Larger Than Life glosses are $26 each. “Regular” NARS glosses come in a frosted plastic tube; LTL glosses are in clear, shiny, hard plastic. They have a short, dense brush, which (by virtue of its length) is not very flexible. That’s great for precision application to your cupid’s bow, but you may have to “re-dip” to get all the product you need. The gloss itself is unscented, and feels slightly thick and not-as-sticky as you’d expect from a longwearing lipgloss. If you have chronically chapped lips, you’re probably going to like the comfort these provide.

Spring Break is a Sephora exclusive, a pale, milky peach/pink (it looks like a creme, though it has ultra fine gold shimmer in sunlight). Gold Digger is a very sheer nude peach with gold multicolored sparkles. Tiber is a brown-mauve. Odalisque is peach-pink. Piree is a warm pink. Como is a grape-rose with gold sparkles. Norma is warm, lush cherry red. Place Vendome is a bright, hot, warm red-pink. Coeur Sucre is cool Barbie pink with silver sparkles. Born This Way is a light, milky, pale, pastel lilac.

This is a quickie picture of me wearing Norma (I wasn’t expecting to post this, but since everyone on Twitter last night asked what I was wearing, I figured I’d better share). Norma is one of those pigmented-but-not-full-coverage glosses (like Viva Glam Cyndi). It’s a semi-sheer, juicy, glossy, shiny, super-pretty shade.

I know the whole world wears lipstick and gloss together, but I’m lazy, and I wear my lip products one at a time. Norma, by itself, is definitely a berry-red, a pink-red on me (sheer lip products do vary, person to person, because your natural lip color shows through the gloss a bit). That luscious color you see in the photo lasts 20-30 minutes, then it starts to fade (as lipgloss always does, when it spreads/settles). As it wears, it fades to a sheerer pink. I’d say I get about three hours of feeling I have lipgloss on.

Compared to MAC’s Pro Longwear Lipgloss, the NARS LTL glosses are glossier/shinier. MAC’s are a little more opaque, a little more like liquid lipstick in finish. MAC’s are also thicker and stickier.

• Santa Fe Sheer Glow Foundation
• Eden Loose Powder
• Zen blush, in the hollow of the cheek and blended up toward the temple for contour
• Gaiety blush, on the apples of the cheeks
• Pro Prime Smudge-Proof Eyeshadow Base
• Lhasa eyeshadow on the lids, blended up into the upper inner corner of the eye
• Albatross blush on the browbone
• Dark Rite Soft Touch Shadow Pencil on the upper lash line
• Rue Saint Honore Larger Than Life Eyeliner on the upper lash line, winged in the outer corner, and smudged on the lower lash line
• Blondie eyeshadow on the brows
• Larger Than Life Lengthening Mascara
• Amazon lipliner
• Valparaiso Pure Matte Lipstick
• Misbehave lipgloss
• Ecume nail polish

Here’s what I take away from this: the camera (and makeup) can create almost anything. Also, good lord, models are young. And their photos make them look so much older.

Ginta was born June 30, 1989. She started working in 2005, and has done just about everything: runways (everyone you can think of), advertising, editorial.

Just for fun, please enjoy some more pictures of this chameleon elf child (photos compiled through excessive Googling):

Eyeshadow trio Douce France (named after a 1942 song by French singer-songwriter Charles Trenet) includes a satin/matte pale white pink with very tiny silver sparkles (it would be matte, but the sparkles give it a satin finish), a warm carnation pink, and a very nicely pigmented matte cranberry. It’s $45, limited edition.

Paramaribo eyeshadow duo (named after the capital of the Republic of Suriname, the smallest independent country in South America and a former Dutch colony. Where are you NOW, Carmen Sandiego?) includes a frosty yellow-lime and a shimmery browned golden olive. The duo is $34, also limited edition.

It’s a good thing Lhasa is permanent, because otherwise I’d expect it to cause a riot. It’s a shimmery grey-purple, $24. The shadow is named after the high-altitude Tibetan city, home to several major Buddhist temples.

There’s a new, permanent Soft Touch Shadow Pencil: sheeny cobalt blue Dark Rite. It’s $24, and NARS recommends wearing it as shadow, as base for powder shadow, or as eyeliner.

The collection also repromotes Larger Than Life eyeliner Abbey Road (peacock blue, $23).

Spring offers three lip choices, all new additions to the permanent line. Bilbao lipstick ($24, named after the city in Spain) is a warm brown-rose with a subtle sheen. It’s not a color I would normally swoon over, but it looks great paired with gloss.  Here’s a photo from a recent NARS makeover: Bilbao lipstick with Greek Holiday lipgloss.

