NARS Kalahari Duo Eyeshadow Review & Swatches

1 of 6
NARS Kalahari Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
A Copper & Purple Look | Look Details
A Copper & Purple Look | Look Details
A Copper & Purple Look | Look Details
A Copper & Purple Look | Look Details
NARS Kalahari Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
A Copper & Purple Look | Look Details
A Copper & Purple Look | Look Details

Kalahari

NARS Kalahari Duo Eyeshadow (2018) ($35.00 for 0.08 oz.) includes a warm, golden taupe and a soft, rosy brown. The two shades can work well together, but the quality of both made the duo a miss for me–too dusty, which led to sheerer coverage, a drier look on my lids, and sub-par longevity.

1 of 2
NARS Kalahari I Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari I Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari I Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari I Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari I Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari I Eyeshadow (2018)

Kalahari I

Kalahari I is a medium, golden taupe with strong, warm undertones and a frosted finish. The pigmentation was opaque, but the consistency was drier and dustier, which resulted in some of the coverage getting lost when I started to blend the eyeshadow on my lid. There was slight fallout while I worked with it, and it did not “melt” onto my lid like a lot of the other shimmery shades from the brand have. It wore well for seven hours on me.

FURTHER READING: Formula Overview for details on general performance and characteristics (like scent).

Formula Overview

$19.00/0.04 oz. - $475.00 Per Ounce

The formula is supposed to have "rich, high-impact color" that is "lightweight" and has "increased blendability." Like most larger ranges, there are winners and losers, and some of how they perform can be related to the type of finish. The mattes are soft, slightly dusty in the pans (or not at all) with medium to opaque, often buildable, color coverage. The satin and metallics tend to be smoother, more blendable, and more pigmented with less effort; NARS does the these lower shimmer finishes particularly well, which just looks "melted" on the skin as they lay down so smoothly and have a great shine.

Most shades applied better on my lid than swatched on my arm, which has been something seen across NARS' eyeshadows for years and didn't change with the recent update to their powder eyeshadow formula. On average, they lasted between seven and nine hours on me without primer. They did apply well over primer and stayed on well for 14 hours with minimal fading.

Worth noting: the updated formula and packaging resulted in a product decrease from 0.07 oz. per pan to 0.04 oz. The single eyeshadows received a more noticeable price drop (from $24 to $19) but the duo eyeshadows could be priced better (from $36 to $35).

Browse all of our NARS Eyeshadow (2018) swatches.

1 of 2
NARS Kalahari II Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari II Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari II Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari II Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari II Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Kalahari II Eyeshadow (2018)

Kalahari II

Kalahari II is a soft brown with warm, rosy undertones and a satin finish. It had opaque color payoff that applied somewhat evenly in a single layer, but the texture was drier and thinner, so it had a tendency to sheer out and get “eaten” by my lids as I tried to diffuse the edges. It stayed on well for six and a half hours before fading noticeably.

FURTHER READING: Formula Overview for details on general performance and characteristics (like scent).

Formula Overview

$19.00/0.04 oz. - $475.00 Per Ounce

The formula is supposed to have "rich, high-impact color" that is "lightweight" and has "increased blendability." Like most larger ranges, there are winners and losers, and some of how they perform can be related to the type of finish. The mattes are soft, slightly dusty in the pans (or not at all) with medium to opaque, often buildable, color coverage. The satin and metallics tend to be smoother, more blendable, and more pigmented with less effort; NARS does the these lower shimmer finishes particularly well, which just looks "melted" on the skin as they lay down so smoothly and have a great shine.

Most shades applied better on my lid than swatched on my arm, which has been something seen across NARS' eyeshadows for years and didn't change with the recent update to their powder eyeshadow formula. On average, they lasted between seven and nine hours on me without primer. They did apply well over primer and stayed on well for 14 hours with minimal fading.

Worth noting: the updated formula and packaging resulted in a product decrease from 0.07 oz. per pan to 0.04 oz. The single eyeshadows received a more noticeable price drop (from $24 to $19) but the duo eyeshadows could be priced better (from $36 to $35).

Browse all of our NARS Eyeshadow (2018) swatches.

6 Comments

Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!

Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).

We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!

Comments on this post are closed.
Mariella Avatar

I LOVE Kalahari….love, love, love! I was almost distressed when I saw Sephora getting rid of it as it’s one of the few shadows I am coming close to hitting pan on. So I will be happy to get another. I find that the left side, applied over something like Lise Watier Chic Glam shadow pencil or the Sephora jumbo shadow pencils or even UDPP in Sin gives the most amazing results. I don’t know if you reviewed the original or how it rated but, honestly, I like it so much and I’m willing to go to that extra bit of trouble to get it to work well for me.

Mimi Avatar

I’d be really curious to know how the old formula Kalahari compares to this new one. (I think the old one didn’t get a review from years ago, unless my search skillz are failing me!) Color-wise, it’s one of the really OG and popular NARS duos and it’s super pretty and versatile. Throw it on and I get instant compliments! ^_^;

Elizabeth Avatar

I love the old formula of the NARS Kalahari duo, and it is one of my favorites. Mine doesn’t seem so dusty, and they wear well for me with a little UDPP. I hope all of the newly formulated eye shadows are as good as the originals that worked well for me. I have plenty of NARS, so I don’t see myself buying up all of the new formulations. I also don’t like the fact that they are no longer CF. I probably won’t be buying any NARS anymore due to that as well as having too much I only use occasionally.

We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!