Eyeshadow

By Mariella 6 years ago.

I've owned the Habanera duo for years. I'm pretty sure it was the first Nars eyeshadow duo I ever purchased. The left side (#1) is a watery, dreamy silvery aqua shade - very cool and watery looking and a colour I especially love wearing in the heat of summer because of its cool, reflective finish. While it seems a unique shade (and is, in many ways), two virtually identical dupes for it are UD's Money (LE but it's been in a few palettes, so you might already have it if you own either Mariposa or BOS 3) and Nars Parallax (from the Hardwired grouping which might be LE). This isn't a neutral or "natural" looking shade but it really is lovely when the weather is hot and steamy and you want a look for your eyes that isn't dull or warm looking and you can hardly bear to put much on your face.

By Mariella 9 years ago.

I've already reviewed the full duo but I also wanted to do a review of this shade on its own to let others know that this is a perfect dupe for Urban Decay Mauie Wowie eye shadow. I have MW in both the BOS3 and in its new formula that was released as a single. I bought the 2nd one because the first was basically unwearable because the non-stop fall out from the rough glitter was simply uncontrollable - you could tap your brush til the cows came home; you could press rather than brush it on....it didn't matter what I tried - there would always be fallout throughout the day. So I bought the new formula, having heard it was better. It was somewhat better but still not an easy shadow to wear. In the Kauai duo, however, you get all the golden glow and gorgeousness of MW but without any fallout at all. How wonderful is THAT?

By Mariella 10 years ago.

While the left hand side of Cordura is a let-down for me and a struggle to use in a flattering way, the right hand/darker side is gorgeousness. A deep, dark, almost black brown with golden flecks, it is stunning. It does have fallout, though, especially if you really load up your brush (which is tempting to do if you want to get a really heavy deposit of colour when using this in place of liner or to enhance your upper lashes by smudging it into your lash line.

By Mariella 10 years ago.

This is such a difficult colour for me to wear. It's a coppery shade but, unlike similar type shades like Urban Decay Half Baked (which is similar), it just does not look nice and I have to cast around for other shades to pair it with (oddly enough, MAC Smoke&Diamonds seems to make it look more flattering). After stalling for months because every time I looked at this duo, I would put it back on the shelf, I bought the Cordura duo because it was so highly rated everywhere and I figured it would be great. I should have followed my initial instinct, though. I do love the darker side - it's gorgeous - and on someone with a warmer and deeper skin tone than mine, this side of the duo would probably also be amazingly flattering.

By Mariella 10 years ago.

This is one of my favourite shadows to wear for just about any occasion and it makes for a terrific, easy "one shadow" look. I didn't think I needed this and figured I had dupes for it but I didn't and it is a truly unique and very flattering shade.