Valparaiso Pure Matte Lipstick ($25, named after the city in Chile) is a red-violet-berry.

Mexican Rose Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil ($24, named after the flower) is a bright, warm, watermelon pink, my favorite color so far of this formula. It’s slightly staining, so color carefully.

There are two nail polishes in the spring collection. Diamond Life is limited edition, a shimmery pansy purple. Ecume (white creme) is a repromote. Both are $18.

There’s also a new, permanent addition to NARS’ blush lineup: cool, whitened, frozen-pink-with-super-tiny-silver-shimmers Gaiety. It’s $28, and I wish I owned the discontinued Chanel Narcisse so I could compare the two.

The collection also repromotes Albatross, the lovely, shimmery, permanent, white/gold highlighter. It’s also $28.

What will you be picking up from this collection?

Arabian Nights is (as you might have surmised from the name) a night-series eyeshadow trio. The shadows are black-based with sparkle, and (in my humble opinion) perform better wet. I actually swatched this palette “backwards” from the way it appears in the compact, because the tester pan was in the unit upside down.

Swatched dry, the shades are sheer black with silver sparkle (I built up the dry swatch, and the black is prone to fallout), black with blue-purple sparkle, and sheer grey-black with a red-purple sparkle that tends to blow away. Swatched wet, the first shade is a charcoal-black with multicolored silver sparkle. The second is still black with blue-purple sparkle. And the third is grey-black with dense red-purple shimmer (the sparkle is smaller in this shade, so it translates into shimmer). The trio is $45, limited edition.

I talked to one of my favorite NARS associates about Arabian Nights. He said it’s his favorite piece of the collection, and lamented that swatching doesn’t really do it justice. I asked him to explain his devotion, and he said the shadows look like gemstones on the lid (which sounds quite lovely).

Ponderosa is a cream eyeshadow single. It’s cool, dark brown with gold shimmer (very pretty!) — $23, and limited edition.

Mandchourie is a powder eyeshadow duo ($33, permanent). It is fascinating: a complex green-grey-blue with shimmery gold tones, paired with a muted, faded, dusty, matte, semi-sheer navy-indigo blue.

There is also a happy assortment of holiday lips and nails. Joyous Red lipstick ($24, limited edition) is not exactly red. It’s a muted (slightly browned) coral/red, bricky on my lips. It’s great for the season, and not too dark for my skintone.

Albatross lipgloss ($24) is also limited edition. It’s a shimmering pale gold.

There are two limited edition nail polishes ($17). Space Odyssey (the color created for Fashion’s Night Out) is a cool silver foil (looks shimmery/slightly gritty but feels smooth). Endless Night is a sheer grape in one coat. The color is so dark that it turns black-plum (really black plum) in two.

And the holiday season introduces two new (and permanent) shades of the Larger Than Life eyeliners. These mechanical eyeliners are absolutely fantastic at staying put — they’re one of the few things I’ll trust on my lower lash line. Campo de Fiori is an antique gold shimmer. St. Marks Place is a low-shimmer bright blue-purple. (Check out the other LTL eyeliner shades here and here. They’re $23 each.)

And finally: the cheeks. Sin (powder blush, $27) is a repromote, a berry-wine with gold shimmer/sparkle. In a heavier swatch, you can see it’s actually pretty purple (red-grape, I’d call it).

Miss Liberty is new but permanent. It’s a “highlighting blush” (a.k.a. not a blush but a highlighter), a sheer peach with very fine silver sparkles. It’s also $27.

And finally, there’s a new Multiple stick (these can be used anywhere: lids, cheeks, or lips). And because “Orgasm” and “Deep Throat” weren’t scandalous enough, it’s called G-Spot. Sensibilities are different in Texas than they are in New York, and mostly I’ve heard G-Spot referred to as “the new one.”

G-Spot is blush-wine with a very subtle gold shimmer (my sales associate didn’t even realize it had shimmer ’til she saw it on my arm). It’s more red than Sin, a berry red. It’s a pretty, ruddy flush for cheeks and lips this winter, I definitely approve. Like all Multiples, G-Spot is $39 (and it’s permanent).

This entire collection is actually up for sale in the BeautyBloggers.org charity auction (and it’s currently going for WAY less than retail).

NARScosmetics.com is also offering free two-day shipping through the end of the year (and today only, they’re adding a free sample of Orgasm Illuminator to any cart).

