I’m always on the search for the next neutral palette to fawn over and through my various avenues on the internet I fell at the feet of Nars and their beautiful collection of eyeshadows. So when I finally got my mitts on 4 duos I was all flustered and excited and couldn’t wait to experience all Nars had to offer.
On first inspection, the palettes are beautiful and the colours are as subtle and pretty as I had imagined they would be. I had to resist swatching these for a full evening so I could get proper shots of them in sunlight in all their perfection so by the time the morning rolled around I couldn’t wait to try these out and see how they felt and looked.
But that’s kinda where I realised Nars weren’t quite what I was expecting. I’m used to Urban Decay which make some of the softest shadows out there on the market today so the texture of Nars was a surprise. They’re quite hard and sheer so you have to work to build the colour up. I don’t mind this as I like the option of having the eyeshadow sheer but it’s something to keep in mind if you’re considering your first purchase.
Bellissima has a cream shadow with tiny glitter throughout and a matte brown shade. Now the brown shade is soft as butter and lovely to use, but the cream shade is harder and out of all the eyeshadows, is the most difficult to get good payoff from. On the lid it’s very subtle and under lights has a tiny sparkle. The cream shade is a nice day time shade but for €35 for two eyeshadows, I couldn’t help but feel there’s a long list of cheaper alternatives that would achieve the same look. I do like it, but I just feel the cream shade isn’t the best you could choose. However I’m using the brown shade with all the others so that’s worth noting too.
All About Eve has a light gold and a light peach pink shade but on the lid the two look quite similar which I was a bit disappointed by. They do create a nice day time eye that looks fresh and I’ve worn this look quite a few times since I got it. Again, under night time lights, the shadows come to life a bit more and look a little more sparkly.
Kalahari is better as the shadows are a little darker. There is one bronze gold shade and a bronze purple. I liked these two shades and their sheer quality mean they can easily be worn during the day or smoked up for night time. These look very pretty on the eye.
Finally, after trying out these three I nipped into Brown Thomas and ended up buying Brousse, knowing now that the darker shadows were a bit better for pigmentation. These look very dark in the pan but again have the typical sheer Nars quality so they’re very wearable. I love these two and this and Kalahari are my definite favourites although I’m alternating between the four.
So the verdict? At the start I was dissapointed but after becoming accustomed to the nature of Nars shadows, I’m actually quite liking their sheer quality. I’d definitely recommend that you check them out, I’d just advise you swatch the shades so you know what you’re getting into before you buy!
Nars can be purchased from ASOS online or from Nars stands nationwide for €31.69 online or slightly more expensive instore.
