I have a confession to make: nail polish was not my first addiction. Long before I became obsessed with nail polish, I was obsessed with make-up: blushes, lipsticks, eye shadow palettes…everything! I quickly discovered that NARS had my absolute favorite blush formula so I started stocking up. As much as I love the product inside, I abhor the packaging. At first I quite liked it because it’s black and sleek and has a nice rubberized finish. After time, the rubberized coating starts to break down and it becomes sticky and gross. I HATE IT. With NARS blushes setting you back $30 a pop now, I find it really unacceptable. I was quite excited when I saw that NARS was offering an empty palette so I jumped on it and paid $18 for the large palette. I’m sure that you can find about a bagillion tutorials online to depot shadows, but I am a dunce and knew I would have problems. Let me show you how it went. Continue reading “NARS Blushes Depotting”
Tag: NARS
The Beauty Buffs – Neon Everything
To be honest, I had seen Jade Nail Lacquer many times, but I never paid much attention to them because they are super cheap–like $1 each. I should know better than to judge polish solely on price since I have some amazeballs Sinful Colors that perform better than $30 polishes. Anyway, these colors are, from left to right: Jade Hot Pink – Jade Mysterious Pleasure – Jade No Non-sense.
I wish my pictures showed how electric these colors are in real life. Most of the time my camera does a decent job with neons, but it just would not cooperate with these colors. This mani is just a little funky and I liked wearing it. The formula on these polishes was pretty nice. They did need 3 coats to be completely opaque but that’s not a big shocker considering they are full on neons. For $1 each, they are a steal.
Then I decided to pull out my two super favorite bright pink cosmetics…
Nars Desire is like bright cotton candy. You can’t imagine how easy it is to end up looking clownish if you go a little too heavy with this blush–but it’s gorgeous!!
And my favorite lipstick of the moment: Illamasqua Eurydice. It’s electric so I always wear very neutral make up except for the lips because otherwise I’ll look like a drag queen–not that there’s anything wrong with that, but that’s not the best work look. Actually, this is NOT a work lipstick. hahaha
And here are some swatches of those two products. I told you they were super bright!
The Lacquer Ring – Orange
Who would have thought that orange would become my mortal enemy in the span of one day? I remember how excited I was when Tangerine Tango was the Pantone Color of the Year, and I reveled in wearing every single orange polish that Summer and was in love with all of them. Today–not so much. For our very first “official” post, Nicole chose the color Orange and little did I know that this would become the day I officially swore off orange…at least until the next awesome orange polish comes around because we all know what that is like. Before I tell you all about my fails and flails, let me show you the mani I ended up choosing at the least hideous of the bunch.
This is NARS Ethno Run Left–a yellow orange that is super bright and squishy looking. I quite like this color, but it’s a beotch to photograph.
I then had to sparkle it up so I applied one coat of Shimmer Polish Alice to really make the polish shine. I love this glitter so much!
And because I can never leave well enough alone, I used Bourjois Grenadine Tonic to make a jelly sandwich. The bright red orange tint of this polish intensified the orange base color so I kind of liked the end result. It’s super bright, and I can tell you that it looks fantastic out in sunlight.
Now for the ones that didn’t quite make it…the first two are swatches so it’s not like there is anything wrong with them, it’s what happened to them after they were swatched that became the problem.
Bettina Orange
Jessica Sun-kissed Beauty
As I said, the previous two polishes were nice enough, but this is where things started going downhill…very quickly.
Fail #1 was this sloppy and gross water marble. Seriously. It’s disgusting and you can’t even imagine how long it took me do create this monstrosity. I hate it so hard.
Fail #2 was even more difficult to deal with because it took even longer to create than the sloppy water marble. I don’t know what I was thinking, but this looks disgusting too. My nail mojo was off today. Big time. After those two fugly bombs, I was ready to give up…
Puck knows how I was feeling for sure. I am just glad that I was able to put something together that didn’t make me want to stab my eyes out with a glass nail file. The next challenge will be cherry blossoms which I know is going to destroy me since I suck at freehand designs. I kind of hate Nicole right now…lol (I kid! I kid!) Make sure that you check out the other orange inspired looks from the other ladies. Thanks so much for stopping by today and checking in with The Lacquer Ring! I’ll talk to you soon.
Loading InLinkz ...NARS Pierre Hardy Duo – Ethno Run
Woo hoo Friday! Oh, wait…I work tomorrow. Womp womp! I’m hoping that at least it won’t be too busy tomorrow, but knowing my luck, I’ll probably be slammed with work. If that’s the case, at least the day will go by a lot faster. I’ve been so incredibly tired lately, and I have no idea why. I’ve been trying to go to sleep a lot earlier, but I don’t always succeed because I start working on blog posts or reading other blogs and before I know it, it’s 10:00 pm and I’m fucked. It really sucks having to wake up at 3:30 every morning, but I think I’m finally barely starting to get used to it after 4 months. It’s funny what your body and mind can start to get used to after months of torture.