True NARS aficionados will remember (and probably own) the first “Bento Box,” released in very limited distribution for holiday 2010.

The 2011 edition is the Kudoki Lip Coffret. Like its predecessor, Kudoki offers porcelain cups of creamy, full-coverage lip color, packaged with a hand-spun, wisteria-wrapped lip brush in a keepsake bento box. How could you not feel like a geisha putting these on?

Ougi is a greyed, muted mauve. Botan is a bold lacquer-red. Takebue is a very bright, saturated warm pink. Like the original Bento box, Kudoki is $125 (and because you get three shades instead of two, the cups are smaller).

The original Bento box (containing red Maiko and pink Sakura) is actually still available for sale on NARScosmetics.com.

The Kudoki lip coffret is only available in select stores (Neiman Marcus Northpark is one of them), but everything else is wide-distribution.

For $35, you can have the Kuroko nail polish set, four mini bottles. Senryou is a shimmery gold foil with a few tiny gold and silver sparkles. Shiro-Nuri, Yoshiwara, and Kata are all creams, and they are SO shiny. I can’t remember swatching another polish that was so lacquer-like.

It hadn’t occurred to me, looking at the display — but upon swatching I realized that the Hanamichi eyeshadow palette and Kuroko nail polish set are complimentary. The eyeshadow palette contains a satin white, a bricky, muted satin rose-red (I think Crayola called this color red-violet), a shimmery, buttery gold, and a semi-sheer satin grey-black. The Hanamichi palette is $65, and comes with a short-handled eye brush.

And finally, the Mie Soft Touch Shadow Pencil Coffret. This set of cute little shadow-crayons is $55. I colored them on my arm at maximum intensity, but on your eyelids, you can blend them with fingertips or a brush.

Magic Moon (new) is a lapis lazuli shimmer. Aigle Noir (repromote) is an olive-black-brown with gold sparkles. Tall Tale (new) is royal purple. Ballets Russes (new) is clear with silver/white sparkles (conceptually similar to previous release Queen). Skorpios (repromote) is shimmery copper. Palladium (limited edition repromote of a previously released, discontinued color) is shimmery aqua.

There is one more gift set, but I haven’t seen it in person. The Nagauta brush set is $225 and contains the Botan brush, the Ita brush, the Yachiyo brush, as well as the new Kabuki eye brush (I believe this is a long-handled version of the mini brush that comes with the Hanamichi eye palette), and the Kabuki lip brush (as seen in the lip coffret).

NARScosmetics.com is currently offering free 2-day shipping at any price.

Though the counters that had these limited edition items were only allowed to sell them for a day, NARScosmetics.com had them for a week. So you still have another day or two to make your purchase.

Happy shopping!

The packaging went from a “traditional lipstick” shape to a “skinny lipstick” (like the Pure Matte lipsticks), a decision intended to reduce dryout (since less of the product is exposed to air), resulting in a product that feels creamier. Though I wonder if this will make more of a difference to a counter’s set of testers than an individual’s personal product.

These concealers are $22 each, available on NarsCosmetics.com (which is still offering free two-day shipping on a $50 order).

Light 1 Chantilly (new) is a very pale yellow-white. If you wear Siberia foundation, this is the concealer for you. Light 2 Vanilla is more pink (a good match for Mont Blanc, my shade). Light 3 Honey is peachy, good for brightening and covering blue. It’s too dark for me, but my Santa-Fe-wearing sales associate likes it for brightening.

Medium 1 Custard is pale yellow (a good match for Fiji and Santa Fe). Medium 2 Ginger is deeper yellow (a good shade for Barcelona).

Medium/Dark 1 Biscuit (new) is peachy, a good choice for Syracuse. Medium/Dark 2 Caramel (new) is yellow-orange; good for Tahoe, Cadiz, and New Orleans. Medium/Dark 3 Amande (new) might be a good match for Macao.

Dark 1 Cafe (new) would be good for Benares (and Trinidad, and Tortuga), and MAC ~NW43. Dark 2 Cacao (new) would be a good choice for Khartoum.

Tremendous thanks to Eneida (en nay ee da) of my NARS Neiman Marcus counter for her shade selection advice!

These two products are said to be inspired by this rather racy photograph by Guy Bourdin (1928–1991, a French photographer known for his often-controversial work, protege of Man Ray, and a personal favorite of Francois Nars).

Both items are bright, cool, white-silver. I was glad to see that Space Odyssey was a foil (looks slightly gritty, feels smooth) rather than a frost.

