Enchanted is a sheer, soft peach with soft golden shimmer and a slight sheen. I’d like to put an emphasis on sheer, though, because I could not get it to show up on my cheeks, being around medium in skin tone (I’d say I’m on the lighter side of medium, but I’m certainly not fair). I did try to build up the color on my cheeks, but it just wasn’t working for me. On my skin tone, it ended up being more like a barely-there highlighter, unfortunately!
I can see this being really lovely and soft on fairer skin tones, and I think it would work well on both cool and warm skin tones. Cool skin tones will find this works as a soft peach that doesn’t turn orange, while warmer skin tones are easily complemented by peachy colors.
The formula itself is soft, creamy enough to melt into skin but not so creamy that it slips around. It dries down quickly and blends easily onto skin. I find that NARS Cream Blushes last me three to four hours before fading a bit. I like using them as bases and using a setting powder or powder blush on top to set and prolong wear to about six to eight hours.
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Product: 25/30
Value: 8/10
Ease of Use: 4/5
Packaging: 4/5
Recommendation: If you’re looking for a way to prolong the wear of your blushes, you may find these cream blushes work well alone or as a base for your powder blushes.
NARS Eye Liner Pencil($20.00) is a richly pigmented pencil eyeliner that is available in sixteen shades: Black Moon (dense black), Iceberg (crisp white), Kaliste (teal), Kitty (turquoise blue), Kyoto (olive green with shimmer), London (foggy gray), Mambo (chocolate brown), Manon (violet), Parrot Cay (mint green), Patmos (khaki green), Istanbul (sky blue), and Sandstorm (gold leaf).
I test-drove five shades over the past week, and NARS has some really stunning shades available. They’re just so rich and intense without being bright. Though the pencil tip is a little on the sharper side when you initially get them, after doing swatches on my arm, it whittled away enough that it was soft, smooth, and easy to use on my lower lash line.
It’s not ultra creamy but not dry either. I wouldn’t describe it as creamy so much as smooth. It easily glided on my lower lash line without any pulling or tugging, so that’s enough softness for me. I also didn’t have to layer in order to achieve true pigmentation, either. Sometimes with pencils, the initial use can be a little rougher, but since I always swatch on my arm first, it helps to wear down the tip, in case it’s too sharp.
Manon is a blue-based violet purple. There’s no shimmer, just pure purple.
Parrot Cay is a minty green. I’m surprised it doesn’t look super chalky, being so pastel, but it’s an interesting way to open up eyes with color rather than a white or flesh-toned eyeliner.
Kitty is a rich sky blue. This one felt and looked the creamiest of the five I tried. It also felt like the most pigmented–very rich.
Kaliste is a darkened teal–I want to call it a forest teal, because it’s so dark–and it looks lovely with a neutral eye.
Black Moon is a blackened brown. I’m not sure why it’s described as a “dense black,” because it’s definitely not black–there are significant brown tones to it.
But there is one huge problem that renders these eyeliners amongst the worst I have ever used: they have no lasting power at all. I can’t even express to you how much I wanted these to work, because they are truly beautiful shades, and they do look amazing on–but I can’t even go twenty minutes without it starting to smudge and migrate all over the place. I don’t have an oily lash line, and I’ve never had major issues with an eyeliner going all over the place. But these took smudging and migration to a whole new level.
After just one hour…
After an hour of wear, I had liner that was on my lower lash line… on my upper lash line (say WHAT?!), all faded and smudged every which way on my lower lash line, crept up to my waterline… it was not a pretty sight in the least bit, but I couldn’t resist capturing just how smudge-tastic these were on camera.
But anyway, the point is I loved the shade range and the feel of these pencils so much that I tried every single liner multiple times. They all performed the same. I was secretly wishing and hoping that maybe just Black Moon or Kaliste were poor performers, but even the lighter shades like Parrot Cay and Kitty played me for a fool. Not to mention, when I was checking for reviews of these online, I just did not find that many negative reviews.
So, I have these, and I do really love the shades. After I get over being totally laughed at by these pencils, I’ll probably use them, but set them with an eye sealer (like Benefit’s She-Laq or Make Up For Ever’s Eye Seal) and/or set with powder eyeshadow. But this is NARS we’re talking about, and even worse yet is it’s supposed to be a long-wearing pencil.
I give it points for being incredibly pigmented, smooth, and looking lovely on, but I took away the majority of points for its complete miss on long-wearing power and how extreme the fading, smudging, and migration is. I would really love to hear from those who have used this product, because I’m totally sad over their performance after reading so many glowing reviews online!
Have you tried NARS Eyeliner? I hope your results were better than mine!
