Saturday 26 July 2014

NARS NARSissist Eyeshadow Palette

We are all guilty of coveting one beauty brand over another. My high school friends were Mac obsessed, Scouse Bird sent Liverpool absolutely crazy over Illamasqua but, for me? It's always been NARS. When I was looking for a palette to replace my old Bobbi Brown faithful, I decided to take a look and was delighted to find NARSissist in stock on John Lewis. Two minutes, one quick decision and £55 later, I'd made the order.


This is quite a varied palette, ranging from soft neutrals through roses and purple to deep browns and navys. It's probably not the type of palette I would actually normally pick, but I was swayed by the classic black packaging and I could afford to step out of my comfort zone. The mix of colours makes for a classic but versatile palette, the kind you might pack away on trips to create more than one look. Plus, with a Nars Eyeshadow Trio setting you back £33, it seems fair value for money that you get 15 slightly smaller shadows for less than twice the price.


(l-r, top) All About Eve I, Madrague II, Fez, Bali, Coconut Grove
(l-r, middle) Madrague I, Nepal, Ashes to Ashes, Brousse II, Mekong
(l-r, bottom) Bellissima I, Lhasa, Bad Behaviour, Dogon II, Pandora II
All shades with an I/II are only available as duos, as far as I'm aware, and the number corresponds to which shade in the duo it can be found.

If I would have ordered this palette on it's own, it would have been brilliant, however I also received a palette from another brand (to be reviews later this week) with some shadows that really pulled punches in terms of colour payoff, whereas some of these shadows simply fell short in comparison. It's not that the colours aren't pleasant, but the lighter, shimmery shades in particular take quite a lot of building up (most notably, Bellissima I and Madrague II, although both do look lovely after some building up) and some of the more standard colours just weren't as good as I might have expected, (Pandora II particularly, I expected to be a matte black and came up short with a less than opaque appearance.) 


(Left, T-B) All About Eve I, Madrague II, Fez, Bali, Coconut Grove
(Middle, T-B) Madrague II, Nepal, Ashes to Ashes, Brousse II, Bellissima I
(Bottom, T-B) Mekong, Lhasa, Bad Behaviour, Dogon II, Pandora II

All in all I would say the palette is worth is. For me, personally, the colours that I will use and am happy with far outbalance those I found some technical issues with and the palette definitely comes out cheaper that trying to buy each of the shades I liked seperately, I think I just expected a little more from NARS.

Have you tried Narsissist? What are your favourite NARS shades?

S xo.

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