NARS is among the first to launch their fall beauty collection for 2015. The collection has a mix of bronze and smokey colors for eyes and neutral gloss for lips with a nude shimmer blush. Everything is quite stunning. For the lips NARS relaunched two lipgloss shades in Baby Doll and Chelsea Girls. They now come in wand form without the plastic scent that the potted glosses had (yay!). A couple older formulas/colors for the eyes have been relaunched in the Velvet
Shadow Stick form including Hollywoodland, Goddess and Aigle Noir. My picks include:
Shadow Stick form including Hollywoodland, Goddess and Aigle Noir. My picks include:
- Tribulation Blush ($30) is a pale shimmering pink sand champagne
- Pasiphae Dual Intensity Eyeshadow ($29) is a duo-chrome shimmering olive peacock brown
- Telesto Dual Intensity Eyeshadow ($29) is a brown gold shimmer
- Hollywoodland Velvet Shadow Stick ($28) is a shimmering pale gold
- Goddess Velvet Shadow Stick ($28) is a shimmering pink champagne
- Oaxaca Velvet Shadow Stick ($28) is a muted mauve taupe satin shimmer
- Chelsea Girls Lip Gloss ($26) is a sheer pink peach beige
- Baby Doll Lip Gloss ($26) is a frosted cool pink with silver and pink shimmers
Here are swatches of my fall picks side by side:
Baby Doll and Chelsea Girls Lipglosses are both stunning colors. In pot form Babydoll was always a favorite although I hated the taste/scent. The wand form is taste and scent-free. I don’t have the original to compare but from what I remember the pot version was deeper in color on me. The wand form is quite shimmery. With my slight tan this is very cool-toned on me which works but I think it looks better with a neutral lipliner mixed in. Chelsea Girls is a creamy peach pink beige. On the hands it fills in the tiny crevices so I was worried it would emphasize lip lines. I was relieved to find that once on the lips it does not sink into the lip lines and goes on smoothly. It is semi-sheer so my natural lip shows through.
Swatch comparisons to:
- Marc Jacobs Enamored Hi-Shine Lip Lacquers in Sugar Sugar and Pretty Thing – reviewed
- Surratt Beauty Lip Lustre Charmante, Au Naturelle, Soigne – Soigne swatched here
- NARS Lip Gloss Sweet Dreams, Ophelia and Risky Business – reviewed here
Dual Intensity Eyeshadows in Telesto and Pasiphae are the winners in the collection. I’m a huge fan of the Dual Intensity Eyeshadows and the two new colors for fall are exceptionally pretty. They look pretty wet or dry, alone or layered together.
Swatch comparisons to:
- NARS Single Eyeshadow in Malacca
- Chanel Les 4 Ombres Eyeshadow in Tisse Venitien – review here
- NARS Dual Intensity Eyeshadow in Himalia – review here
- Charlotte Tilbury Color Chameleon in Amber Haze – reviewed here
- By Terry Ombre Blackstar in Bronze Moon – review here
- Chanel Stylo Eyeshadow in Caroube – swatched here
Velvet Shadow Sticks in Hollywoodland, Goddess and Oaxaca are shimmery. They have a satiny feel that dries relatively quickly so you need to blend fast once they are on the lids. I prefer to have a slightly creamy base (like a tiny bit of foundation or eye cream) underneath these to help them blend on my eyes better. The pigment is medium to full and the colors are easy to build. They aren’t the most unique shades though so you may want to shop your stash if you want to avoid duplicates.
Swatch comparisons below to:
- Burberry Wet & Dry Glow Eyeshadows in Gold Pearl and Shell – review here
- Laura Mercier Caviar Stick in Rose Gold
- Armani Eye Tints in 12 and 10 – review here
- Charlotte Tilbury Chameleon Color in Dark Pearl
- Nudestix Magnetic Eye Color in Twilight – reviewed here
Tribulation Blush was a surprise for me. When I saw it, I thought it would be frosted and chalky on my cheeks as a blush. On deeper skintones I suspect it will be more like a highlighter. On super fair skin this one might not show up. On medium-tan skin this has the perfect mix of nude and gold to look like a natural glow on the cheeks. It’s an odd color for a blush in my opinion but it works. I like it alone even though it doesn’t add much color. It also works nicely layered on top of neutral blushes to soften the entire look.
Here are a few swatch comparisons next to Charlotte Tilbury Norman Parkinson Highlighter in Dreamy Glow (review soon), Becca x Jaclyn Hill Highlighter in Champagne Pop, Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Luminous Light.
There’s a lot to love with the fall collection. I’m completely in love with both Dual Intensity Eyeshadows, Tribulation Blush and the Baby Doll and Chelsea Girl Lip Glosses. Based on how similar some of the Velvet Shadow Sticks are to other cream shadows I think I could have skipped them but I spotted them in store at my Sephora and couldn’t resist. They are classic neutrals that will go with everything so I know I will get frequent use out of them – they do last longer than the Laura Mercier Caviar Sticks but since the NARS does dry faster they aren’t quite as easy to work with.
The NARS Fall 2015 Collection is available now at NARS Boutiques and narscosmetics.com. It will launch at all other retailers starting August 1st at Sephora, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Barney’s New York, Bloomingdale’s and Saks Fifth Avenue.
Some of the items featured were press samples including Telesto, Tribulation, Chelsea Girls and Baby Doll. Other items purchased by me include the Velvet Shadow Sticks and Pasiphae.