Anyway, today I have the NARS Pierre Hardy Duo – Ethno Run which consists of an orange polish and a navy blue polish. When I was trying to decide what duo to purchase, this is the one that Daniel picked for me when we were celebrating “his birthday.” Let’s look at my new NARS babies.
This orange shade is called Ethno Run Left. It is a very pigmented color, but it applied a little streaky at first. I recommend making sure that the first coat is dry before you apply the second coat because you can cause some polish dragging. This is a nice orange polish but not as saturated as some of my other favorite orange polishes since this is a yellow-leaning orange. It dries very shiny and glossy–so pretty!
Ethno Run Right is the other shade in this duo. Damn it’s dark and sultry! I did not notice that my application was a little uneven until I downloaded the pictures–you can see some lighter areas where the color of the polish really shines through. It’s such a glossy beauty that I can imagine this looking amazing in the Fall. I applied two thin coats here, but I think 2 thick coats would have been better. Sorry about the weird changing skin tone: every time I photograph a super dark polish, my camera makes my skin look a lot lighter than it actually is and I try not to mess with color correction so I leave it as is.
So what do you think about this pretty duo? I picked mine up at Sephora where they retail for $29 which is kind of a steal when you realize that each NARS polish will set you back $19 so you’re actually SAVING money. See how well I delude myself? Anyway, I hope you have a great weekend–have fun and be safe. Talk to you soon!
NARS Blushes
If you think that my only obsession is nail polish, you’ve got another thing coming. When I first started getting interested in high end make up a couple of years ago, I was hesitant to pay luxury prices for brands like Chanel, Clé de Peau, Guerlain, Dior…etc. I found my happy medium at Sephora with NARS, MUFE, Benefit, Too Faced and Urban Decay. NARS quickly became my favorite brand for two products: lip gloss and blush. I have about 16 of their blushes so it was hard to really cut it down to my absolute favorites so I could share them with you. There are two images of each blush: the first one in direct sunlight and the second in the shade.
Taos – Warm desert rose
Desire – Delicate bright pink
Deep Throat – Flirty, sheer peach
Exhibit A – Matte vivid red
Taj Mahal – Blazing burnt orange with golden shimmer
Dolce Vita – Matte dusty rose
Albatross – Luminous glow for highlighting
Taos, Desire and Deep Throat
Exhibit A, Taj Mahal, Dolce Vita and Albatross
If you’re familiar with NARS, you may notice that I left out their most iconic product: Orgasm. Orgasm was the first blush I purchased and I do like it, but I wouldn’t call it one of my favorites. These blushes are incredibly pigmented and finely milled so you have to use a light hand unless you’re purposely trying to look like a clown. I still use these blushes regularly, but I prefer some of my Benefit blushes–especially Bella Bamba.
NARS products can be purchased at many places like Sephora and narscosmetics.com, so you shouldn’t have any problems finding them if you want to try them out. They retail for $28.
Do you own any NARS blushes? Do you have a favorite? What are some of your favorite make-up brands?
NARS Lipstick Review
NARS was the first higher-end make-up brand that I fell in love with. Once I tried their Orgasm blush, I was hooked. Their lipsticks do not disappoint. They have a wide range of colors and come in three finishes: sheer, satin and semi-matte. I personally don’t notice much of a taste or scent to these lipsticks but I have heard some people say that they have a waxy scent and taste. The only finish that has a decent wear time is semi-matte. The sheer and satin finishes wear off almost immediately.
Many will find the NARS packaging very classy and expensive looking. Indeed it is both those things but it also collects dust, make-up or anything else like crazy so it is very hard to keep them looking clean. I love the rubberized finish of their packaging but after a while, as all longtime NARS owners will attest to, the packaging seems to start breaking down. The finish starts to peel off at the edges and then it just looks gross. I am NOT happy with that considering their prices.
Belle de Jour
Dolce Vita
Fast Ride
Fire Down Below
Funny Face
Hot Voodoo
Little Darling
Petit Monstre
Pigalle
Señorita
Tanganyka
I don’t like all of these colors. Some of them look kinda hideous on me. Yes, I’m looking at you Belle de Jour. No matter how much I wear this one, I am never going to be Catherine Deneuve. That is a good example of a lipstick that I would mix with another lipstick, lip gloss or lip pencil. Funny Face is my favorite bold color of the bunch. Unfortunately, I recently read that Funny Face landed on a list of lipsticks with high levels of lead! Dolce Vita was the first NARS lipstick I ever bought and I still say it is the most versatile lipstick that I own. It’s just gorgeous and looks so natural on anyone. There is also a Dolce Vita lip gloss and blush…but more on those another time. These lipsticks retails for $24 each and can be purchased at many places so you won’t have any problem finding them if you’re interested. I purchase mine at Sephora and Narscosmetics.com
So which color do you like best? Do you own any NARS lipsticks?
Purple Konadicure
Can you tell I love purple?
