Nars Blushes

So after hearing so many people rant and rave about how wonderful Nars blushes are, I finally caved and bought some.  A couple of weeks ago Nars had a "20% off your entire purchase" sale on their website.  I knew I needed to be sensible and not spend too much because I was getting ready to go to Canada.  So I narrowed my purchase to just 3 blushes.  I made my final decisions based on Lily Seymour's post of her Nars blush collection.  She has a great blog post and video of color swatches.  This was a tremendous help, especially for Taj Mahal because Sephora doesn't carry this color anymore.

On the left is Taj Mahal (Woo Hoo! I finally got it!).  In the middle is Albatross.  On the Right is

 Exhibit A.  They retail for $26 regularly.

I'm really pleased with my products.  Nars is famous for their blushes.  They're most popular one is Orgasm. Other colors I hear people rave about are Super Orgasm, Love Joy, and Deep Throat.  I haven't had a chance to play with Love Joy, but on the website (which I know doesn't do the colors justice) it didn't seem that much different from my M.A.C. Love Joy (which I absolutely love).  I'll have to check when I go back to Sephora. 

Love Joy 

From left to right: Orgasm, Super Orgasm, and  below is Deep Throat.  Orgasm reminds me of one of my favorite blushes of all times M.A.C. Warm Soul Mineralize blush.  

As for the other three blushes mentioned above, I refuse to wear products with those names. That's just me being old fashioned.  There's no way I will feel comfortable telling my co-workers, my church members, or my mom that the blush that I'm wearing is called Orgasm or Deep Throat.  Sorry, that's just inappropriate for my comfort level.  But, from what I hear, the colors are universal and pretty. I'm going to pass though.

Here they are swatched on my arm.  Can you believe the color payoff? Very good quality indeed. :-)

Nars Albatross on top and M.A.C. Vanilla Pigment at the bottom.

After swatching Albatross I thought, "Oh no, this looks just like my beloved M.A.C. Vanilla Pigment!". Did I just waste my money?  

In the left picture Albatross is on my middle finger and Vanilla Pigment is on my pointer finger.

On the right picture the left swatch is Vanilla Pigment and the swatch on the right is Albatross. 

After swatching them side by side my conclusion was no.  They are similar, however there are differences in texture and color.  Nars Albatross is a bit more golden and slightly darker in color and more of a satin finish with smoother particles vs. M.A.C. Vanilla pigment being lighter and more iridescent with a frosty finish and bigger specks.

I can see that I will be having tons of fun creating looks with these beautiful blushes.  Lily Seymour recommended Luster blush.  The funny thing is that I had that in my cart along with a cream blush named Enchanted, but I had to be responsible and not over spend. :-(  I do plan to get Luster in the future though. 

On the left is Enchanted Cream Blush and on the right is Luster Blush.  

Have you all used Nars Blushes?  What are your thoughts on them?  What looks do you pair with them?

*Some of the pictures of the blushes were taken from the Nars website.*

Last Day for Coastal Scents Sale. 30% off Selected Items & Buy 2 get 1 free Gel Liner Sale

I just purchased some more items today for me and my mom.  Here are the sales for this weekend.

These are the Gel Liners I purchased.

Exotic

Peach Bellini

Sexy Pink

Here are the Palettes I bought

88 Ultra Shimmer Palette

I've been looking at this palette for a couple of years now.  I never got it because I bought the Original 88 Palette and I  was afraid I'd end up with duplicate colors, but since it's on sale I thought I'd give it a try.

32 Lip Palette

I have the 60 Lip Palette but I wanted to try this one out.  Plus the sizes of the colors are bigger.

Camouflage Concealer Palette

I already did a review and look using this palette.  This is one of the best purchases I've ever made from Coastal Scents.  I decided to get another one since it's on sale.

26 Shadow Blush Palette

Honestly I don't know how I've passeed this palette up all of this time.  I really don't remember looking at it before this weekend.  It appears a bit similar to the 28 Neutral Palette but maybe a few darker colors and of course the addition of blush.  The blush colors don't appear to be the same as the 10 blushes that came with the 42 Matte Palette, which was my very 1st purchase from Coastal Scents in '09.  I can't wait to see what this looks like.  I don't think I've reviewed the 28 Neutral Palette yet, it was a huge let down.  I think it's the only palette I've purchased fro Coastal Scents that I wasn't pleased with.  Hmmph!

My mom wanted to try adding some color for the summer for her make up routine.  These are the palettes I purchased for her.

88 Original Palette

88 Warm Palette

32 Lip Palette

10 Blush Palette

The only reason I didn't get this set is because I think I have most of these brushes already.  I purchases a few of them about 2 years ago.  Since then, I've purchased quite a few pink brushes from both Coastal Scents and Crown Brush.  I already have a couple of brush rolls so I passed on this one. 

*All images were taken from the Coastal Scents website

Revlon Color Stay Liquid Foundation

This is how I looked at 5:20pm with the Revlon Colorstay Liquid(Caramel 400) and Queen Collection Mineral Pressed Powder (Brown Bronze 1) without ANY touch-ups or blotting.  I put my make up on this morning before work at 7:15am.  This is unheard of!!!

                                                         

                                                                  Me Blotting at 5:25pm

No body believes me when I explain how ridiculously oily I am.  The sheets just stick to my skin by themselves. SMH

Me after Blotting w/o any extra powder.  So technically no touch ups, just blotting. ;-)

Revlon Color Stay liquid foundation is advertised to last up to 16 hrs.  So far I've made it for 10hrs without having to add more powder, just blotting was done.  I'm thoroughly impressed.  Could it be that I've finally found my "holy grail" foundation????  I'll have to put this up to the test against the Coastal Scents HD foundation before I make my final decision.  I plan to wear the Coastal Scents HD foundation tomorrow and see how it goes.  I'll keep you posted on the results. :D