If there’s anything in makeup that excites me, it’s every new collection from NARS Cosmetics. Although I review so many different, worthy brands, one of my top, personal favorites, is NARS. The new Spring 2012 Color Collection, and a nifty new Makeup Removing Water, are available now.
Spring 2012 is bringing color, color and more color, from your head to your toes. Spring makeup cannot be wimpy to coordinate with the bold brights from the runway: oranges, yellows, acid greens, electric blues, and so forth. Nars Spring Color Collection offers women who love color and great makeup a variety of options from bold and rich shades, to shockingly bright, to some more demure colors and pastels. I tried just one of the lipsticks called “Bilbao” and a Nail Polish called ‘Diamond Life,” but the focus seems to be on the eyes, with Trio Eyeshadows ($45.00) and Duo Eyeshadows ($33.00) featuring coordinating colors primarily in metallics, shimmers and perles, but micro-fine, highly pigmented powder that can be worn wet or dry. They’re long wear and crease resistant. There is also a new, Soft Touch Eye Shadow Pencil ($24.00) in “Dark Rite” which is navy blue.
There’s a bubblegum-tinted blush ($27.00), appropriate called “Gaiety” that looks to be blendable and mostly matte. NARS blushes including their iconic (“Orgasm”) are truly beloved by women who know makeup, for their ability to impart a pretty flush, without looking obviously so.
NARS Lipsticks have always delivered great, trendy color, and luxurious formulas that last without fading or running into those tiny little lines that can appear on your upper lip. For Spring 2012, “Bilbao” gives a nice relief from bold reds and purples. It gives you the trendy nude lip look. NARS describes it as a “shimmering topaz” but there’s very little shimmer, and it’s a nude with enough intensity so that while it’s flesh colored and neutralizes a lot of the pink in your lips, it won’t completely cancel them out. The formula applies silky-smooth, and it has conditioners and antioxidants to help hydrate, nourish and protect lips. Other lip products in the Spring 2012 collection includes a hot pink Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil ($24.00) lip pencil called “Mexican Rose,” and a Pure Matte Lipstick ($25.00) in a rich raspberry called “Valparaiso” that is long wear and comes in a slimline case. This lipstick features wild mango butter to keep lips from drying out, and antioxidantVitamin E and açai oil.
There is also a new and gorgeous Shimmer Nail Polish ($17.00) in a stunning plum metallic called “Diamond Life.” The color looks almost like a pastel in the bottle, but it gives nails a medium plum tint with a lot of shimmer. The polish has UV protection to prevent polish discoloration and an advanced polymer system to make it more durable and chip resistant. There is also no Toluene, formaldehyde or DBP in these nail polishes. You don’t always get what you pay for, but you always pay for what you get. This polish is pricey, but it lasts and looks beautiful. It’s jewelry for your nails and well worth the price. The trendy plum color will get you through all four seasons, even if the bottle is finished before the end of 2012!
…and when it’s time to remove all those gorgeous colors, not just any cleanser of makeup remover will do! NARS has a new and very good product called Makeup Removing Water ($28.006.7 fl. oz.) . It’s a soap-free, oil-free, and alcohol-free water that removes face makeup and tones the skin. It gently, yet thoroughly sweeps makeup away without rubbing while soothing botanical ingredients hydrate and add radiance. It is also non-comedogenic; dermatologist-tested and ophthalmologist-tested. I’m not a fan of makeup removers. They’re usually oily, or they sting my eyes, or they don’t really remove the greasier and longer-wearing colors, so I’m left smeared and looking like Bette Davis in “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane” until I scrub and rub and fine some other product to take off the rest of what’s left on my face. But this new NARS product actually feels like water, it’s so light and pleasant. But one swipe of this with a cotton pad removed every bit of mascara, eye liner, lipstick and foundation that I could throw at it, and did it without causing my skin any additional distress. It’s so clean you can add moisturizer, sun block and/or foundation right afterwards. Now that’s, magical! The simple plastic bottle with black cap could only be improved by adding a flip top or a pump to it, so someone could dispense the precious liquid with one handed operation. You can live without this product, but you won’t want to.
All of these amazing NARS goodies are now available on the NARS Web Sit: www.narscosmetics.com and at NARS makeup counters. Invest in NARS colors and products and you’ll feel confident and beautiful all the time.
