As with many many other beauty bloggers / makeup lovers, I was thrilled and excited when Nars released the NARSissist Eye Palette. I was overjoyed when it arrived at my door on my birthday in the beginning of this month from the U.S. What great timing!
When I first saw images of the palette, I was in love with all the colours. It seemed like it was a great mix of mostly cool and neutral colours (which I'm a little more partial to), and a few warm shades. I thought it was really right up my alley. I have been enjoying the last palette I purchased from Nars which was the Fairy's Kiss Palette and liked the small pan sizes. Plus, I didn't already own many of the shades in the palette. I thought why not!
I personally don't own a huge collection of eye shadow palettes that have more than four shades because I don't need them for personal use. While it may be great for travel to give you plenty of options while on holiday or whatever, I tend to bring a fairly restricted selection (to travel light) and only bring makeup that I know I will use and trust will work for me no matter what. So just the reliable goods! The NARSissist Eye Palette is the biggest eye palette I own with 15 shades, after the Urban Decay Naked Palettes which contain 12 shades.
Colours
The NARSissist Eye Palette contain many of the brand's signature shades - each eye shadow being 0.003 oz / 1 g.
Top row (L - R):
All About Eve I (flesh toned neutrals)
Madrague II (matte caramel)
Fez (velvety cocoa)
Bali (neutral)
Coconut Grove (deep brown infused with reflections)
Second row (L - R):
Madrague I (matte cream)
Nepal (soft sheer rose)
Ashes to Ashes (shimmery violet based brown)
Brousse II (black violet)
Mekong (espresso infused with gold)
Third row (L - R):
Bellissima I (shimmering beige with subtle glitter)
Bellissima I (shimmering beige with subtle glitter)
Lhasa (lavender grey)
Bad Behavior (deep pewter)
Dogon II (charcoal black)
Pandora II (matte black)
Swatches
Applied on olive tanned skin (~NC35) and photographed indoors under artificial lighting using a strobe. I swatched them using a dry, clean finger (no primer used on the skin).
Above: top row of eye shadows in the palette from right to left.
Above: second row of eye shadows in the palette from right to left.
Above: third row of eye shadows in the palette from right to left.
Pigmentation, Texture & Application
Fez has the best colour pay off and smooth even application. Madrague I was a close second being very buttery, soft and smooth, but did kick up a bit of powder during application.
Next in line would be Mekong - having the best pigmentation of the darkest shades in the palette, but was a little uneven. All About Eve I, Nepal, Bad Behaviour and Belissima I had good pigmentation.
Madrague II was a tad dry, but would make a great all over the lid base for me as it's the closest to my current summer tan skin tone. It had medium to buildable pigmentation. Ashes to Ashes was OK. Lhasa was OK. Compared to the single eye shadow (which is my favourite Nars eye shadow), it fell a little short in sheen in the finish and was just slightly less pigmented.
Brousse II also has an OK pigmentation, but was a bit dry and applied unevenly.
The rest of the darkest shades had very disappointing colour pay off, but would serve fine as an eye liner. It was very difficult to blend these out - they were patchy and uneven! : (
With the exception of Fez and Madrague I, I found the rest to be difficult to work with. I found it best to pack colour on using a natural, thicker/coarser haired eye brush like ones with goat hair. However, the problem is that they are quite powdery and there was significant fall-out. So it's best to apply these eye shadows first before foundation/base to clean up any areas around the eyes and cheeks. If you use an eye brush with natural, fine/soft hairs (I often like to use my Suqqu brush or blue-squirrel haired Hakuhodo brush for example as they are soft and gentler on the eye area) you will be forever trying to build the pigment! When layered together, they all appear quite muddy after blending. Although, in the pan all the colours looked quite distinct from each other, their texture was quite soft and dry that they didn't adhere to the skin well enough and would sheer out too much - their distinct colours lost. Note, this was all tested without using an eye primer. I suspect it would work a bit better, but most of the time I personally don't have enough time to apply this additional step to my regular regime.
Availability & RRP
Limited edition. This palette has been available on the Nars website and Nordstrom since January - I purchased mine from the Nars website as Nordstrom online had sold out. It was US$79. You can also find it at Sephora. For Aussies, it's now available (official release was February 23) and exclusive to Mecca Maxima stores and online. The RRP here is a whopping AU$115! O_O
Overall
I am a little disappointed with the quality of the eye shadows, especially for the price. My only relief is that I did not pay the ridiculous Australian retail price for it. It's such a shame, because the colours in the pan look so beautiful. It just didn't translate during application. If you are a Nars eye shadow fan and/or palette addict then you might check this out in store and decide if it works for you and worth forking out that much money for it. However, for me personally, I would rather have spent that much money on a Tom Ford Eye Color Quad, which although only has four eye shadows, it has 10 g. of product compared to the Narsissist Palette at 15 g, and I know the Tom Ford eye shadows are all excellent quality. If I wanted a much more affordable alternative, I would prefer something like Inglot eye shadows and select however many ones I liked into one of their customisable Freedom Palette. Inglot eye shadows have excellent pigmentation, apply and blend well in comparison also. Anyway, I don't normally like to post about a product I'm not that excited about, but thought I'd share my point of view given the enormous interest in this Nars limited edition.
Hope this was informative.
Thanks for visiting! ^_^ xo
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Let me know what you think of this product - is it worth the hype and price?
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