Just when you thought that the matte liquid lip trend was tapering off, along comes NARS with their Powermatte Lip Pigment — 20 kick-ass & long-wearing shades (2 are exclusive to NARS online) in a revolutionary new formula that is actually … drumroll, please … comfortable to wear. Inspired by the rebellious mood of the rock & roll era (example: Bella Hadid channeling Joan Jett in the promo ad, below), the shades are outrageous in their impact but tempered with a featherweight feel. All this to say that you may as well ahead and set your credit card to ‘shop’ mode.
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Bella Hadid and Justin Gossman, the faces of this campaign — by François Nars
Powermatte Lip Pigment (CAN $34.00/each) | Housed in sleek rectangular tubes that bear a convenient cut-out window to view each shade (not to mention how this is a great way to monitor product usage), these come with a unique tapered paddle shaped doe-foot flocked applicator that not only picks up the perfect amount of product per swipe, but can be used to both deposit enough colour to cover lips entirely AND flipped along its narrower edge to line/reach smaller areas with ease.The formula is infused with liquified pigments that provide opaque coverage from the get-go, while the feel is so lightweight that you won’t be blamed if you’ve forgotten that you’re even wearing anything at all. The press release I received mentioned that these are instantly drying, but I found that it takes anywhere between 5-15 minutes (shade dependant) for the colour to become transfer-proof. Another feature is the brand’s Fluid Pigment Complex that this formula contains, which enables the product to retain enough flexibility to move with your lips, as opposed to drying out and flaking off and thus extending its lifespan even more.
As my lips are rather heavily lined (don’t even get me started), I tend to avoid matte liquid lippies as up until now, they all tended to emphasize everything I wanted kept under wraps PLUS they usually dry my lips out within 30 minutes of application. Not so with Powermatte; somehow the colour manages to keep my lips from becoming Sahara-dry, and my [lip] lines appear to be less noticeable. So, how exactly did NARS achieve this sorcery? Whatever — I’m just thrilled to have finally found a liquid lippie even I can wear!
- Get It On – tan rose
- American Woman – chestnut rose
- Slow Ride – soft brown pink
- Walk This Way – rose pink
- Save The Queen – dusty mauve
- Low Rider – bright peachy pink
- Get Up Stand Up – bright pink coral
- Give It Up – fuchsia
- Warm Leatherette – rich berry pink
- Light My Fire – vivid orange red
- Don’t Stop – geranium
- Starwoman – vivid blue red
- Under My Thumb – burgundy
- Done It Again – chocolate brown
- London Calling – lilac pink
- Wild Night – deep lilac
- Rock With You – deep mulberry
- Paint It Black – black
Just as I was about to start celebrating the return of the gloss era, NARS releases Powermatte Lip Pigment — and has effectively put a lock on the matte liquid lip genre. Then there’s the effortless application (good-proof, in fact), plus the intense saturation of each hue, and what you’re looking at is a bonafide winner. Not that I’m all that surprised, after all this is the same brand that elevated lipstick to new heights with the Audacious range (speaking of which, I’ll be showing you all the newness in that department very soon). As to the colours themselves, I have my usual faves (all the nudes), but have been surprised by a few others that I’m finding work so well with Summer (Light My Fire, Get Up Stand Up), but something tells me that with the exception of the black hue, I’ll be more playing with different combos of them all. Bravo, Nars #slowclap
Available at Sephora and online
Media samples kindly provided, all opinions are my own