Neat and New to Me

Neat and New to Me

Unlike my Unsung Heroes series, which features permanent collection products I’ve known and loved a long time, the Neat and New to Me series showcases permanent collection products that slipped under my radar for a while, but then I discovered them! — and now I think they’re neat and new to me.

NARS Mekong has been making me smile! 🙂 And rhyme!

That was a rhyme, right? (Mekong making…?)

It has a dark brown espresso matte base with golden micro glitter, and it’s take-your-breath-away gawgeous with warm reddish browns and purply browns on the eyes, and reds, burgundies and plums on the lips.

I recently discovered it, which means that I finally gave it a try, and I feel like such a goofball for waiting so long. Give it a swatch if you can before the end of winter, but I warn you — brace yourself. It’s a total knockout.

I’ve been wearing it for smoky eyes, and also as a liner, and when I use it for smoky eyes, I pack it on my lids with a flat eyeshadow brush, and then blend out the edges, drawing just a smidgen up into the crease, before incorporating a couple of matte transition shades.

Then, to offset the heaviness on the top area, I line and smudge a purple or warm reddish brown pencil liner, usually MAC Prunella or MAC Teddy, both of which I think really complement Mekong well, along my lower lash line.

Neat and New to Me

Unlike my Unsung Heroes series, which features permanent collection products I’ve known and loved a long time, the Neat and New to Me series showcases permanent collection products that slipped under my radar for a while, but then I discovered them! — and now I think they’re neat and new to me.

I wore the NARS Alhambra Eyeshadow Duo last weekend to shop for maternity jeans, and you know what? You know your eyeshadow is doing something right when you’re shopping for jeans (which is usually traumatic enough as it is) in your sixth month of pregnancy, and you feel extra huge, and you’re in a dressing room with the worst florescent green lighting known to womankind, and you look in the mirror and think, “Dayum! My eye makeup looks good…”

Thank you, NARS Alhambra. 🙂

You can make a woman feel good in gold, EVEN when she’s in sickly greenish lighting.

On one side of this warm-toned powder shadow duo lives a metallic rosy gold; on the other, a golden champagne.

They might look a little scary and frosty in that swatch below, but trust! — they aren’t that shiny or brash on lids once they’ve been blended (which is easy to do because they’re both also incredibly soft).

Like a superhero satin, the finish shines, but it’s about six degrees away from “discotheque,” so you can tell your fine lines to chill. Alhambra’s got this.

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Neat and New to Me

Unlike my Unsung Heroes series, which features permanent collection products I’ve known and loved a long time, the Neat and New to Me series showcases permanent collection products that slipped under my radar for a while, but then I discovered them! — and now I think they’re neat and new to me.

OK, so, I was expecting to Google the word, “Isolde,” as in the NARS Isolde Eyeshadow Duo, and find out that it’s the name of an exotic island in a far-flung corner of the world, because that’s how NARS usually rolls when it comes to naming their colors, but nooo! Turns out that it’s the name of a character in a German opera by Richard Wagner called Tristan und Isolde.

Random! Makeup, you are my teacher, and I’m your willing and eager student. 🙂

Isolde… Aah! Can I just say, “Hello, autumnal makeup jam?!”

Part of the NARS permanent collection, Isolde has recently taken up residence in my Large NARS Pro-Palette. Why I waited so long to try it, I’ll never understand…because it’s so beautiful (especially if your skin has warm undertones)!

You get a shimmery, coppery peach on one side and a shimmery warm copper on the other, and neither side is frosty, which I like.

These colors force me to think of autumn leaves and cozy scarves. And pumpkin spice lattes. And matte lips and boots. In other words, fall.

NARS has literally dozens of beautiful duos, but I think Isolde deserves a shout-out, first, because it’s intensely pigmented (one or two layers should do you just fine), and second, because of the powders, which are so soft that they almost feel like creams. Using them, I hardly notice any fallout, and they barely fade at all after eight hours.

And then there’s the finish, which comes close to being a frost, but doesn’t quite get there, and that’s one of the things I love about NARS. They play with shine in such interesting ways that I never expect.

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