NARS Night Series Eyeshadow Palette Review, Photos, Swatches
NARS Night Series Eyeshadow Palette
Quick Review: NARS Night Series Eyeshadow Palette
NARS Night Series Eyeshadow Palette ($55.00 for 0.31 oz.) was a limited edition eyeshadow palette that included six of the Night series eyeshadows: Night Star (sheer peach shadow with pearls), Night Clubbing (black with pearls), Night Porter (black with green pearls), Night Rider (soft plum with glitter), Night Flight (black with cobalt pearls), and Night Breed (black with glitter).
- Night Star is a subtly, warm-toned light peach with a mostly matte finish. It actually had more pigment than you’d expect for something described as sheer.
- Night Clubbing is a dark black with brow undertones and a very fine dusting of bronzy micro-shimmer that’s really not visible on the lid.
- Night Porter is a darkened forest green with a metallic sheen. This shade had the best color payoff and texture of the six shades.
- Night Rider is a pinky-mauve with massive, chunky shards of glitter. This might be the largest glitter size I’ve ever come across in an eyeshadow. It’s horrible–it doesn’t sit on the lid well at all, as it just falls out immediately.
- Night Flight is a blue-tinged black with very fine navy blue shimmer that all but disappears on the lid. The underlying black shadow is very dry and chalky.
- Night Breed is a dark black with silver sparkle. Again, the sparkle doesn’t translate well, though it’s more apparent than the other shades here. The single is softer and more pigmented than the version in the palette.
Generally, I didn’t like this palette.  The Night series is hit-or-miss, and the shades can be very redundant, as they tend to look more differentiated in the pan than on.  With mostly blackened bases, they tend to look black on and the colored pearl/sparkle disappears or isn’t visible.  Night Rider is a monstrosity of an eyeshadow; the chunky glitter doesn’t stick at all but doesn’t even look flattering on the eye, should you manage to get a few bits to stay on long enough to look!  Night Clubbing, Night Flight, and Night Breed had drier, firmer textures that made blending difficult.
You can find the palette are third-party retailers, like Amazon and Izzy’s, but I didn’t spy it available at regular retailers (like NARS, Nordstrom, etc.). All of the eyeshadows, however, are available individually from NARS at $23 a pop.
** A Note on Quick Reviews: In an effort to be more on-the-ball for 2013, I’m digging through my photo folders and getting as much posted as I can. These are not full-length, in-depth reviews, and instead, I’m writing brief reviews. For dupes, I highly suggest checking out The Swatch Gallery; it’s my first stop whenever I am looking for possible dupes. All of the swatches in this post are automatically added to the gallery, so you can compare them for yourself.
NARS Night Series Eyeshadow Palette Review, Photos, Swatches
NARS Night Series Eyeshadow Palette
NARS Night Series Eyeshadow Palette
NARS Night Series Eyeshadow Palette
NARS Night Series Eyeshadow Palette
NARS Night Series Eyeshadow Palette
NARS Night Series Eyeshadow Palette
NARS Night Star Eyeshadow
NARS Night Clubbing Eyeshadow
NARS Night Porter Eyeshadow
NARS Night Rider Eyeshadow
NARS Night Flight Eyeshadow
NARS Night Breed Eyeshadow
What a shame. The shadows are so pretty in the palette.
I’ve always loved the look of Nars’s “Night” series of shadows but have assiduously avoided them because of the glitter fall-out issues, which are pretty well-known. Heck, if I want a mess o’glitter all over my cheeks, I’ve enough UD shadows to achieve that look! (g)
Yikes. For $55, that is just BAD.
On a more positive note, I’m loving all these posts now with the addition of these quick reviews!
I don’t understand why these companies (especially MAC) don’t test the products before getting to the stage of mass production. I’m fairly certain that consumers don’t want to spend a lot of money on something with little pay off.
MAC gets reviewed badly, but when I go look at it it’s great, and I buy. It may be that it isn’t to Christines taste, but is to mine, or more likely, from the reviews substance she gets early samples often, a test batch that’s been sitting or wasn’t Quite There. What I buy at the counter is just fine, none of the problems described. I have bigger issues with too much LE and mediocre sales people.
What is up with NARS? They’re churning out expensive misses lately.
