nars

Holy wow, pumpkin! All I have to say is werk!

I’m not talking work like cubicles, time sheets or lame vacation requests, but the neck swerving, hair flipping, three snaps in z-formation kinda work — the kind of work NARS obviously put into their holiday 2010 collection.

For the holidays, it’s nice to see something almost traditional — with lots of golds, silvers, berries and plums — from such an untraditional brand.

But I did say “almost.” 🙂 After all, this is still NARS we’re talking about. The colors are a casual affair, many of them shimmery and saturated but not heavy or foreboding.

Francois usually likes to throw in a few quirky shades, but this time he shows some restraint to tell a tightly woven color story. He still cuts loose, of course, with unexpected pops of taupe, peach and blue, but it all just fits together.

With the exception of sheer Sex Appeal Blush and Little Darling Lipstick, the lip, eye and nail products burst with color. Francois, inspired by Irish heiress and fashion icon Daphne Guinness, aimed for seductive, audacious and bold, and dagnabbit, homeboy nailed it.

The company’s trademark quality is evident throughout the release, from the pigments to their application and smooth textures.

Oh, yeah. The new eyeshadow trio in the pic at the top is a first for NARS. They’ve never done an eyeshadow trio before, and I like it (doesn’t it look like a Rothko painting?).

If you’re afraid the eye colors might be too intense, don’t worry; I think they’re still work friendly. Just use a light touch when you apply them, and dilute, dilute, dilute.

Okinawa Trio Eyeshadow (limited edition), $45

Melusine Duo Eyeshadow, $32
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You know what they say, right? You can take the girl out of the ’90s, but you can’t take the ’90s out of the girl.

Well, I’ve never actually heard that before…but wouldn’t it make an awesome fortune cookie?

Back in the day matte lipstick was my BFF, and I always had at least one in my little black backpack (gawd, remember those?). I loved the look, but dangnabbit those old school matte formulas made my lips dry and flaky!

After all these years, I still love matte lips, and now with uber-moisturizing formulas like the one in new NARS Pure Matte Lipstick ($25), matte lips can be comfy, too (think spaghetti strap dress/baby-T combo, circa 1995).

Available in six shades with spectacular geographic names — Volga (a deep aubergine), Bangkok (a soft rose), Tonkin (a plum), Tere De Feue (a blackish cherry), Tashkent (a nude beige) and Vesuvio (a bold red) — the unscented, unflavored line conditions lips with hydrating vitamin E, wild mango butter and acai oil.

All four of the ones I’ve kissed so far feel smooth and soft on my lips. The texture’s considerably thicker than the similarly packaged MAC Mattenes (which I happen to like a lot), but isn’t as slick/slippery.

Lipstick Tips from Francois Nars

• For a modern matte look, choose a lip color close to your natural skin tone, or pair a darker lip color with simple face makeup
• For full, hard-to-miss lips, go with an audacious color spruced up with a dab of gloss or shimmer applied in the middle
• Use lip liner to fill the shape of your lips, but make sure you blend out any obvious edges
• Avoid over-applying your lipstick; the more you wearing, the heavier it looks (and, interestingly, the quicker it wears off)

Tonkin
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The universe is filled with things I do not understand, things like Justin Bieber fever, Crocs, and why NARS chose not to include a lip brush in the Beautiful Life Lip and Cheek Palette ($55).

At first blush, it looks like a traveler’s makeup dream come true — compact, cute, with a convenient zippered case. The included mirror works well for on-the-go touchups, and by leaving out powder products (it comes with four lipsticks and two cream blushes), NARS eliminated annoying product cross pollination (when your powders spill all over your cream products). So smart!

They thought of everything — almost. I know NARS doesn’t usually include brushes with their palettes, but I wish they would have found room in this one for a lip brush. Beautiful Life is just so obviously designed for travel; a brush would have been a great addition. Of course, I’m a stickler when it comes to packaging.

That aside, what’s a palette without pretty colors, right? These go great together. NARS included a versatile mix of business and party shades here, and the blushes even double as highlighters, too.

I’m a little bummed about one of the products in the palette — Honolulu Honey lipstick. Honolulu is one of my favorite cities, but this Honey looks kinda cakey on my lips. It seems to do a bit better, though, when I use very little and apply it with my fingers. I may also just mix it with other lip colors to help it along.

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