The Friday Review: Nars One Shocking Moment Blush Palette

For the last few years Nars has released a limited edition blush palette as part of one of their autumn collections, and or the past few years, it sold out before I managed to get my hand on it. This year I signed up to the mailing list and I ordered it the second I got the email and I couldn't have been more pleased when it turned up on my doorstep last week. It's my first experience with Nars' base products and the palette contains a lot of permanent shades so I figured I'd give you the run down.

The packaging for the palette is lovely, nice and sturdy feeling and it has one of those "good click" closes that seems to be all important in the beauty blogging world. The lid of the palette is nicely decorated with a photograph (pictured above) with a text overlay. When you open the palette the lid is a big mirror and there's 7 products inside, four of which are Blush in: "Robotic" (limited edition), "Blasphemy" (limited edition), "Luster" (permanent) and "Dolce Vita" (permanent), there's also the "Paloma" Contour Blush Duo, and a Bronzing Powder in "Laguna" which is twice the size of the other powders in the palette.

In terms of value, I paid £49 for the palette and can't find any information on the value in pounds but Sephora are advertising this at $69 with a $169 value and looking at the amount of product you get in here, I can see that being about right. The blushes are all 3.5g of product (full size are 4.5g so slightly down sized), the contour blush duo is 3.5g each (full size is 2.7g and 5.5g so slightly more highlight and slightly less contour) and the bronzer is 8.5g (full size is 8g so slightly smaller than the palette size)

The two limited edition blush shades "Robotic" and "Blasphemy" are pinky shades with shimmer. "Robotic" is quite a subtle hint of blush that will play nice with a bolder lip look while "Blasphemy" is a slightly bolder blush, it's a mid-tone pink that will give more of a blushed look to the cheeks but it's still very wearable.

The permanent blush shades are nice as well. "Luster" looked like a shade I didn't think I'd get much use out of but after actually wearing it I can safely say it's my favourite out of all the products in the palette, it's a nice peachy bronze-y shade on the cheeks and is good to warm up a lighter skin tone. "Dolce Vita" is the boldest blush in the palette and will give the cheeks that winter-y "I've just been out in the cold" type flush and used lightly on the skin it's really pretty.

Looking at the shades in the palette to me there's something for every season, "Robotic" will be a spring-time staple, "Luster" will give you that summer time golden goddess look, "Blasphemy" will work well for autumn and then "Dolce Vita" is a nice winter blush pick. My only complaint with the blush shades is that everything's a bit shimmery, if they'd thrown in at least one matte shade I think that would have balanced things out a bit better.

Out of all the products in the palette, the Contour Blush Duo was my least favourite. On me the highlight shade looks like a normal setting powder, but if you're of a medium skin tone the highlight might actually show up on you. The contour shade was also a little out, it's just a bit too warm, even the bronzing shade looks cool toned beside it. I'd rather use "Laguna" lightly to contour and use the contouring shade in place of bronzer. I was a littler worried that "Laguna" would be way too dark on me at first but providing I use a light hand with it I can just about get away with it.

The palette is available now on narscosmetics.com and sephora.com and is also available for pre-order from Space NK.

My Autumn Beauty Boosters

So the mornings have started to get quite crisp round these parts lately and the sun seems to be setting earlier and earlier every day and that can only mean one thing: autumn is well and truly on it's way. Autumn is my favourite season and I'm looking forward to snuggling back into my chunky knits and boots. So now the weather's settling down and the light is starting to fade a bit, here's my autumn beauty edit:

 In the summer I actually took a quick break from my Oskia Renaissance Cleansing Gel in favour of a more creamy cleanser, but now it's cooling down I'm back to using this more in the evenings as a nice pre-bed-time treat. Another skin treat I've coming running back to now the summer's saying its goodbyes is the MV Organics Rose Plus Hydrating Booster. It's a deliciously rose-scented oil that hydrates the skin well and it's another bed-time beauty boost.

I always like to go a bit darker as autumn comes in and two lipsticks I'll be reaching for a lot more will be Illamsqua "Growl" and MAC "Rebel". I've also been wearing Fleur De Force's Lipgloss in "Starry Starry Night" a lot lately but my top dark-lip pick this autumn is the Rimmel Kate Moss Lipstick in "107". I've resisted for a few years but I finally caved and it's such a beautiful colour.

If I'm not feeling a dark lip the eyeshadow palette I always come back to in the autumn is the Urban Decay "Smoked" Palette. Unfortunately they've since discontinued this and released the Naked Smokey which doesn't compare really, but you can pick up a lot of the shades in "Smoked" from UD's permanent range, my favourite is "Mushroom", a metallic grey-brown that makes a great neutral smokey eye.

For hair I like to go to town with the texture in autumn. For general volume I love the Color Wow One-Minute Transformation. It's a product I love all year long for giving my fine, flimsy hair a bit of volume at the roots. I also like a good sea-salt spray to give the ends of my hair that laid-back lived-in look. Autumn is the season for wooly hats and scarves and I think nothing goes better with a wooly hat than some messy texture in your locks. (And I know I'm not the only person who has those emergency hat days when autumn comes around).

And finally, for nails, while I'm not normally a nail polish girl I can get behind one of two nail trends that seem to come back every autumn. I love a dark or metallic nail once the days start getting shorter. I think it might be because darker nail polish formulas seem to be easier to apply than the pale/pastel colours that come back every spring and summer and a darker/metallic nail is a lot less maintenance. Whatever it is, it's a trend I can get behind and a couple I'll be cracking out this year are Essie "Bahama Mama" and Tanya Burr "New York Night", nice vampy red/purple shades are my favourite.