Each year, the beginning of the festive season is marked by the viewing of the NARS Holiday Collection. It’s the BEST NARS launch of the year, featuring loads of exciting gifting options offering a variety of colours and possibilities. To me it’s quite literally Christmas coming early, the opportunity to swatch all the new products with the NARS team early October!
This year François Nars offers a collection that’s inspired by Man Ray. An American visual artist who’s renowned for his photography. His artistic captures adorn the gifting collection with elements of his work running through the packaging. Beautiful makeup wrapped in the best way possible!
Since i’m planning on sharing some reviews and a makeup look later on, i’ll be keeping this post pretty brief, containing mostly swatches from the preview and some first impressions. Just enough to get your wishlist finalised so you won’t miss out on the best bits when it launches Nov 1st!
As always the NARS holiday launch is a formidable one. The Colour Collection featuring sultry plummy burgundy eyes with bright cheeks, and intense lip lacquers to tie this glamourous look together.
Among the most highly anticipated products is the new lip embossed highlighter, Double Take. An all new formula by NARS. If highlighters are your weakness, you should know this looks like liquid metal! A powder formula that swatches as smooth as a cream!
If the cool lip embossing hadn’t sucked you in, rest assured this outstanding formula will win you over. What you see here is one swipe that’s incredibly pigmented & ultra smooth!
Moving on to the eyeshadows. There’s two options to choose from. Debauched containing a satin plum & deep aubergine (with violet micro glitter) and Montparnasse with a pale satin gold and burgundy combo.
The colours aren’t exactly new or groundbreaking, but the formula of the two were quite good. Between them, Montparnasse swatched better with a smoother finish, giving you a more classic eye look for the festivities. Debauched on the other hand delivers a more smokier eye, perfect for the daring NARSissist.
For lining the eyes, this collection includes two ultra smooth Velvet Eyeliners, my eyes went straight to Nagoya. A rather unique shade of purple. I love that it was a cream finish with zero shimmer. Just a statement colour to create some drama.
Santiago too was of excellent quality. Both in fact make wonderful additions to any makeup collection! You won’t be disappointed with these.
……moving on to some cheeky goodness! Intenstly & Fetishized.
The blushes had to be the most interesting offerings of the collection. There’s a pale matte orange (so fun and cheery colour for fairer skin tones) and a vivid satin coral pink.
Both swatch smooth and with good payoff.
Last but not least, a new formulation of gloss for intense shine and maximum impact!
Ranging from the rather unique sheer gold to shocking pink, to the nudes and vampy reds, Nars pretty much covered all bases.
If I had to pick one though, it’s Off Limits for me. The intense colour and fun sparkle is always a good choice when it comes to Christmas parties.
Added bonus, it’s guaranteed to stand out from the usual reds that everyone else will be wearing!
Also in a seasonal special edition packaging is this years Audacious Lipstick shade, Anita. It was the first product I reached for and best believe, this one’s a must have!
Anita is part of the initial Audacious launch, therefore an existing shade, which also happens to be a best seller. I didn’t swatch this, but there’s swatches a plenty on the net. Including my very first Audacious lipstick post from 3 years ago!
Next up, my favourite part of the launch! The Gifting Collection!
As always, showcasing amazing artwork by the featured artist, in this case, Man Ray. The palettes seen here are The Veil, Love Game and Glass Tears. Two for the eyes and one complexion palette.
My first pick of the palettes would be Love Game. A stunning mix of neutrals combined with jewel tones. A palette that’ll take you from day to night!
All shades swatched with good payoff, including the mattes. They’ve obviously perfected the formula over the years!
Here’s a look at swatches.
Next up, The Veil. A combination of a bronzer, blush and highlight.
If you feel the need for an all in one palette, the Veil would be your best bet. A complexion mix that should work great on fair to medium tones. My favourite would have to be the highlighter, Surreal. It’s slightly more rose tone in comparison to Double Take. If you plan on getting The Veil and Double Take, you wouldn’t necessarily be duplicating the highlighter.
Among the three powders in here, everything but the bronzer swatched with intense pigmentation! Please note the bronzer is the newer formula which is a sheerer build-able colour.
Adding more options for the eyes is the Glass Tears palette.
Filled with sultry smoky shades, (a palette that’s ideal for evening makeup looks). There are two mattes (the cream & black) with 4 shimmery satin shades. They all swatch pretty impressive and would highly recommend this if you do wear bolder eye make up!
Next up, The Kiss. A golden pouch containing 4 new Velvet Matte Lip Pencils. Unfortunately I hadn’t snapped a pic of the pouch.. but here’re the swatches!
My eye instantly went to the gorgeous shimmering pink! Are you Spellbound too?? How amazing would this look with smokey eyes? (insert multiple heart eye emojis!)
If a unique collectible is what you are after, I’ve saved the best for last. Two gorgeous lipstick coffrets in a stunning magnifying case.
There’s a set of neutrals and a mix of reds to choose from. Both equally enticing to me!
That rounds up all the swatches for the Holiday Preview.
There were also mini stocking stuffer kits containing minis of NARS best sellers which I never swatched. I shall share those on Instagram later on!
Top Picks
The best buys from this collection would be the Double Take highlighter, the Love Game palette which is excellent quality (and value) and the Audacious Lipstick Coffrets (which happen to be limited to very few pieces). You might want to snap them up as they land. The packaging it definitely something special!
So far the release dates are 1st Nov, with a majority of the collection available at the stand alone boutique at Takashimaya. Come Wednesday, run, not walk!