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Product: 15/30
Value: 8/10
Ease of Use: 4/5
Packaging: 4/5
Recommendation: Unless you’re able to try these first in-store, I really can’t recommend them. I had such a terrible experience with them fading, smudging, and migrating that there’s no way I could feel good about saying, “Try ‘em for yourself!” There seems to be plenty of positive reviews on these, so maybe I’m the rare exception. But how I wish I wasn’t!
NARS Versailles Nail Polish ($16.00 for 0.5 fl. oz.) is a softened yellow gold with champagne shimmer woven through. It has a slightly metallic look to it. It’s very spring-into-summer–the softness of the gold makes it like a gilded yellow, perfect for spring, but it has the shimmer and sheen that makes it great for summer, too. The formula runs a little thick, but it applies easily and goes opaque in two coats. I like that this is a gold that can be worn by cooler and warmer skin tones–it’s not a true yellow gold, so it should still complement those with pinker undertones!
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Product: 27/30
Value: 8/10
Ease of Use: 4/5
Packaging: 4/5
Recommendation: For softened champagne-gold with pretty shimmer and a subtle, metallic look, Versailles may be the right shade for you.
The NARS Summer 2010 Campaign was created and photographed by NARS Founder and Creative Director François Nars. Once again, François turned to his dear friend Amber Valletta and transformed her, drawing inspiration from longtime muse Catherine Deneuve’s portrayal of Sèverine in the movie Belle de Jour.
François began by applying NARS Makeup Primer to Amber’s face, followed by NARS Fiji Sheer Matte Foundation. For a fresh finish he set it with NARS Eden Loose Powder. NARS Orgasm Illuminator was applied to her cheeks, forehead and center of the chin to give her skin a subtle radiance.
For a natural flush, François started with NARS Enchanted Cream Blush on the cheeks, followed with NARS Orgasm Blush blended toward the temples to further highlight the complexion.
On her eyes, he applied the iridescent ocean-blue shade of NARS Burn It Blue Duo Cream Eyeshadow to the eyelid, blending upwards toward the base of the brow bone. Next, François swept the left side of NARS Pandora Duo Eyeshadow across the lid, and brushed the rich teal shade of NARS Cleo Duo Eyeshadow into the crease. Eyebrows were defined with NARS Blondie Single Eyeshadow, using the NARS Brow Shader.
He lined the eyes with NARS Mambo Eyeliner Pencil followed by NARS Nuits Blanches Eyeliner Stylo creating a full lash line. NARS Larger Than Life Lengthening Mascara finished the look.
Lastly, he prepared the lips with NARS Angélique Pure Sheer SPF Lip Treatment and topped them off with NARS Love Devotion Lipstick.
NARS D. Gorgeous Eyeshadow ($23.00 for 0.07 oz.) is a new single eyeshadow from NARS’ Spring Collection. It’s a light lilac with a matte finish, and it really looks absolutely stunning in its pan–it’s this lovely pale color against matte black packaging, but the product doesn’t come through on quality.
D. Gorgeous is a chalky matte with very sheer, light color. It’s an almost gray-lilac when swatched, but it has this dusty, chalky look to it that’s not very flattering. It’s also incredible sheer and powdery–the minute I dipped my brush in it, it was like, poof! The only good thing I can say about the texture is at least it isn’t a hard-to-swatch matte that just looks like it drags. D. Gorgeous is smooth and soft to the touch, it’s just much chalkier than other NARS’ eyeshadows.
By the way, NARS also raised the price on their single eyeshadows (from $22 to $23). You’re always better off purchasing a NARS eyeshadow duo over a single, because the price per ounce in singles makes it more expensive than MAC, Smashbox, and Make Up For Ever.
It’s really too bad that this went so powdery on me, because it seemed like such a nice shade for spring. It’s not the worst matte I’ve tried, but with the dustiness and lack of pigmentation, it’s not the best, either. Considering its NARS, I expect pigmentation to never be a problem!
If you want to know more about how products are evaluated, read out Rating System FAQ!
Product: 21/30
Value: 8/10
Ease of Use: 4/5
Packaging: 4/5
Recommendation: Pass and opt for an eyeshadow duo!
NARS Belize Lip Gloss ($24.00 for 0.28 oz.) is a milky pink with subtle gold and copper-red sparkle. It almost has a plum feeling to it, but it goes on more milky pink on my lips. It’s a surprisingly opaque lip gloss, particularly for NARS, since most are on the sheerer side. It has a smooth, creamy consistency and applies evenly into lips without settling too much into lip lines. Mine was scent-free, though some NARS lip glosses have a more chemical/plastic-y scent, which is unpleasant if you’re more sensitive to scent!
Is this the right spring gloss for you? Would you wear it?
The Spring Season is a series of posts featuring my favorite soft beige, coral, and pink lipsticks and lipglosses — all perfect for the first blossom of spring — that runs through March 2010.
