nars contour blush in paloma

NARS Paloma Contour Blush

DSC_0725I’m pleased to be getting back into the habit of reviewing individual products and I’ll leave it at that. If you’ve been following me regularly around these parts, you’ll likely be aware of my favourable thoughts towards the contouring duo by NARS. I acquired the NARS Contour Blush in Paloma ($46 CDN) from Sephora via online order – as chronicled here and I’ve been using it ever since with pleasure. Obviously, my compact is looking a little worse for wear but this is what tends to happen with this style of rubberized packaging. T’is unfortunate. The “contour blush” is actually a powder duo, with much more of the contour shade to use in the 0.28 oz compact. In short, they are marketed to “create seamless, natural-looking definition with one sculpting product” and more specifically “the deeper shade enhances definition, while the lighter shade illuminates the high points of the face, providing an instant soft-focus effect without shine or shimmer” and I have to say that it achieves these claims. However, as lovely and angelic as this duo is, the price is rather hefty and the highlighting shade isn’t the ideal highlighter for me as I’m partial to shimmer on my cheekbones for that glow factor. Otherwise, it is impeccable. I have the middle shade offering and it might just be the most versatile suiting neutral-to-warm skintones of the quite fair to medium variety and it houses a bisque-hued cream shade for highlighting purposes as well as the ever-so-slightly-warm-tinged medium rosy-tan hue for contouring.

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Both shades are flawlessly formulated, with great buildable pigmentation and the easiest texture to blend in the world. They are nothing short of glorious powders, retaining an air of creaminess while being soft-matte textured powders on the skin. They don’t fade or require much work, either, and they are a natural option for sculpting on a daily basis in a subtle manner. It’s not an all-out fussy contouring duo. The contouring shade is ever-so-slightly darker than MAC Harmony and actually manages to blow it out of the water formula-wise as it provides that natural-looking shaping look to the cheeks without appearing too grey or stark. It’s also not orange-y or bronzer-like in the slightest, though, so it straddles the line of cool and warm. It’s definitely not muddy at all but has the ability to create instant cheekbones without much work or faff involved. You wouldn’t believe how versatile the shade is, either.

While I was initially a bit disappointed with the highlighting shade, it has grown on me as a finely-milled brightening shade for use setting my concealer that I use in hopes of camouflaging my hereditary dark circles as well as a matte highlighting shade that’s helpful used as a matte eyeshadow. I’m someone who is entirely too skeptical of the under-eye setting game to purchase a powder solely for that purpose but I have to admit the texture and subtle-pinky lean of the brightening powder do work nicely to smooth things out in a soft-focus way while brightening.

It appears that NARS has done it again; my recently-acquired credit card is cringing while I type this, clearly. It’s been over a month that this duo has been in my life and I’ve barely been able to do my makeup without it and I don’t want to. Obviously, I think this one is a gem and would recommend it in its $46 dollar glory… And to be helpful I thought I would provide you with a link but I do disclose that it is one of the affiliate variety because I believe in full disclosure, truth and all that.

NARS Contour Blush in Paloma

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Have you tried any of the NARS Contour Blushes?
Maggie, x.

August Favourites

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DSC_0451Ahh, I suppose the summer is now coming to an end and to be honest, I’m not particularly sad about it for two different reasons. First off, I’m beyond done with the hot summer weather and am ready for more than a little bit of cooling down and also, this summer wasn’t a great one for me and I’m ready for a change of scenery. I’m sure I’ll change my mind as soon as the stress sets in, though. This month brought a smaller selection of products than my usual but I’m definitely pleased with this bunch as a whole… This post does contain affiliate links too.

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The Bath & Body Works 3 Wick Candle in Beach Day ($10.50 on clearance – now) was my first foray into the world of Bath & Body Works scented candles and I’ve been obsessed with this light and unoffensive but potent scent. I smells like a relaxing beach day, reading on the beach and the gentle crash of waves with the light lemon and lime, saltwater and light citrusy musk scent. It’s a nice relaxing and low-key scent that lingers nicely. Plus, finding this one on sale was rather nice and it softened the blow of spending fifty dollars on candles.