This isn’t a new palette. I think it came out about 2 years ago? I know that the individual shades came out in 2009, if not earlier. Christine even has swatches of Night Porter from that time.
I’m talking about the Andy Warhol collection eyeshadow palettes.
No, no, of course. The Warhol collection was a bomb of epic proportions. No question. It was simply ghastly! I was responding to your “lately” comment, and merely pointing out that this was a much *earlier* bomb. LOL!
The Warhol Collection was an epic fail in terms of eyeshadow, but I think the other products were decent to great. I also haven’t seen the Nordstrom sets IRL, but there was only one shadow duo & one trio, and they were only available in sets (the colors didn’t interest me, so I didn’t go out of my way to check them out). Either way, it was only one collection that didn’t turn out well, and since it was the most recent, I’m going to reserve judgement until the next one and put them into the continuously subpar category.
Last year – Arabian Nights! Glitter fall out of epic, black snowfall proportions. I’m sure it worked well for some people, but I prefer the MAC Style Black shadows as this type of look goes. They stay where they’re supposed to, with some UDPP.
NARS has had some big bombs, the Debbie Harry Pallet being the sourest. All us girls sliding screaming into middle age were stoked for that! It was Our Time! And the pallet was horrible.
Style Black was a great collection (in fact, it actually got me to reconsider MAC after a major disappointment some 10 years prior), but I just feel like they’re different. These are my favorite types of eyeshadows, and I’m also quite fond of the UD Black Palette. I actually have the Arabian Nights trio as well, and while the black shade is as bad as MAC Black Tied, the red & purple are wondeful. I just pat them on over UDPP, and I’m good to go.
The Debbie Harry palette was part of the Warhol debacle, and I can’t imagine anyone was more disappointed in the collection as I was, but unless the Spring 2013 collection proves to be a fail, I’m willing to look past it.
oh wow. night porter is beautiful!
I would never buy this palette but I wanted to say that I absolutely *love* Night Porter. The green is just beautiful, imo, especially when mixed with purples and a touch of UD’s Loaded. I also like Night Flight, the navy blue/black one, but it absolutely requires some work. More importantly, it really needs a sticky base to bring out the colour and “dabbing” it on, instead of swiping. On me, it looks nothing like your swatch. At all. (I swear, I’m not just being biased!) I like to mix it with the L’Oreal Infallible in navy blue (forget the actual name) and a touch of UD’s Mary Jane. The L’Oreal is one of the best dark blues I’ve seen.
That said, I would never buy this full palette. The Night Series is too iffy and bad as a general, across the board, sum-total proposition. And that Night Rider pinky-mauve swatch may be the most terrible, terrifying swatch I’ve seen this entire year. Absolutely horrific!
L’Oreal Midnight Blue. <3 So close to my heart. Now that you've made me think about it, I'm going to have to pull it out for tomorrow!
I think I'm going to have to check out Night Porter and Flight since you keep singing their praises. Despite their misses, NARS remains one of my favorite brands, and every time these shades pop up, I sigh a little inside. I don't wear green too often, but I could make an exception for Porter. 😀
Oh, I hope you definitely give Night Porter a test, at the very least. It’s a lovely, lovely eyeshadow and very easy to use. Night Flight isn’t as effortless to use but I really add the dimension that it adds. It absolutely looks sparkly navy/black on me, but I use a sticky base, I dab it on *AND* I use it wet. For all of these, I absolutely agree with others said about how they are best used wet.
Back to the Night Porter (which is my favorite of the two), if greens aren’t your usual thing, perhaps if combined with some sort of antique gold, a bronzy gold, or ambery brown? It’s such a dark, rich forest green, I think it’s more versatile than some other shades of the colour and I’m sure you have something in your stash that it will highlight or pick up perfectly. But definitely try to use it wet, if you can! *muah* hon. 🙂
Night Porter with L’Oreal Golden Emerald is really pretty, too. I’m on the fairer side, and although I like a dark eye, sometimes it’s not quite the most “appropriate” look, LOL. However, with NP as an accent, an GE the “dominant” shade, it lends itself to a much softer look.
