NARS Makeup Lesson Haul

Recently whilst in my local John Lewis store in York, I popped to the NARS counter and decided to purchase a makeup lesson to try some new and different products which I haven't tried before. When you book and pay for a NARS makeup lesson, you do receive the money back towards NARS products, so it is a win-win situation.

The makeup artist matched me up to the exact NARS Sheer Glow Foundation shade I already use, so I didn't repurchase foundation as I still had plenty left. However, I did buy the NARS Pore & Shine Control Primer (£29.00), because my skin often changes due to hormonal treatment I have to have and my recent primers just haven't been agreeing with my skin lately. You get 30ml of product, and it comes in a neat tube which allows you to use as much or as little as you need. This is a mattifying primer that has a lightweight creamy texture to it and it keeps my skin oil-free throughout the day whilst keeping my makeup in place.

Next up, the makeup artist applied the NARS Soft Matte Complete Concealer (£24.00 for 6.2g), for carving out my eyebrows and for concealing the dark circles underneath my eyes. I have shade Light 1 Chantilly as I am quite fair-skinned and this shade works perfectly for me, although there are around 16 shades available. It comes in a little pot and is a full-coverage concealer that feels lightweight and blurs, conceals and smooths in one. This is definitely the best ever concealer I have tried for carving out the brows and with it coming in a pot, you can therefore get the tiniest amount so that you can make a professional job of it.

For the cheeks, my makeup artist applied the NARS Blush (£25.00 or 4.8g) in the shade Luster, which is a sheer golden apricot, again working well for my fair to light skin tone. I normally tend to go for light pink shades, but I loved how this looked on my skin, adding warmth to it that I had to get it. NARS Blushes come in so many different shades and finishes, and each one comes in a matte sleek compact complete with a mirror on the inside of the lid. Luster does have a very slight shimmer to it, but nothing at all like a highlighter which is great for me as I love to use both blush and highlight.

To set my base makeup, the NARS Soft Velvet Loose Powder (£29.00 for 10g) was applied on my T-Zone and lightly all over the rest of my face. There are eight shades available and I opted for Flesh, which was the shade the makeup artist used on me. This wasn't something that I bought in-store as I wanted to see how it performed throughout the day, but I did order afterwards as it kept my skin looking as flawless as I have seen for a long time. There was no caking, and used together with the Primer, my skin stayed fresh and not at all oily all day long.

At the time of my makeup lesson, I hadn't been loving my brows lately, and so I was in the market for a new brow product. My makeup artist introduced me to the NARS Brow Perfector (£21.00), which is available in eight different shades and although I am fair skinned and often get my hair highlighted, my natural hair is quite dark and so I often think a darker brow suits me better. Therefore I opted for Lava, which is a warm dark brown. The Brow Perfector has a spoolie on one end and then the pencil on the other end, which is a little like the Benefit Precisely My Brow, but I much prefer the texture of this one.

NARS have some of the coolest single eyeshadows around and I often wish they would bring out more adventurous eye palettes. I chose the NARS Hardwired Eyeshadow in the shade Mendoza (£17.00), which is an iridescent bronze with a pink shimmer that looks great with my blue eyes. £17.00 is a lot of money for a single eyeshadow, and it isn't something I would do for a neutral matte shade, but the Hardwired Eyeshadows are highly pigmented and metallic, so I don't mind splashing the cash for something it would be hard to find elsewhere.

So many of us, me included are somewhat part of the 'nude' generation, where nude lipsticks are a staple. I asked the makeup artist not to use a nude lipstick on me, because I wanted her to choose something else that would suit me, rather than me playing it safe. She chose the NARS Audacious Lipstick (£26.00) in the shade Juliette, a pink coral that has a warm orange tone to it. This went great with the eyeshadow, and my colouring. The only downside to this lipstick is that you don't get a lot of product, and it does look pretty misleading, but colour and texture-wise, this gets an A* from me.

You can find these fabulous NARS products online at NARS.

All the Loves,

Kathryn xxx