NARS Marie-Galante Eyeshadow Duo Review, Photos, Swatches
NARS Marie-Galante Eyeshadow Duo
NARS Marie-Galante Eyeshadow Duo
NARS Marie-Galante Eyeshadow Duo ($34.00 for 0.14 oz.) is described as an “iridescent orchid” and “regal blue.” The left shade is a pale pink lilac with a lavender iridescence. The color payoff is sheer and translucent. MAC Light Violet is a bit similar, though not as pink. Inglot #346 is also more lavender, less pink, and has a matte finish. Wet ‘n’ Wild We’re Blasting Off is similar, though perhaps a little pinker, and has more of a satin-like finish. The right shade is a darkened navy blue with a violet shimmer and sheen, which becomes more pronounced when applied (it looked less blue, more purple). The pigmentation on this is decent, but there is some sheerness in the swatch as well as when applied. Tom Ford Cobalt Rush is very, very similar–less iridescent. MAC Starless Night is much darker, deeper. MAC Imaginary is purpler.
This eyeshadow duo creased after six hours over an eyeshadow primer (NARS Smudgeproof, actually), and on top of the creasing, there was significant fading of both shades from this duo (the blue was on the upper half of the lid and in the crease while the lilac shade was blended above the crease). I have normal-to-dry lids, and NARS Smudgeproof is my go-to primer normally, and while NARS eyeshadows do, typically, have some minor creasing and/or fading when worn without a base after eight hours, the wear here was abnormal. The creasing became more apparent after eight hours, but the fading was surprisingly noticeable after six and steadily worsened as the day wore on. There was some minor fall out from the shimmer in the shades from this duo as well that occurred while it was worn (but I didn’t see any during application). The wear was just as bad without a primer–the creasing/fading just became noticeable at the four hour mark– I thought maybe the glaze-like finish would adhere better to bare lids but no dice.
The texture of this particular eyeshadow duo is unlike anything I can remember seeing from NARS. It has a very glaze-like finish, that’s almost a little wet, but still a powder. If you’re familiar with Stila’s Sparkle eyeshadows, Tom Ford’s Sparkle eyeshadows, or Urban Decay’s Stardust eyeshadows, you may have a better grasp of that kind of texture–these aren’t quite as “wet.” The closest texture would be to Tom Ford’s sparkle-finish eyeshadows. The bluer shade looks really lovely when applied–wet and shimmering–but it actually seemed to disappear as I was applying it. I went back three times to darken the color before leaving it alone. The lilac shade was pretty soft and didn’t want to build up in color at all; the iridescence in it is a lot less noticeable compared to the blue (it just looked like a pink-lilac).
I was exceptionally disappointed in the results of Marie-Galante. As far as wear went, it killed me with three major no-nos: creasing, fading, and fall out. It had issues with color payoff, too, which was really just icing on an inedible cake–like a cake that looks delicious but turns out to be made out of plastic.
NARS Marie-Galante Eyeshadow Duo Review, Photos, Swatches
NARS Marie-Galante Eyeshadow Duo
NARS Marie-Galante Eyeshadow Duo
NARS Marie-Galante Eyeshadow Duo
NARS Marie-Galante Eyeshadow Duo
NARS Marie-Galante Eyeshadow Duo
NARS Marie-Galante Eyeshadow Duo
NARS Marie-Galante Eyeshadow Duo (After 6 hours)
NARS Marie-Galante Eyeshadow Duo (After 6 hours)
Oh no, this is so sad! I was thinking this looks like a fun duo! Heh OK, money saved. It’s weird how when NARS comes up with some incredibly good eyeshadows, there is from time to time a flop like this.
Maybe it’s just me – a lot of people LOVE Tom Ford’s sparkle eyeshadows, and I dislike them for the same reasons as this duo, though TF’s is more prone to fall out than creasing and has less fading.
Yeah, this creasing thing is something you really never know. I’ve had things that DON’T crease on me creasing like crazy on others and the other way around. But still, 34 bucks are a bit too much money to shell out on something that is highly possibly not going to work! Thanks for the honesty Christine 🙂 I’m sure all your readers admire it!
