The Nars Steven Klein Collection is quickly becoming one of the most memorable NARS LE releases to date. Francois Nars recently teamed up with famed fashion photographer Steven Klein to create the Fantascene collection, a limited edition holiday release. The items released in this collection feature bold colors and edgy, provocative, visually appealing imagery that is described as an exquisite fantasy played to the extremes. Today I would like to share the rest of my picks from the collection along with swatches and my overall review.
First up is the Dual Intensity Blush in Vengeful. ($45) This duo contains two shades—a white gold highlight and a shimmering brick red. The duo compact comes in the usual black rubberized compact with Steven Klein’s name emblazoned underneath NARS’ iconic logo. These two colors are extremely vibrant and produce swoon-worthy high voltage pigment with one swipe. The duo is designed to be used wet or dry and the shades can be worn alone or layered for a multidimensional effect.
Vengeful Swatches:
-Shummering Brick Red (left)
-White Gold Highlight (Right)
The duo contains a ridged pattern with vertical lines similar to the permanent collection of the Dual Intensity blushes. It feels silky to the touch and both colors are very finely milled. The golden shade is gorgeous on its own as a highlighter. I happily swirled my brush to deposit the colors onto the high points of my face and it produces such an incredible, luminous glow. The shimmering brick color is a warm red that produces a high level of color saturation, so I would recommend a light hand when applying. Once blended, it is a beautiful, warm shade that produces just the right amount of flush. For the purpose of my review, I only wore the blush dry, though I have used them wet before. I currently own three other Dual-Intensity blushes from their permanent range and from my experience, using them wet produces more color intensity than I typically like for an average day. For everyday, I prefer a more natural looking flush. This duo is so fun to play with, is so easy to blend, and has great staying power. On me it lasted all day. I would recommend this beautiful duo not only because of its versatility (highlight/blush in one) but also because of its high performance. Finally, it has the “limited edition, only available for the holidays” factor. Need I say more?
Next, I picked put the Despair Cheek Palette. ($65) It contains four blush shades, three of which are new shades, while one shade is part of their permanent range. The palette also contains a mini Ita brush for application. I am a fan of the NARS blush formula and though I recently purchased the One Shocking Moment Cheek palette, reviewed here, I felt the urge to purchase this as soon as I swatched the colors in store at Naimies, a popular beauty supply store here in Southern California for makeup artists and beauty junkies alike. I was also able to apply my Pro card to this particular purchase for 20% off the retail value, which pretty much sealed the deal.
The set contains:
Nico Blush-Natural Glow
Esoteric Blush-Gilded Apricot
Savage Blush-Rouge Coral
Ferocious Blush-Flushed Primrose
The set contains a range of blushing pinks, warm corals and a shimmering beige. Savage, a medium coral red is the only blush contained in this palette that produces a matte finish. All the others contain a little bit of shimmer or provide a pearly sheen. The quality and performance of this palette is what I’ve come to expect from the NARS blush palettes I own. The texture feels smooth and they are pigmented, though the degree to which the color appears on my skin may vary. On my medium golden skin tone, Esoteric is the only shade that did not show up well on my skin and seemed to disappear in my skin.. All the others showed up quite nicely. Nico is what appears to be another highlighting shade that I can add to my stash. Overall, I am pleased with the range of shades offered in this palette. I think that the range of colors offered would suit most complexions. However, if I had to choose between the NARS One Shocking Moment Cheek palette and this palette, I would choose the former rather than the latter.
Finally, I would like to share the items I picked up in the lip category from the NARS x Steven Klein collaboration. First up is the Killer Heels mini lipstick coffret. The set contains five deluxe sized lipstick minis in the line’s original formula. This set contains a range of soft, muted shades and some colors in the bolder variety. I happen to love lipstick minis so I happily hauled this home with me last month when I visited my local Sephora. These minis are compact and are ideal for travel, and they are extremely cute.
The set contains:
-Little Darling-shmmering beige
-Mayflower-warm beige
-Joyous Red-satin medium red
-Jungle Red-semi matte bright red
-Fire Down Below-semi-matte pure blood red
Swatches below:
The tube is smaller so I would recommend that you apply the color carefully to prevent breakage. I typically use the pointed edges to line the upper bow of my lip before applying it all over. Because it’s a smaller tube, I have to swipe it a few times to get the color intensity that I desire. Of all the colors contained in the set, I really like Fire Down Below, which is described as a semi-matte pure blood red and Jungle Red, which is a semi bright red. These colors suit my complexion very well. In terms of texture, they feel soft, smooth, and creamy, but they are not as creamy and pigmented as NARS’ sister formula from their Audacious lipstick range. This is the formula I have come to prefer because of the extreme color saturation and rich pigmentation. With the colors from this lipstick coffret, I received about 5 hours of comfortable wear. Overall, this set would make a great holiday gift because it contains a variety of shades that is suitable for most skin tones. An added bonus is that it is compact and great for travel.
Finally I picked up the Killer Shine lipgloss in the color Provoke, which a deep iris purple and the Killer shine lipstick in No Shame which is a red plum. Both colors are gorgeous! The lipgloss is described as having a new vinyl formula. The color saturation is amazing (see swatches below) and it produces a high-shine lacquer finish. As for the lipstick, I chose No Shame particularly because I love colors in the berry and plum variety. The color applied smoothly, wore comfortably, and felt moisturizing through the day. I have worn the color on its own and also with the lipgloss layered on top. These two colors make the perfect combination for Fall.
I am very pleased with the color combination I chose. If you tend to lean towards purchasing berry or deep plum shades, I would highly recommend these colors.
The NARS Steven Klein Collection is surely becoming one of my favorite limited edition LE releases from NARS to date. Aside from the stellar packaging, you have a range of items that offer a varied selection of beautiful, bold, and versatile shades. I am pleased with every item I have purchased from the collection thus far. If you are interested in my other picks from this collection you can find it here, These items are currently available on NARS’ website and can also be found at Sephora.
Thank you for stopping by today. Are you picking anything up?
Dom
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