 27 Comments

nars cult survival kitnars cult survival kit — The new limited edition $325 (yes, that’s the price) NARS Cult Survival Kit

Oh, NARS… You totally feel me dawg. I like how your new splurge-arific Cult Survival Kit, despite costing $325, doesn’t actually contain anything one might expect to find in a real life survival kit.

No water purification tablets, matches, heirloom seeds or weapons.

But you DO get full-sized versions of 11 NARS products.

Granted, would you really be carrying a fancy white lacquered box filled with makeup goodies into the sunset while roving gangs or zombies were chasing you? Probably not…although I might, because that’s how I roll. 🙂

Should the world fall apart, I’d like to wear a little gloss — just a little — until the zombies eat my brains.

nars cult survival kit — Everything comes in this sturdy white lacquered box

This kit is $325 bones, dude! But before you wave your hand and say, “Oh, hell no, girl,” check it: everything in it is full sized, and they’re all NARS cult classics handpicked by the man, the myth, the legend himself, François Nars.

Even at $325 for this kit, you are saving a little money, because if you were to purchase each of these items separately, it would cost you $361, so not only do you score $36 in savings, you also get a chic keepsake box.

nars cult survival kit open — What’s inside?

OK, so what have we got up in this mix? To start, two blushes — matte red Exhibit A and golden peach Orgasm (yes…Orgasm).

nars cult survival kit orgasm exhibit a — Blushes in Orgasm (left) and Exhibit A (right)

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