Oh how awful. Such a shame, since the colours are really pretty. Boo Nars…could have made this one amazing. It really gets me thinking how company’s can put out poor preforming colours like this especially more expensive ones. I mean, it will obviously not make them any money so what possible reason could they have for putting this one on the market? Just doesn’t make sense…both from the consumers point of view and from the sellers…
What is up w/ NARS and Tom Ford, making such poorly formulated, cheap products? {sigh} Such a disappointment. Thank God, we have you Christine. I treasure your reviews.
yuck! i think if the quality were better, this would have been a dreamy duo!
What a shame this duo turned out to be. WOMPWOMP – FAIL! I pretty much always experience creasing, and I think mostly due to my eye shape, so creasing is just inevitable, but I hate poor payoff and fading! UGH.
Fall out is my nemesis. Creasing and fading, too, but if it’s after 6+ hours then it’s not as frustrating, but fall out gets me!
I think fall out gets me the worst when it just continuously falls out after application. If it’s when I’m applying, I can get past that, but when it’s still falling out after application…that’s pretty damn annoying. I expect my makeup to last 6-12 hours. I prefer to be able to wear it through the day, especially a long day, and only have to do minor touch ups.
Usually points are only taken off if it’s during wear or if it’s ridiculous during application – e.g. the glitter doesn’t bind with the powder base at ALL and so it all falls underneath the lid.
OH NO! This looked saw pretty, especially when I saw you had worn it in the review for this collection’s lip products. Well, I guess this is good. Money saved. You’re welcome wallet!
This was the *one* item in the collection I was so excited about. I can deal with fallout, fading & creasing (on a fabulous color), but the lack of pigmentation is what is putting me on the fence. I have Starless Night, and I’m sure I can find a (near) dupe for the purple. I’ll still check this out in person, but for noww I’ll probably think of another NARS duo to add to my growing collection.
Take a look at Liz on Café Makeup. She has a pretty intense orchid look and was able to build the color easily. That review and this review are so contradictory, it is hard to believe that Christine and Amy were testing the same duo. Moral of the story? Go test the product for yourself.
I’m super-disappointed about this, because the shades look incredible in the pan. I do have a particular issue with blues that look faded- for some reason they look worse or “dirtier” than other shades. That’s a personal thing though.
Not sure if you got to test them this way, but I think most Nars shadows are supposed to be usable dry or wet. Do you think applying them damp would make a big difference, or am I just grasping at lovely purple-blue straws?
I tried them wet and dry, but they were the same! The blue would go on so-so in pigmentation but kept looking faded. These were really weird to me.
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this review! I don’t normally pay a lot of attention to NARS because I’ve been disappointed in the eyeshadows I’ve tried but for some reason today I found myself lemming this duo like crazy. I am so happy I held off and saw your review! Christa xo
I don’t mind fallout, but this had such great potential….
Glad I’m not the only one that found this duo absolute garbage. This is probably one of the worst nars duos i’ve tried. I was pretty much scraping the e/s off and packing it on my lid.
Phew, Bee! I’ve only been hearing rave reviews, but it just wasn’t up to par. I’m glad *I’m* not the only one either 🙂
I’m so crushed. I’ve wanted this duo SO, SO badly, ever since I got a sneak peak about a month ago. But for your review, I would have bought it without question. Now, no way. (Thank GOD for your reviews!) Even if there weren’t all the problems that you mentioned, the pigmentation looks too sheer; no dramatic intensity or pay-off.
I’m confused about one thing: the colours on you here look totally different to the Marie-Galante colours in your photo when you swatched the lipsticks. I mean, completely different! There, I saw purple. Granted, I didn’t see your eyelid but I’m sure I saw definite purples. Here, almost everything looks grey with some blue undertones or sparkly pink with some brownish undertones. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I’m really disappointed in the product and would never have thought the colours would turn out like this.
One question, in the last 2 photos of it on your eyes, are they both after 6 hrs as noted? The fall-out in the last one looks particularly bad and worse than in the other 6 hr one.
I can’t say it enough: thank you for your reviews! I trust your judgment unequivocably, and you have guided me to good things or away from bad things time and time again.
Hey Kafka,
The photos of me wearing the lipsticks are taken about 10-15 minutes after application (probably at most 30-45 minutes) – the photos in the post are after 6 hours, where there is a fair amount of fading 🙂 The fall out is the same, but it’s how the flash picks up the glitter I think (I’m assuming, since they were all taken in the same span of time!).
Wow, that’s a serious and drastic drop-off in colour from 15 minutes to 6 hrs! HUGE difference. I can’t get over it in fact. I saw photos on another site, Cafe Makeup (which gave it an extremely good review) and it looked very purply-pink there. But nothing was said about the look or quality 6 hrs later, which is yet another reason why your reviews are the best and most thorough!
Slightly OT, so far the new collection has received only one positive review from you. 3 out of 4 is pretty sad, given NARS’ reputation! 🙁 I’ll be interested to see how the Ramatuelle Eyeshadow Trio stacks up since it’s used in several of your other photos.
The trio is better than the duo at the very least 🙂 I have to go through all my notes and write up a review tonight for it!
I was thinking the same thing. I’d been loving the duo based off the pics for the other reviews. So bummed it’s a bad product-the colors in the pan are gorge.
Im so disappointed, nars had such good quality products in the past and lately lots of other brands have improved by bringing out new and improved products.i hate to see nars being left behind.
What a disappointment! I got excited when I saw the pictures, the colors in the pan are gorgeous.
How disappointing 🙁
Would it be possible to get before photos on posts that show an “after x hours” photo?
Hi Lorena,
I didn’t take photos until after six hours, that’s why I don’t have them in this post – I usually try to remember to take photos in the beginning, but I forgot this time! SO sorry for bring such an idiot! It’s one of those things that when you forget, you can’t go back in time to fix 🙁
Wow, I was all set to buy this. I’m so glad you reviewed it. Nars is just too inconsistent lately.
How disappointing. I was looking forward to this.
This is seriously the first thing by Nars I ever looked at and was really interested in. I don’t know if it’s a good or a bad thing that it stinks–saves me money, but I really like the idea of that duo.
Maybe buy an iridescent glitter and apply on top of a blue/purple eyeshadow? MUFE Star/Diamond Powders are pretty fine, so they’re less fussy compared to regular glitter.
I probably already could dupe the lighter shade with things I own, for sure. That first pic of yours just looked so cool, the pans didn’t even match their own reflection in the compact mirror. Duochrome anything just gets me extra excited–I think that’s why my nail polish collection is the most extensive part of my cosmetics stash!
Too bad because the colors look unique and beautiful.
wow, I saw the picture and I was like, oh no… I am going to spend money on makeup again. Then I scrolled down and saw the D+! Thank you for saving me 34 dollars!
“icing on an inedible cake” hehehe, you crack me up 🙂
I saw this on another blog with a person with blonde hair and blue eyes, like myself. These colors don’t look that good on us but they are beautiful. They look so amazing on you!
Wow they are beautiful in the pans but when you put it on it looks nothing like it. What a shame.
Such beautiful colors and yet such poor pigmentation…. this makes me sad, so sad.
Wow that sucks 🙁 The colors are so pretty, I wish they wore better.
Apparently, these are inteded to wear over a creamy base, so glitter gets stuck into it. If you want living proof:
http://www.makeupzone.net/nars-mariegalante-look/
Thanks for sharing, Rosa! Her look was great! I can’t understand the text, but I am going off of NARS’ descriptions straight from their website/press release. If they intended something different for these eyeshadows compared to the rest of their line, I didn’t see it in either of those places!
You can definitely find ways to make something work better/worse 🙂 Using an eyeshadow primer, cream eyeshadow, and then the product will definitely help – just like you can use a tacky base (like MAC Mixing Medium) on any glittery product to help minimize fall out. I try to start in a place that’s factual – how NARS describes the product – and go from there. That’s why it’s important for people to read the full review and not just look at the rating – because only you can determine how much work/extra effort you want to put into it!
