Review: NARS Eyeshadow Duo 'Habanera'

Today's review is on an eyeshadow duo that's a bit less neutral than the colors that tend to attract me. It is the eyeshadow duo 'Habanera' by NARS. First let's start with the packaging:

NARS products come in a matte black rubberized casing with their logo boldly printed on the case. The rubberized container is beautiful but it attracts dust like no other! You can see little dust particles in the above picture even though this picture was taken seconds after I took this container, brand new, out of its container. Now for the pretty colors :)

One thing to note is the whole top of the container is a mirror! This is awesome for on the go application and touch-ups.

Habanera is an interesting combination that stole my attention because of the unexpectedly gorgeous color combo. The color on the left is a minty frosted teal color while the color on the right is a frosted plum. Seriously so beautiful.

Swatchy swatch.  The colors are just as gorgeous on the skin as they are in the pan. They are also buttery smooth, as I expected from a NARS eyeshadow. The minty teal definitely has a lot of shimmer in it on the skin, but the purple is a little more muted on the skin which is nice. It actually has quite a bit of brown in it.  I was concerned over the wearability of the mint shade but I think it'll create a wonderful Winter look. The mint on the lid with the purple blended into the crease should create a smokey look with some unexpected color.

NARS eyeshadow duos are $34 for 4g (0.14oz) of product, or 2g per eyeshadow. This may seem ridiculously expensive compared to other prestigious beauty brands such as MAC or Urban Decay until you break down the price by gram as I did in a previous post.

MAC eyeshadows in the pot are $15 for 1.5g of product = $10 / g

Urban Decay shadows are $18 for 1.5 g of product = $12 / g

NARS eyeshadows in duos are $34 for 4g of product= $8.50 / g

There you have it!
xxSJ

Review: NARS Eyeshadow Duo in 'Portobello'

After much hemming and hawing, I finally got my hands on a couple more NARS eyeshadow duos. I love NARS eyeshadows so much... buttery soft with impeccable pigmentation.  The only point of uncertainty when purchasing these products for me is the price tag! NARS is certainly a luxury makeup brand, however, the delightful and sleek packaging mixed with the fantastic quality of the products creates good reason for a splurge:

NARS eyeshadows come in ultra sleek matte black rubberized packaging with the NARS logo boldly displayed in white on top.  I love the way this looks but be warned, the rubberized container attracts dust and dirt like nothing else! This will get dirty!

Opening up the container we see the two eyeshadows separated by a divider. Something to note is that the entire top half of the container has a mirror! Awesome for applying eyeshadows or touching up on the go. 

Now for the colors! 'Portobello' is an eyeshadow duo housing two matte brown shadows. The color on the left is a very warm brown with orange hues in it. It reminds me a lot of MAC's Soft Brown. The color on the right is a bit cooler toned and more chocolatey. Together, I thought these colors would make awesome crease and blending colors. My reasoning behind wanting this duo was that I have used the two matte colors in the Naked 1 palette to death (Buck and Naked) and I needed a quick replacement. I thought this duo would do just the trick!

Here are the colors swatched on my arm. These colors are extremely buttery soft and pigmented so be warned that a little goes a long way. These can easily overwhelm an eye look if you're just trying to add a small amount for a crease color so try and be light handed with these if that's what you're going for.

NARS eyeshadow duos are $34 for 4g (0.14oz) of product, or 2g per eyeshadow. This may seem ridiculously expensive compared to other prestigious beauty brands such as MAC or Urban Decay until you break down the price by gram:

MAC eyeshadows in the pot are $15 for 1.5g of product = $10 / g

Urban Decay shadows are $18 for 1.5 g of product = $12 / g

NARS eyeshadows in duos are $34 for 4g of product= $8.50 / g

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner! What did I just discover? NARS eyeshadow duos are actually cheaper per gram than some of my other favorite eyeshadows. Very interesting and something to keep in mind when making future purchases. 

xxSJ