Nars Audacious mascara
Nars powermatte lip pigment in 'Under My Thumb'
I recently purchased both these products and I thought you may want to hear my honest thoughts. When you ask people if they want good news or bad news first, they invariably want the bad news, I imagine in the manner of ripping off a plaster. So, let’s start with that. I read a lot of mixed reviews about this mascara, and really, I should have listened to the negatives. When I first pulled out the wand I thought it looked like a medieval instrument of torture, as the bristles were so huge, and spikey. Owing to these large bristles, it was impossible for me to get the wand right into the roots of my lashes and distribute the formula evenly. And what a disappointing formula it is. It’s oddly dry, and balls up into little clumps when you try to brush it through. The tiny clumps soon started dropping from my lashes and my eyes felt weirdly dry. This mascara did very little for my lashes, no volumizing and certainly no lengthening. For a cheapo mascara, I would shrug and move on, but this was £21 and from a high-end brand. I expected much better from Nars and was sorely disappointed.
But it’s not all bad. Let’s get on with the good. The Powermatte lip pigment has also garnered mixed reviews. Negative comments ranged from ‘drippy’, ‘smeared everywhere’ and one person complaining about the small brush. Personally, I had no problems with the brush. The small size made it easy to outline my lips, and then fill them in, as I do with any liquid lipstick. The pigment dries in seconds. There’s certainly no dripping. Once it’s set, this lipstick doesn’t budge, and certainly doesn’t smudge. It survives eating and drinking with ease, without that horribly tacky or drying feeling of some other long-lasting liquid lipsticks. If you choose to touch it up the formula layers lightly, and easily, without patchiness or spoiling the colour. If you don’t bother, and blot instead, the lipstick fades into a pretty stain instead. The colour I chose ‘Under my Thumb’ is a gorgeous, cranberry red. I would go as far as to say this is one of my favourite formulations of liquid lipstick ever. I can’t wait to try other colours.
But what about the ugly, I hear you cry. Well, here you go, here’s a picture of my face, wearing ‘Under My Thumb’ and the Audacious mascara. (I’m only joking, of course.)
