Monday, April 22, 2013

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: NARS Satin Lip Pencil in Luxembourg

Hello again!


Under the proverbial "makeup microscope" tonight is one of the new NARS Satin Lip Pencils.


These pencils only been out for a couple of months (if that). It's always hard when a new product is released to find sufficient information on how it wears, or even just swatches from the range. So, hopefully this helps if you are considering this product! These pencils are a bit like a sister to the "matte velvet" lip pencils by NARS. The packaging is pretty much the same but the formula is very different of course!


The NARS Satin Lip Pencils come in twelve colours. I first saw these when I went into a Mecca Cosmetica at Easter-time. The shop assistant showed me a few (I asked for brights and she was clutching at straws to find me bright ones!). I really liked the look of them but I couldn't quite get excited for the colours! Majority of them are nude/neutrals. Don't get me wrong, it's GREAT if you are into neutrals... But I have my little stash of nudes so I'd rather brights. The brighter the better! However, I was in a Mecca store again on the weekend and digging through their testers and stumbled across Luxembourg... WOW! Decision made.
Luxembourg Pencil (the matte pencils are missing the stripe near the base!)
The Mecca Cosmetica website (www.meccacosmetica.com.au) calls Luxembourg a "vivid watermelon". My personal interpretation of watermelon is a paler, more yellow based pink. I would be more inclined to call it a "vivid fuschia" - it also has the habit of appearing a bit red in photos depending on the light... a good little chameleon! lol

Luxembourg Swatch (does look more red here!)
Luxembourg in action (this is a more accurate colour... you can see the pink!)
Compared to the matte velvet pencils, you get 0.2gms of product less for the same price (AUD$39). Not too bad. I also find the Satin Lip Pencils lids are a tad more co-operative (my matte one likes to pop off for some reason!). 

I must say, colour me impressed!! (pardon the pun!). The colour was definitely vivid and I did receive a few comments while wearing it (which actually happens less often than you might think!). It felt almost like a gloss going on... It feels really smooth and luxurious to apply! It did start to feel dry, but only about 8-9 hours later (but when I say dry it felt more like it had set a bit, I certainly didn't feel the urge to slather it with gloss!). "Satin"  is definitely a fitting term for describing it, I was very impressed with how smooth and light it felt on my lips! It lasted pretty well while eating, it did need a touch up in the middle but for the most part my lips ended up with a nice pinky stain. The colour lasted really well which I was impressed with, and I thought it didn't transfer as easily as my other lipsticks (I tend to leave the fiance with a coloured cheek from time to time). I will note though, this was a very pigmented colour, and you may not get as long wear time from the paler shades (while writing this I purchased Lodhi and Yu (oops!). Lodhi is a lighter colour (it's "vibrant coral") so it'll be interesting to report the wear time of that and Yu). At this stage, I do prefer the satin pencil over the matte! I felt (for the ones I own at least) the satin one wore slightly better and feels nicer on! You also get the added touch of gloss without even trying! Win win!

The only real downside to this was I did find it a bit tricky to get on. Normally lipsticks have a small amount of tug, and that friction makes it heaps easier to get your lippy where you want it. These however, are super slippery and glossy, so I didn't feel like it had that grip that's needed. I actually overshot in a few places (not by much but my lips felt bigger than usual! lol) but just managed to get away with it. I also found that this barely bled! It did the tiniest amount in a couple of spots where I overshot, but you had to be looking for it (like I was) to notice it! I did use lip liner first (I pretty much colour in my lips with Illamasqua's Hex (a nude) so that if I miss anywhere when I do my lippy you can't really see it). Therefore, I can't guarantee how it would go if you didn't use liner! (You may find it does bleed a bit more). You will also lose a bit of product when you sharpen it, so I recommend waiting as long as possible before doing so!

All in all, next time you are looking for a new lip colour that feels smooth and light to wear, I do recommend trying a NARS Satin Lip Pencil. There is surely a colour to appeal to you (while I don't find the range hugely exciting they have covered the spectrum pretty well!). If you try one of these pencils or have one, let me know what you think of it!

Until next time,
Much love,
Your PM xx

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