NYX Caribbean Collection 5 Color Shadow

Here we are in the dog days of summer and what could lift our spirits more than air conditioning and a sultry pop of color? I found a real mood lifter in NYX The Caribbean Collection 5 Color Shadow Palette in I Dream of St. Lucia. NYX is offerring ten different palettes in The Caribbean Collection to suit your taste, all coming in at a cool $8.50 a piece. I chose the fun, uber-bright colors in I Dream of St. Lucia as a playful accent just perfect for the hot summer months. These five shades practically beg to be worn alongside a body of water!

Ok, so I love the colors, but what about the quality of these shadows. Check out my swatches to see how richly pigmented they are. The swatches were even done on bare skin with no primer or even a moisturizer, so this is really the way the colors will look on skin. I did find that when worn on the eyelid with no primer there was a tad bit of fallout. When I use my primer they wear flawlessly for hours. After giving these shadows a fair test run, I would say they are on a par with MAC shadows - and at a fraction of the cost. I will say that I much prefer the flat 3 pan palettes or the 5 pan palettes as opposed to the single eye shadows. The singles have a raised "quilted" design which I find results in more breakage and crumbling of the products. NYX products are carried at ULTA locations, but I find that the selection is pretty well picked over so I generally order directly from the NYX site.

My favorite way to use these almost peacock-like shades is to accent the "ball" of the eyelid - just above the pupil with a generous round smudge applied with a finger and then blended out all around. Think of it as a sunset on the horizon in a painting.  As an alternative, they also make great accents at the inner tear duct - really makes your eyes pop!

Another fun way I've been enjoying some of these colors is on the lips! I use either the pink or the orange shades smudged on the center of the lower lip and then apply a similar shade of lip gloss.  For example, NARS Easy Lover lip gloss looks amazing over the pink shade and the orange shade looks great under Pantone Universe Tangerine Tango Glaze. Have fun experimenting!

NARS Eyeshadows in Fathom and Lhasa

A new NARS eyeshadow can do wonders for my spirits. This spring I indulged in two new picks that I’ll share with you now.

 NARS eyeshadow in Fathom is described as “pink tulle with silver shimmer” and I must say it is ethereal! The pink leans more peachy and the silver shimmer is not glittery, but delicate. Since its more peachy with understated shimmer, it is more wearable and works as more of a neutral. 

It’s interesting that NARS uses the word tulle to describe this shade because the pink reminds me of the shade worn by dancers in my ballet company growing up. It was a peachy pink known simply in dance circles as “ballet pink” and was very often the shade of tulle used for ballet skirts and costumes. 

The only caveat is there’s a tiny bit of fallout from the shimmer, even with a good primer. I love shimmer, so the movement didn’t bother me, but it bears mentioning, nonetheless.

My next choice was Lhasa, described by the company as “lavender grey.” Normally I don’t wear a lot of grey eyeshadow but I was just captivated by this shade. To me, it’s a warmer grey with a lot of depth. The lavender in it seems more warm pink and less blue, which works well with my fair skin - blue greys tend to make me look sick. This heathery grey is sort of prismatic and looks different in different lights and from different angles. I think this makes it interesting enough to wear on its own. I apply it all over the movable lid and then build more coverage into the crease and slightly above it on the outer third of the lid. I usually take a tapered brush and drag the color under the lower lash line as well.

Both of these shadows are excellent additions to the already remarkable NARS line-up. What are your favorite NARS shadows? Have you tried Fathom or Lhasa?