NARS Tzarine Duo Eyeshadow Review & Swatches
Tzarine
NARS Tzarine Duo Eyeshadow (2018) ($35.00 for 0.08 oz.) is a new, permanent duo featuring a soft, shimmery yellow beige and a muted bluish-gray. It’s not my favorite duo–both shades were more medium in coverage and drier/dustier in texture, so they really had to be used over an eyeshadow primer to just make it to workable territory.
Tzarine
PPermanent. $35.00.
Tzarine I
Tzarine I is a soft, yellowy beige with warmer, orange undertones and a pearly sheen. It had semi-opaque pigmentation with a soft, blendable texture that was on the dustier side, so it performed better over eyeshadow primer for those who want medium or greater coverage that doesn’t sheer out when blended out. It lasted well for seven and a half hours on me.
FURTHER READING: Formula Overview for details on general performance and characteristics (like scent).
Top Dupes
- Anastasia Base (LE, $12.00) is lighter, cooler (95% similar).
- Sephora Alabaster (PiP, ) is lighter, warmer (95% similar).
- Wet 'n' Wild Hooked on Vinyl #2 (PiP, ) is more shimmery, lighter (90% similar).
- Dior Shimmer Beige (PiP, ) is more shimmery, lighter (90% similar).
- Marc Jacobs Beauty She Was (PiP, ) is lighter, cooler (90% similar).
- Wet 'n' Wild Mythicool Creatures #2 (LE, ) is lighter, warmer (90% similar).
- Inglot J335 Pearl (LE, $10.00) is less shimmery, lighter (90% similar).
- Persona Kind (PiP, ) is less shimmery (90% similar).
- MAC Femme-Fi (LE, $17.00) is more shimmery, lighter, cooler (90% similar).
- Marc Jacobs Beauty Lights On (LE, ) is more shimmery, lighter (90% similar).
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.
Tzarine I
PiPPermanent in Palette. $19.00.
Tzarine II
Tzarine II is a muted, medium-dark gray with subtle, cool undertones and a satin shen. The texture was drier and dustier, which resulted in semi-sheer to medium coverage that did not apply as evenly as I would have liked. It also sheered out when blended out, so I had to be very careful with it on bare skin (a primer would help). It wore well for seven hours on me before fading noticeably.
FURTHER READING: Formula Overview for details on general performance and characteristics (like scent).
Top Dupes
- Viseart Cool Matte #8 (PiP, ) is more shimmery, darker, cooler (90% similar).
- Natasha Denona Anthrazit (06P) (PiP, $29.00) is more shimmery, darker, warmer (90% similar).
- MAC Well Past Midnight (LE, $17.00) is more shimmery, darker (90% similar).
- Dior Volcanic #4 (LE, ) is less shimmery, darker (85% similar).
- Dior Golden Snow #5 (LE, ) is more shimmery, darker (85% similar).
- KVD Beauty Dios (LE, ) is cooler (85% similar).
- ColourPop Feather (LE, $6.00) is more shimmery, darker, cooler (85% similar).
- Too Faced Chimney (LE, $16.00) is darker, cooler (85% similar).
- Buxom Graphite Glam (LE, $12.00) is more shimmery, warmer (85% similar).
- MAC Lapisluxe #3 (LE, ) is more shimmery, darker, more pigmented (85% similar).
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.
I so like these 2 shades and so was really hoping that this version of Tzarine would be better than the previous one. Alas, no….
I love this color combo. I could actually see liking this with the peach on the lid and the gray softly in the crease. Pricey for such a low impact look though.
As if Thessalonique wasn’t ruined enough by their reformulation….Nars brings us this hopelessly putrid, weak performing duo. This looks like it came from .99 Only Store instead of a semi-Lux brand.
I don’t like the colour combination in this duo – the beige shade is far too beige and would be almost invisible on an eyelid. And the grey shade could have been lovely if it were of better quality. Disappointing NARS.
I like this color combo. Too bad they didn’t get the gray shade right.
That’s a wonderful grey (in theory, with the teal shimmer); such a shame it didn’t work out (unless primer would help, in which case … nice duo!).