The NARS Powermatte Pigments: The Brights and Bolds

If you grab one or more of the new NARS Powermatte Pigment liquid lipsticks, of which there are 20 shades that are $26 each (available starting tomorrow at NARS boutiques and the NARS website and coming July 13th to Sephora), may I gently suggest that you refrain from applying them in public? Because it is SO frightening when someone with bright red liquid lipstick all over their teeth smiles at you. In a way, it’s kind of vampire chic, but in another way, it’s f*cking scary!

My bad for not realizing that ya only need a little for full coverage…

By the time I finished swatching this batch, which includes the bright and bold colors in the line (I’ll have pics of the nude ones soon), I figured out the best way to apply them is to take a little off the applicator before touching it to your lips.

It’s a little like working with mascara. When I pull the wand out of the tube, I rub it against the lip of the tube to remove any excess, and then place the first swipe of color in the center of my bottom lip. Then, I just kinda move it around…either by rubbing my lips together, or moving the lipstick around with a finger (you get about a minute before it completely dries). After that, I take whatever remains on the applicator, and use that to trace the edges and fill in the corners.

These days, liquid lipsticks are the queens of the lip product playground, and there are many of them out there, but there aren’t many like these. The weightless, watery formula is much thinner than usual for a liquid lipstick formula — not to say that these drip down your chin or anything (wouldn’t that be a sight!).

You might expect that to make them difficult to apply, right? Like you’d be chasing them down because they’re dripping all over the place? Or like you’d be contending with uneven application?

Somehow, though, NARS figured out a way to make them easy to control, and even though they have a very thin consistency, they stay where you put them.

It’s crazy how easy they are to apply, barring a slight learning curve while you’re figuring out how much to use.

They don’t dry completely, either, which is another unusual thing about them. They stay a little moist (god, I had that word… “MOIST, MOIST, MOIST!”) over the course of their 5-ish-hour wear time, meaning that if you kiss a chubby baby cheek or a handsome stranger on the subway, you’ll leave kiss marks behind.

I think this is a good thing, because these are also just about as moisturizing as you’re ever gonna find with a liquid lipstick.

After three days of almost exclusively wearing these lippies — I’m talking from morning till night, with a mid-day application in between! — my lips are in good shape. No dry spots or flakes whatsoever. I didn’t have to exfoliate when I woke up this morning, either, which is a miracle.

Lastly, they have a faint vanilla fragrance, but I don’t detect any flavor.

I mean, they do have flava, in the sassy sense, especially the reds, corals and pinks, but no flavor, per se. Haha.

For sure, check out Light My Fare, Star Woman, Give It Up, and Get Up Stand Up.

Keep it together, and try not to swoon. With these, that’ll be hard, though. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen