This month there will be nine nail polishes released for the 3.1 Phillip Lim for NARS Collection ($20 each for 0.5 fl oz/15 ml) – available July 15 on narscosmetics.com. I have three shades to share today in Crossroads (a deep purple cream), Other Side (chocolate cherry perfection) and Insidious (a metallic blackened bronze khaki). You can see all the shades on Vampy Varnish.
All the colors come with removable caps. The brushes are wide and slightly rounded at the tips but I found them to be on the larger side making it a bit hard for me to apply on my small fingers. It was still manageable but I had to do a lot of cleaning up with remover and Q-tips after application. I had to play around with various base and top coats. The new formula of the NARS nail polishes did not perform well with my usual Deborah Lippmann Rehydrating Base Coat (the polish didn’t glide over it) and Chanel Top Coat (it didn’t want to cover the polish smoothly). After testing with several of my go-to’s I found these worked best with Sephora Formula X Base and Top Coat.
The shimmer color applied well with just one coat. The creams I tested looked streaky with the first coat but evened out with the second for full smooth coverage.
Crossroads is a dark violet cream. It looks lovely on the hands but the texture of this one was a bit hard for me to work with. It bled easily making a mess of the cuticles. This one was really difficult to remove although it didn’t stain the nails. If you’re patient with this one, I think it’s worth the extra work it takes to apply.
Other Side is the perfect chocolate cream with a hint of red. It applied unevenly with the first coat but smoothed out with a second. It’s a dark almost vampy color but there is enough brown to prevent it from looking too dark.
Insidious is a metallic blackened khaki. It’s dark but not too dark. The shimmers make it glow in the sunlight. This shade will be exclusive to NARS boutiques and narscosmetics.com.
Comparisons to Tom Ford Bitter Bitch
Chanel Vamp
Chanel Diabolic (discontinued)
Dior Ultra Violet (discontinued)
Chanel Vendetta (discontinued)
I’m in love with NARS Other Side and Insidious as a close second. The colors are rich in pigment and with two coats you get full coverage. I did find application a bit hard because the brush is on the larger side. The formula has a medium liquid texture, not thin but not thick. I wore Cross Roads on the nails for 5 days before taking it off to test another color. By Day 5 I had a bit of tip wear on the index finger and thumbs but the rest were fine.
The nine shades will be available online at Narscosmetics.com July 15th and all other NARS locations starting August 1.
This review contains press samples sent by NARS for review consideration. For more information refer to my Disclosures.
