Review & Application: NARS Paloma Contour Blush

Hi hi!!

I am very excited to share this new NARS product with you. Have been using it for the past couple of weeks - and it is currently available at our NARS store... and I do highly recommend you checking this out!

Here's some product information:

A LUST FOR BLUSH

A duo of contouring blush shades to create natural-looking dimension for the face with a lightweight luminous finish. A deeper shade enhances definition while a lighter shade illuminates the high points of the face.

There are 3 shades:
Olympia -which is very suitable for pale to light skintones
Paloma - suitable for light to medium light skintones
Gienah - suitable for medium to dark skintones

I am using the shade Paloma - which did not pull too red on me.. I use a very soft fluffy brush for this contour duo... currently I am contemplating getting Olympia - because when I first saw these online, I was very drawn to Olympia - which reminded me of my MAC Sculpt/ Emphasise contour duo, but I realise I can get away with Paloma as well. And I am quite fair.

Another point to note when it comes to contouring/ bronzing - and I use these two terms interchangeably here...though purists would say they are entirely different aspects of makeup and I fully agree. But on a daily basis - I will just lump both together - and what I do is to dust a contour/bronzer shade all over the edges of my face - around the hairline - this is to avoid my whole face looking too stark pale, and to add a general warmth and life to my face. This is a step which I cannot do without. I feel weird if I apply blush, and then I don't do this all over the edges bronzer/ contour thingy.

If I want to do proper cntouring - I would reach for my cooler tones face powder - such as the Kevyn Aucoin sculpting powder in medium or Chanel Notorious powder.

Here are some close ups of Paloma:

The powder is very very fine, and just pigmented enough.

Here I am using my Chikuhodo cheek brush to apply the product: I will use the darker powder on my hairline, to softly 'contour' around my forehead.

FYI I use Paloma, and do the contour/ bronzer part after I have set my foundation.

I think it is the easiest to illustrate and show you what I am doing and how the product works with the following step by step pictures:

and at the side of my face after blush
I know this looks a bit much - but for the sake of showing you how the product looks like ---- let's overlook that. Ordinarily I wouldn't be so heavy handed. Overall, I do think that if you are looking for a great convenient easy to use/ great for travel/ quality product - the NARS contour powders check all these boxes and more. I am still thinking of Olympia!

Hope this review has been helpful, and thank you for looking!