Also, on the “non beauty” front, I’ve been obsessed with my Forever 21 Coffee Understands PJ Set ($15.80). This should not be a surprise because I’m one of those people who are obsessed with comfort and these fit the bill on that one and somehow seem more appropriate to be lounging around in at random hours of the day than mismatched tops and bottoms. The set is nice and lightweight which was key for the weather earlier in the month and I do adore the cheeky and true ‘nobody understands me like coffee does‘ lettering on the top and the printed shorts. I’m saying that I wore out the top portion in public but I may have been spotted leaving the house, wearing it with leggings…

Before venturing into the usual charted territory, I have two more mentionables of the more random variety. I’ve been really loving watching Suits this month and I may or may not have had a slight binge watching episode where I went through three seasons in less than 24 hours. Without paying attention, I grabbed the fifteen dollar special issue of People Style Watch and despite its purchase happening my accident, I adored the ad-free issue. I loved how it wasn’t based on actual pieces or selling of items but rather about styling outfits for everyday life. The price-tag on this one was rather hefty but it might actually have been worthwhile – it did help me with recognizing what kind of pieces I’m looking for and what is essential/extraneous.

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By the second week of the month, I had pulled out the muted neon peach MAC Lipstick in Sweet And Sour ($19) and since, I have not put it down or gone many places without it. I will admit that it’s not gorgeous when my lips are looking a bit horrific but at a certain point, I couldn’t muster the effort to care and the gorgeous colour was worth it. It’s one of those shades that adds some colour to the face but isn’t out there in the slightest. In the latter half of the month, I had gotten lazy on the lip balm front and then managed to burn my lips — ow / ew — so I wasn’t reaching for the matte formulation as much, but I also enjoyed the flattering darker peachy-nude shade, known as the MAC Lipstick Kinda Sexy ($19). Despite being a matte formulation, this lipstick manages not to dry out my lips and isn’t completely unflattering on them either — unless they are both flaking and peeling…

Around the midpoint of the month, I picked up a few things at MAC, shortly after making an order to Sephora online and there are two products that were late to the party but I fell in love with so instantly that they were begging to be mentioned. It’s been almost every day that I’ve been reaching for the creamy and jet black MAC Kohl Power Eye Pencil in Feline ($19) and I’ve been adoring it. The pencil glides on as smoothly as any one has before with almost a liquid-like appearance and can be smudged nicely until it sets, when it becomes long-wearing. Its only faults are how difficult it is to remove without an oil based remover and that it transfers from lower to upper waterlines so easily. Because of the formula, this pencil can reach small spaces that other pencils cannot and I’ve been enjoying this.

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Since receiving the NARS Contour Blush in Paloma ($46) with my Sephora shipment, I don’t think I’ve put on any makeup without going for the contour portion of this duo. It doesn’t look that amazing in the pan — it’s really a rosy tan shade — but its formula is so amazing that it provides an ‘instant cheekbones’ kind of sculpted effect without much effort at all. I’m in love.

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I wore the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette ($67) consistently this month, as I had in July but this month I was much more consistently pleased with the result. To be honest, I don’t use the golden Radiant Light powder often at all, but the other two shades were consistently gracing my face. Dim Light is a nice finishing powder that adds a bit of glow while blurring things slightly and I’ve been enjoying this as I’ve discovered not to put this on the sides of my forehead – it tends to look weird and out of place there — and Incandescent Light is a lovely subtle highlighter that simply reads as a glow on the skin that I’ve also been using to set my under-eye section. I reviewed the palette in full here, if you’re interested.

What were your standout products this August?
Maggie, x.