This blogger says that the swadows look much more like pressed glitter than an actual shadow, so in her opinion they do need a base to stick to. But in a sort of event/interview she had with Uzo, Nars creative, Uzo herself said that some of the shadows are actually intended to wear with cream underneath (I think they were talking about Daphne eyeshadow) to look exactly as they do in the pan. I could link the page but it is in Spanish so I don’t know if that would make a difference xD
I do agree with you that Nars should state in their webpage descriptions that a cream is needed to see the full potential of a certain shadow, though. As I do understand the rating. I just wanted to comment that they can look amazing with another kind of application.
I appreciate your translation tremendously, Rosa! 🙂
I really wish NARS would add that to their descriptions! I think even if they called it out on the specific shade that would work. It’s only in the past few years that I really started honing in on the rating system and finding ways to make it objective/less subjective where possible, so claims were a good way to go. When that happened, I was literally shocked at how many brands say their eyeshadows are long-wearing and crease-resistant! To which I was like, “YOU’RE KILLING ME! WHO WEARS EYESHADOW WITHOUT A BASE THESE DAYS?!” But I have learned from readers that there are a fair amount that do wear eyeshadow without a base – perhaps not an ultra elaborate/vibrant look!
Wahhh! I just want to cry because this duo is soooo lovely. I was excited for it. Thank you for saving me money!
This duo didn’t interest me from the get-go and the poor formula is a no-no. I was surprised to really like the way it looks on you though, despite the creasing. After loving the spring collection so much I’m releived to see that the only things I like for summer are the nail polish and possibly the pure matte lipstick. Possibly..
I really love this duo. It’s very good ( without a primer it lasts ! ), the only thing is that colours look intense but the result is pretty sheer on me, otherwise great !
I used it without a primer and it was creased and faded after four hours 🙁
This is a shame. Looking at the colours in the packaging they look really bright, but when applied completely different. I was going to get this product, but I think I will skip it for the Never Say Never Lip Pencil instead. The purple colour reminds me of Illamasqua Underworld lipstick.
The “After 6 Hours” picture doesn’t look too creased to me. Oh well- money saved.
well I loved the eye look! But now that you have given it a d + I will look for other dupes for this look!
I never understand.. dont they do product testing before they release it, or do they just not care if it doesnt perform well????
oh dear. D:
I almost ordered this when the new collection hit. I’ll save my money for the polishes coming out 😉 Thanks missy
Awww man, that sucks donkey. The shades looked real pretty too. What a let down.
Disappointing to hear
Sad, I was excited about this duo!
Will you be reviewing the blush?
What’s going on with their shadows? Seems like many of their shadows have been having similar issues.
Noooo! I just ordered this last night. ):
not good…
@Quinctia Did you have any particular colors in mind in terms of the lighter shade?
While it takes several attempts to deposit–and spread evenly–the pink shade, it is almost impossible to deposit the blue. Wet, it is even worse.
I am going to try it over a creamy Nars shadow I have. If it were supposed to be worn over a base, then it would be a new type of shadow, a specialized one, and that wasn’t noted. The blue is crumbly, too. I have no idea how the Spanish-speaking blogger got that much product onto her eyes!
@Suzanna I placed a strip of transparent tape over the shadows, then gently (but firmly) rubbed my index finger over the tape, removing the top layer of shadow. They seem to be working much better, but I don’t know if this is a process I will need to repeat each time. I had the same issue with one of the shadows in mu UD BoS IV (Crystal, I think), and now it works fine. HTH
@Suzanna I placed a strip of transparent tape over the shadows, then gently (but firmly) rubbed my index finger over the tape, removing the top layer of shadow. They seem to be working much better, but I don’t know if this is a process I will need to repeat each time. I had the same issue with one of the shadows in mu UD BoS IV (Crystal, I think), and now it works fine. HTH. Also, I find that if I use a flat, firm brush (even a concealer brush), I get more color, and it spreads more evenly.