When it comes to the beauty world I try, whenever possible, not to succumb to the hype of expensive products. There's a few reasons for this - 1, I am generally a tight arse, bargain hunter, relatively thrifty and try to only buy things that are unique to my collection (the 20 shades of red nail polishes would probably beg to differ) or are something I can't imagine living without. And 2, because I do actually believe that sometimes you can get so swept up in everybody else's hype, that it becomes hard to review the product itself without remembering that one of your favourite bloggers raved about it, even if you're not 100% convinced.
However - uh oh, hypocrite alert over here - when I stumbled across a certain Nars palette, offering my all time favourite bronzer, a blush that I have lusted over for years as well as two other options, I couldn't help but to succumb to hype.
So here she is - yep, we refer to products we love as real life human beings on The Elle Next Door - the Nars Virtual Domination palette in all it's glory!
Let's get down into the nitty gritty shall we? Great, let's do it :)...
Starting from the top left -
Miss Liberty Highlighter - I have quite a variety of highlighters (Getting up at 5am for work and working until it's dark means you need allll the illumination. All!) and this one is surprisingly unique to my collection. It's slightly darker than the average highlight, more like a pale gold shade which I think would work well on a variety of skin tones. It isn't as finely milled as say... the Kevyn Aucoin Celestial Powder in Candlelight. But I would say it was on par with the likes of MAC's Soft and Gentle for example. A good highlighter, but not one I'd repurchase.
Final Cut (bottom right of the blushers) - On first glance, I have to admit that I didn't think there would be anything special or unique about this blush but I am very pleased to have been proven wrong. It's not just any old peachy, orange tone blush (it's an M&S blush... sorry, sorry, I'm getting carried away with myself here!) but it truly lifts and brightens the face. It has a tad more true orange rather than peach than one of my favourite blushers, MAC's Melba, and goes with all makeup looks which I love! Versatile and unique... this is on the top of my repurchase list for when it sadly passes away *signals the RIP sign*
Sex fantasy (bottom left) - this blush will be a real love or hate blusher. The marmite of the Nars collection if you will. It is a very pale, bubblegum pink shade - that is also extremely hard to pick up in photo's - that gives a beautiful flush of colour on pale skin, almost giving that porcelain doll-like look. On my medium toned skin it really brightens the face and goes so well with my 140958640684 nude pink lipsticks :)
Deep Throat (top right of the blushers) - The final blusher and by far my favourite. I have lusted over this for years - we're talking googling swatches, reading reviews, swatching it in Space NK, the whole shebang! - and it was most definitely worth the wait. Deep throat is described as a peachy pink shimmer and yeah, that's pretty much exactly what it is. So why didn't you buy a drugstore dupe and save money? you ask... - well, you're probably not but humour me on this one - despite being a peachy pink, it also happens to be unique. You see, it's hard to come across a shimmer blush that is brightening, goes with many makeup looks and has that luminosity without depositing a hefty amount of glitter on the face and this blush does all of those things and more! A definite repurchase, even if it has the most cringe-worthy name to speak out loud in the middle of the store ;)
Last but not least is the bronzer in Laguna. I feel like I would not only be wasting your time but also my own time by going into detail on this bronzer as it is
such a cult classic in the beauty world. For those that haven't used it, in short - it's a natural, cooler toned bronzer with a
very subtle shimmer that just translates to a sheen on the skin. Not too orange, not muddy looking, just perfect.
So, what are your thoughts on the Nars Virtual Domination palette - Do you own it, if so what are thoughts? Haven't purchased it yet but are thinking about it? I would love to see what you think in the comments below :)
As always, thank you so much for reading. You are the best!
xx
Labels: Beauty, Nars, Nars Virtual Domination, Review, Space NK
