NARS Surabaya Duo Eyeshadow Review & Swatches

1 of 6
NARS Surabaya Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Surabaya Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Surabaya Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Surabaya Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Surabaya Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Surabaya Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Surabaya Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Surabaya Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
A Warm Brown Eye | Look Details
A Warm Brown Eye | Look Details
A Warm Brown Eye | Look Details
A Warm Brown Eye | Look Details
NARS Surabaya Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Surabaya Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Surabaya Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
NARS Surabaya Duo Eyeshadow (2018)
A Warm Brown Eye | Look Details
A Warm Brown Eye | Look Details

Surabaya

NARS Surabaya Duo Eyeshadow (2018) ($35.00 for 0.08 oz.) includes two warm-toned neutrals: a matte, mid-tone brown and a satiny, orange-toned brown. Both shades performed well with good pigmentation, blendability, and eight-hour wear. They also paired well together if one was looking for a two-shade look.


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

Surabaya I

Surabaya I is a medium brown with warm, golden undertones and barely-there micro-sparkle over a matte finish. It had good pigmentation that was buildable to full coverage with less than half of a layer more. The consistency was soft, velvety, and a smidgen dusty in the pan but applied evenly and blended out nicely on my skin. It wore well for eight hours on me 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.

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

Surabaya II

Surabaya II is a light-medium brown with warm, orange undertones and a satin sheen. The pigmentation was fantastic, while the texture was soft, smooth, and firm without being stiff. The eyeshadow applied well to bare skin and blended out without difficulty. It stayed on nicely for eight 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.

3 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.

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!