Controversial as they may be, Nars makeup really is some of the best. This month sees the Spring 2018 offering from Francoise Nars’ eponymous brand land on Australian shores and it’s very, very impressive. This season sees the brand hone in on shimmering skin finishes- nudes designed to highlight the complexion and hits of motel metal to attract and refract the light.
From creamy lip colours to glistening cheek dressings, here’s my unbiased opinion on Nars’ Spring 2018 colour collection.
Spring 2018 brings with it two new cheek palettes- Coucher de Soleil and Rêve Salé. They’re both marketed as highlighting palettes, with Coucher de Soleil the darker of the two, however as my skin is far to medium I’m able to wear the deeper two shades of the Coucher de Soleil palette as blushes with a shimmering finish. Rêve Salé contains a light gold, a pearlescent-pink and a rosy copper, while Coucher de Soleil is more suitable for highlighting Mediterranean to deep complexions, containing a medium gold, deep rose and rich plum. All six shades wore well on my skin and the pigmentation was very impressive- Nars are known for their cheek colours so this fell in line with the quality of their permanent collection complexion products. I’ve only tried them dry as I’ve honestly only realised they can be used wet as I look at them on my desk while writing this, however I found the consistency of the Rêve Salé shades to be creamier than their Coucher de Soleil. Both impressive nonetheless.
Four new Highlighting Powders landed on my desk this month in the shape of Fort de France, a champagne, Maldives, a rose copper, Ibiza, a true antique gold and St. Barths, a bronze. St. Barths is ideal for deeper complexions- I’m able to wear this as a highlighter when I have a serious tan, but I actually love it on the centre of the cheek as more of a shimmering bronzer on my skin. These powders are SO blendable, it’s as though they’re doing the work for you. I didn’t find any one shade to perform better than the others, nor did I find one to be a weak link.
Following the success of Liquid Orgasm last year, this season sees a new liquid blush added to the Nars arsenal. Hot Tin Roof is a Brick Red (the website describes it as being shimmery but I don’t find it wears like a shimmer on my skin) and much like liquid Orgasm a little really does go a long way (I find half a pump is enough for both cheeks, although I find this to be the case with almost all liquid blushes). Wears well all day/night, feels weightless and I actually find it fine to apply over powders (which is normally a no-no).
Nars Highlighting Blush in Free Soul, a limited edition light pink colour for Spring ’18, is so creamy you’ll almost think it is a cream blush rather than a powder. Shimmering blushes used to intimidate me as I felt they exaggerated any imperfections, however the shimmer in this is so subtle it wears as more of a dew.
Two new shades of Velvet Shadow Sticks have arrived with the new season, one of which I have tried. Galice is a bright, shimmering pewter and the formula is foolproof- I like to just scribble these onto the eyelid then blend out using my fingers. It wears well on its own (I rarely use an eye primer unless I’m doing a dark smokey eye) and it also serves well as a cream base for other shadows. I’ve also tried two of the four new Lip Covers– Summer Fire, a pink mauve, and Hell Gate, a rich cherry. These liquid lipsticks are opaque with a creamy, velvet finish and they feel really comfortable on the lips- almost unbelievably so. They actually feel moisturising on the lips which is almost unheard of as far as full-coverage liquid lip colours go. They lasted well all day and as they faded they left a slight stain behind, making the need for any touch-ups far less noticeable.
Nars’ Spring 2018 colour collection is available now via Mecca Cosmetica and Mecca Maxima.
These products have been gifted courtesy of Mecca Brands however all views are, as always, entirely my own.
