In celebration of its 20th Anniversary, NARS has designed an incredible collection of lipsticks that pay tribute to its beginnings with the launch of The Audacious
Lipstick Collection. This is a 40-shade collection of lipsticks all encased in a sleek modern matte-black magnetic case. Each lipstick is embossed with the NARS logo. There is a diverse range of color options from nudes, reds, pinks, orange, plums and vampy shades. 10 of the forty shades are exclusive to NARS Boutiques, narscosmetics.com and Barneys New York ($32 each). The shades launched early at Barneys and I went to the Barneys New York counter in Beverly Hills last weekend to have my makeup done at one of their events and meet their Lead Makeup Stylist Janice Daoud (Twitter @NARSJanice). The RaeViewer also stopped by for a quick hello (sneak peek of her picks on Instagram @raeview).
I have seven of the neutral shades to share with you. NARS kindly sent two peachy shades for review in Julie and Juliette. While at Barneys, I picked up an additional five in Barbara, Raquel, Vanessa, Anita and Brigette. Seeing all 40 shades at once was overwhelming. Each shade looked so incredibly gorgeous. The texture is really rich and smooth with full coverage. They all appear to be creams (no shimmer) although after wiping them off, I did notice some shimmer remnants on my hand. I wasn’t able to tell which one it came from, I suspect some have a tiny bit of iridescence but on the lips they act like a true cream.
There is no detectable added fragrance from what I can tell. The colors have intense pigment and you can get full coverage with one swipe although I prefer two. All the shades, including the nudes, cover the lip entirely. There’s really no need for liner although it does help to even out the edges and make your lipstick stay on longer.
What I liked most about the nudes and neutrals I picked was that there is no tweaking required. You don’t need to add liner, gloss, or any other lipstick to correct the color and make them work. The artists I worked with at the counter did like to layer the shades together, but I personally find they all work well by themselves.
Some of the neutrals are very similar to each other. There are slight differences in undertone which is great since some look better in warm neutrals while others look better with cooler tones.
The lipsticks have a slightly natural sheen to them which reflect in swatches:
Based on my testing, Vanessa and Anita are very close in color, Vanessa is slightly deeper in color. Julie and Brigette are also close with Brigette being deeper in color. I was really impressed with how naturally flattering the neutrals were. Normally there are at least one or two nudes that end up washing out my complexion. I’m very pleased to report that all of these worked really well for my pigmented lips and medium/olive skin tone (I use the Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer in Groenland and Radiant Cream Foundation in Punjab). I’ll have lip swatches uploaded shortly in a separate post.