As for Night Flight, I have it as a single, and although it is a bit on the drier side, it’s not too bad. I have to try it with Midnight Blue, now…
I can’t speak to the palette itself, but I have all of these except Night Rider as singles, and I love them all. I use them with UDPP, and I use flat shadow brush, without any issues. As with *any* glittery shadow, “blending out” really isn’t an option, but I haven’t found one yet that can be. The only one that is even the slightest bit finicky is Night Breed, but it’s still *alot* better than MAC Black Tied.
Looks awful! Thanks for the FYI. Its so easy to see you could barely swatch Night Rider. Hasselhoff and KIT would be so disappointed LOL
Oh gosh–Night Rider really is TERRIBLE! It’s times like these when I always wonder what the HECK they were thinking (this happens often with Nars products and it always seems to involve glitter/shimmer)
wow, I’d be really disappointed if I purchased this palette and got those results from the shadows. so not nice.
wow, this is so gorgeous in the palette, but such a disappointment in swatches :[
I have the Night Flight in single pan form, and it mine is waaaaay more blue and sparkly than that swatch. I like the look of Night Porter, too, so might check that out in single. I definitely agree this series has hits and some definite (Night Ride, I MEAN YOU HERE) misses.
I’ve always had issues with NARS glitter eyeshadow. I forget the name of the one I had, baby girl maybe? It was pink with glitter. It sucked. I threw it out after three attempts at wearing it. I’m really disappointed in NARS lately.
I’ve always found the Night series shadows baffling. Night Porter is one of my all-time favourites and remains my go-to dark green for a smoky eye. I love the texture on Night Clubbing and, although the shimmer isn’t super-obvious, it shows as a rich, warm black that catches the light. Night Star is a good lid shade for me. Every other shade in the series seems not just bad, but terrible. I know that there must be some people who love these, because they stay in the Nars line-up, but I can’t figure out why…
Night Porter looks AMAZING! If only it came in a single shadow.
Nevermind, just realized it is available individually! I might have to compare this one next to Urban Decay’s Bender and see if it’s worth buying.
Night Porter is *definitely* worth a look, and it’s the best of the Night Series shadows. Again, I don’t have it in a palette, but as a single, and I find it to be very smooth and not all that “glittery”. HTH
Night Porter is by far my favorite of the series.
This is an old pallet, isn’t it? I bought this from Sephora (I think?) years ago, and it went straight back. The colors weren’t chalky, but the fall out from glitter was a huge mess! Arabian Nights was like that too. Seriously, I think it’s discontinued. NARS sells off old warehouse stock and it winds up on Ebay, and Amazon is doing an Ebay type seller thing. But nobodies missing much with this pallet. He’s done better stuff.
“Huge chunky shards”! lol! Perfectly put, I find that particular NARS signature to be pretty scary. Baby Girl is a frightening looking NARS shadow, same Huge Chunky Shards thing. It’s Mylar, and in good sticky primer it should wear well, but why bother?
I can get better glittery shadows. I have better glittery shadows. NARS does well what it does well, and Night Series and glitter isn’t it.
I seriously don’t know what they’re thinking using such large glitter or mylar – goodness, it was horrific. Get that in your eye and ow!
*Every* shadow will benefit with a good primer, and an extra 5 seconds in my makeup routine isn’t a “bother”. I have 6 of the Night Series shadows, along with Arabian Nights, Fathom, & Mekong, and once they’re on, I have no issues with *any* of them.
This palette works wonderfully if colors are used wet (colors will look “more” different one from the other) or over a black cream base. As for the glitter in night Rider, yes it’s big, but I find it works nicely if patted onto the lid by itself or over another color.
I’m very happy about this palette, it’s one of my favorite and it’s awesome for smokey looks!
These shades are much better used wet. They look completely different.
Night Porter looks kind of pretty but jeez the other shadows look awful.
I have to agree about these. I have the Arabian Nights palette which is similar in texture to the Night Breed and I loathe them. The are a patchy nightmare mess.
I love most of NARS Night series e/s and polishes. I ordered this from Sephora last year. What a mess, a nightmare and overall a HUGE disappointment. I bought this for travel and have used it maybe 3xs. I know I should have sent it back to Sephora but I was hoping I could somehow make it work.
hey christine!would u say night porter would make a good eyeliner? (maybe spritz the brush with a little water?) thanks 🙂
It could work! I’d say you’re better off buying a dark green eyeliner 🙂