I am a huge fan of eyeliners in fact, I feel my eyes are quite naked without them. I prefer liquid eyeliners on my top eyelids and I rarely ever use pencil eyeliners. I just feel they require more work and my eyes are quite sensitive. I never even bothered with tight lining my lower eye lid because it just freaks me out and some pencils I have tried in the past seemed to feel scratchy and draggy. Well, all that changed when I got this lovely mini
NARS Larger than Life Eyeliner. One of my good friends recently got converted to
NARS All Day Luminous Foundation//Review (and it looks incredible on her) and we decided to pop down into nearest NARS counter to pick it up. The lovely sales lady at the counter gave both of us mini samples (
well they are deluxe samples) of the NARS Larger than Life Eyeliner. I thought that was so kind of her especially as I did not purchase anything (it was very hard to resist but I did). Immediately, I tried it out I knew we would get on really well.
Packaging
I just love any mini/sample size product and this NARS mini is no exception. I particularly like it when brands endeavour to make the mini sizes really similar to the real deal. There is not much to say about the packaging other than it being housed in the regular classy NARS black packaging. The best feature of this eyeliner is the fact that it rolls up and down which means there is no need to sharpen it per say. Of course, you can still choose to sharpen it if you wish but I don't see myself subjecting this little sample to such waste. Besides, I prefer it having a semi-blunt tip as I only use it for my lower eyelid/water line so I don't want anything sharp. You honestly don't need to sharpen it because it still applies really well despite any shape it has. One of my bug bears is having to sharpen anything because I just find that it is so wasteful and super annoying when it is an expensive products. It contain
s 0.3g of product which may sound minuscule but it is a lot in the grand scheme of things. It comes in a variety of shades/colours (I think 10 or so) but this one is called
413 BLKR (I guess that stands for black)
Pigmentation/Texture/Formula
This eyeliner is fiercely pigmented and I absolutely love it that way because it means a little goes a long way. There is no need to apply too much pressure at all because it just glides across so beautifully on my eyelids. It also applies very evenly making it ideal even for beginners who may have shaky hands. I had quite a few shaky hands incidents but it did not affect its application at all. The formula appears to be a hybrid of gel and wax but it leans more towards the creamy gel formula. The way it glides makes me so happy and my eyes don't even get sensitive or irritated which is such a relief for me especially as I wear contact lenses. The lasting power is really impressive and it's still very much present even when I get back home ready to take my makeup off. It is relatively easy to remove which remains a mystery because I have always thought that anything with such intense pigmentation will be a pain to remove. I also think my eye makeup remover is top notch so I don't want to give all credit to the eyeliner. I have not tried using this on my upper eyelid/lash lid so I don't know if it performs in a different way.
How I use it/Application
I think it is pretty straightforward and easy to use. I mainly use it to tight line my lower lid/waterline and I love how it transforms my makeup intantly. It adds so much character to my makeup and really accentuates my eyes. I tend to look up sometimes while applying my eyeliner so it glides on even better but I don't really think it matters as such. I always start at the outer corner of my eye and work my way into the inner corners. As mentioned earlier, I don't apply too much pressure at all; I just let it do its
thang. If you are into creating graphic eyeliner looks, I think you would really enjoy this eyeliner.
Cost//Link
I am so pleased I got this sample at the NARS counter but I think it is one I may repurchase when it runs out. I have not tried anything close to it at all. The full size retails for
£19 which is rather steep for an eyeliner but I think it's worth it. If you are an eyeliner junkie, I am sure you would love to try this. I don't see myself trying any other colours from this range (although navy blue or any blue sounds enticing).
Overall Thoughts
I am really obsessed with this little eyeliner and I think my eye makeup looks incomplete when I don't use it. I love the way it transforms my eyes and I think it would look super amazing when paired with a smoky eye (with more than one layer). If you plan to buy anything from NARS counters, always ask them nicely for any samples as they are always happy for people to test out their products. The main reason being that there is a high chance you would fall in love with it and be back to purchase a full size. That's how incredible many NARS products are. That's all folks!! Have you tried the
NARS Larger than Life Eyeliner?
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