Readers in Dallas: Neiman Marcus Northpark is the only location that will have these for sale (and, again, in extremely limited quantities). If you want them, you may want to pre-sell (their number is 214-363-8311).

And now New York “gets” one more really good thing: Winnie, my outstanding local NARS artist, who’s moving there to join her fiance. It’s a good reason to move (and she’s such a talented artist, she deserves all the professional success in the world), but we’ll definitely miss her.

Anyway, I asked her if we could do one last makeover before she left. I gave her completely free rein… and the results were pretty “runway.” Though I’m not sure when I’ll next be wearing a look this dramatic, I thought I’d share it with you.

We cleansed with Softening Milk Cleanser ($36) and Hydrating Freshening Lotion ($36). Winnie followed with Brightening Serum ($61) — it looked so good last time, why change a good thing?

Winnie started with the eyes (because she was going for drama, it’s easier to do the eyes and clean up any fallout before putting on foundation). She applied Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base ($24), which does keep eyeshadow from creasing, but it also tends to grab and hold the eyeshadow so firmly that it’s a little less blendable.

She applied the (cream turquoise) right side of Burn It Blue, swatched here, from my lashline to my crease, patting it on with her finger. Then, with a crease brush, she patted/pressed on the teal right half of Misfit on the inner half of my lid.

She put black Zardoz on the outer half (cream shadow, patted on with fingers) — to build intensity and depth of color. She lightly colored sapphire blue Larger Than Life eyeliner in Rue Saint-Honore (swatched here) on top of it, then patted Outremer (swatched here) on top of that.

Winnie mixed two soft, greyed purples (Ondine and the right side of Charade) for my crease.

She used Rue Saint-Honore on the lower waterline, and put the right side of Misfit on top of that on the inner half. On the outer half she used Outremer wet. This much eyeshadow needs a lot of eyeliner, so she tightlined with pen-style liquid Eyeliner Stylo in black Nuits Blanches. She also used the black side of Pandora wet on the bottom waterline, and gave me a cat-eye flick on the top.

She used Vanilla concealer under the brow, topped with a bit of cream-beige Edie.

Then she applied NARS’ Larger Than Life Lengthening mascara (which, Winnie says, is a bit blacker than the Volumizing formula). And she used Bali shadow on my brows.

On my face, Winnie applied Lightening Cream, the Oil-Free Face Primer, and Skin Smoothing Face Prep. She contoured with Laguna and Copacabana Multiples (both swatched here) and used Vanilla concealer under the eyes. For foundation, she used Sheer Glow Mont Blanc (which she topped with Flesh loose powder AND Mont Blanc powder foundation. I know she was giving me extra coverage because she knew I’d be taking pictures, but it was more than I like).

I think both Winnie and I would normally spring for peachy Gilda blush, but since she used it last time, she wanted to choose something different. She used slightly plummy pink Mata Hari (applied with the Yachiyo brush, as delicately as if she were feather-dusting a statue). She warmed it up with a little Sex Appeal and a touch of Douceur.

She kept the lips nude: Jilted Love and Morocco lip liners, Madere Pure Matte Lipstick, Striptease (nude) and Triple X (clear and shiny) glosses.

Once she’d done my makeup she said, “can we do your hair too?”  (Winnie is a woman of MANY talents.)  She ran over to the Fekkai counter, grabbed some hairspray and a comb — and I travel with bobby pins in my purse. She teased the top part of my hair, and pinned the sides back, creating a quick version of the equestrian faux-hawks I saw at Bensoni last February (I’m so on-trend for fall!).


Even if you don’t want to recreate Winnie’s ultra-fierce look step-by-step, I think you can still cherry-pick a few products and techniques from her work. Did you see anything you want to try at home?

All of the products shown here are for sale at NARSCosmetics.com — which is currently offering free two-day shipping at any price, no code required.

I like these eyeliners because they’re smooth, not draggy (though the formula is a little firmer, not as ultra-creamy as many recent eyeliner releases), and they seem to stay on well, even in summer heat and humidity.

Santa Monica is matte white. Rue Bonaparte is matte baby pink, biscotti-peach “flesh.” Via Appia is shimmery bronze-brown. Rue de Rivoli is shimmery forest green. Abbey Road is bright, shimmery peacock blue. Rue Saint-Honore is shimmery sapphire. Bourbon Street is matte royal purple. Madison Avenue is matte factory grey. I skipped matte black Via Veneto because it was MIA at the counter.

Larger than Life eyeliners are $23 each.