The Restrained Sephora Order

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On Monday morning, I woke up and upon lazily picking up my laptop from the floor and into bed with me, I figured that I would check up on the state of my Sephora order and when I found out that it was actually here in my mailbox, I was more than a little bit excited; this excitement has not faded since opening and trying these products, either. I’m not one to make online orders really at all, but when I didn’t manage to make it into the store for the 2x/3x/4x the points event, I bit the bullet and went for the promotion online. I’m pleased to report that while I was charged duty, it was a miniscule amount and that it arrived within a week of being shipped – that’s good for us Canadians. Plus, they actually managed to give me the samples and the perk that I requested as well. Let’s get on into my small assortment of goodies but be forewarned that they aren’t the most interesting of products…

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First up is the NARS Contour Blush in Paloma that I had sights set on as soon as its release into the blogosphere but had initially held off because of its price and apparent similarity to the MAC Harmony Powder Blush that I adore for contouring. There’s no way around it, the 0.28 oz duo is pricy, coming in at $42 US/ $46 CDN but I fell in love with the darker shade upon first use (and I have worn it twice), as it might not swatch amazing but as soon as its swept onto the face, there’s some magical contouring action that happens with little effort and you still look completely natural. It swatches nicely, more similar to MAC Harmony than it actually appears on the face, but applies in a much more pigmented and smooth fashion than one would expect — I think it might beat out my old favourite. While it swatches quite rosy, on my neutral-to-yellow undertones, it applies more of a muted rosy tan hue, with much more brown in it. It doesn’t appear pink on my skin at all, which I had previously thought it might do. Plus, it hadn’t faded on my face within 10 hours — brownie points, anyone? As you can likely imagine, I purchased the duo mainly for the contouring shade but the soft-matte “highlighting shade” is nice, too. It doesn’t really seem to show up on my wrist as it’s always slightly paler than the rest of my body but because of this, I feel that it can be used to set the undereyes and other areas of the face without difficulty while still brightening things up.

Below: NARS Contour Blush in Paloma (both shades), with MAC Harmony on the right for comparison. And after that, my face today featuring both this product and the next one

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The next product was nothing glamorous but as I’ve heard fabulous things for ages about the NARS Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base ($25 US/$29 CDN) and have had it on every single wishlist I’ve made myself for more the year, I finally went for the eyeshadow primer. I have difficulty with eyeshadows creasing despite not having oily eye lids and it’s been getting worse as of late so the purchase only seemed to be rational. I do have deep set eyes so I have eyes that are more creased at the socket generally, though. While I’m not sure if this is life-changing yet, it’s definitely a primer that works thus far and one  that dries down quickly.

If you’ve been a reader for a while – thank you! – then I’m sure you’ve heard me ramble on about my love for the Caudalie Vinosource Moisturizing Sorbet (until it ran out at least) and now that I noticed how close I was to the end of my current moisturizer, I decided to bite the bullet and go for the slightly more intense but-not-heavy formulation from the same line. I’ve used the Caudalie Vinosource Intense Moisture Rescue Cream ($39 US/$40 CDN) three times since it’s arrival so I can’t say anything definite but it seems to me that this has impressed me even with my prior high expectations. Like promised, the antioxidant-rich cream seems to soothe the skin while being extremely hydrating. I’ll definitely keep you posted.

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I’m not normally one to spend time discussing samples but as the 100 point perk that I included with my order has astounded me, I figured I would give them some attention in photographic form. I haven’t tried any of the three yet but I have tried the sample size of the Marc Jacobs Beauty High(Liner) in Brown(Out) and was amazed with the rich deep bronze liner that applied as if it were liquid and stayed put like a champ. I’m not wearing this today but I wore it yesterday and it seems to be blowing most liners out of the water with its intense colour and actual authentic creamy texture that doesn’t go waxy or break of instantly. Let’s hope it stays this way.

Have you picked up anything lately? Either way, Happy Wednesday!
Maggie, x.