NARS Dual-Intensity Eyeshadow Palette – Review, Photos & Swatches

My sporadic blogging habits are to blame for this belated post. But since i’ve had so many requests for reviews on this, I obliged, and today is finally the day. Luckily it’s still available for those of you who haven’t got your hands on one yet, so I don’t feel too bad blogging about it so late! lol

But in any case, if you have already purchased this, well read this post anyways. I have some tips to help you get the most out of this palette. And hopefully you’ll find them useful!

 

 

The NARS Dual-Intensities are wet & dry shadows. A flexible formula which allows for dry application for day to day, and used wet for occasions when a mere smokey eye just don’t cut it.

Starting with packaging, the most noticeable change is that this palette sports a new hard plastic as opposed to the signature rubbery NARS cases making it infinitely easier to keep clean! You also no longer have to worry about the packaging getting sticky either.

 

 

Taking a peek inside we have a jumbo sized mirror, totally handy if you plan on travelling with this and also a very good quality, Wet Dry eyeshadow brush. I feel the synthetic bristles work nicely for wet application, and since I don’t own many of those, this was a welcome addition.

The 8 Dual-Intensities included here are as follows,

L-R Row 1

Europa – A shell pink with pink opaline shimmer (A duo chrome shade).

Himalia – A shimmering topaz

Ursa Major – A neutral toned chocolate. Great for crease work and also smoking the bottom lash line. 

Subra – A sparkly burgundy with a dark base.

Row 2

Andromeda – A neutral Alabaster with a pink duo chrome effect, which unfortunately didn’t capture well in the swatches.

Lysithea – A neutral silvery grey. 

Giove – Shimmering Navy which transforms into a metallic deep blue when used wet. 

Sycorax – A soft satin black 

*All except Ursa Major are existing permanent shades.

 

 

Overall the formula of these are pretty much consistent with the full size counterpart.

The shadows are very finely milled and exquisitely pigmented. Applied dry they blend easily resulting in a seamless flow of shimmery colour and wet application basically taking this already great formula to new levels of awesomeness. Intense, bold, metallic colour with plenty of possibilities.

Speaking more on formula, I noticed some fallout. Lucky though it was all during application and none during wear. As a precaution I just finish up my eyes first before moving onto the base.

Longevity wasn’t a problem either and this particular look I photographed stayed put from 11 a.m till well past midnight with no creasing or fading. I did apply everything over a primer but not many eyeshadows can really last this long in warm sweaty weather. Count me impressed!

Application and blending tips.

I find that the best way to use these are to lay your transition shades and blending with dry application before attempting to use these wet. The wet application is harder to blend, so saving this step for last is best. Once the wet shadows are placed (I like to use a medium sized flat eyeshadow brush and pat it on) I do a rough blend to soften any edges and it’s quite speedy since a majority of the blending has already been done using dry application.

Another tip to make good use of this palette is to layer colours. It makes your eye makeup look more interesting and dimensional, specially if you layer lighter shades over dark. And as with any makeup, having fun and experimenting is key and none better than a NARS palette to do so!

On to a look I created with this palette. I used all NARS shadows here. (NARS Dual-Intensity palette and the older Narsissist palette for some neutral transition shades; I believe I used Lhasa and Madrague).

For the lips I used a pink jumbo pencil by Sisley and layered it with a NARS gloss (Tasmania) for a juicy effect. I wanted to keep this look fresh and day time appropriate, even though it’s a smokey eye.

To create the smokey lower lash line I first layered Ursa Major before I went over that with Giove. Helps with blending and also makes the look more dimensional.

The transition of Giove to Subra creates a beautiful purple at the crease.

Bottom Line

The most important observation is that the palette is insane value for money, considering a single usually retails at SGD45 (or somewhere around that).

I also love that It’s very versatile with lighter colour options such as Andromeda & Europa for day time use and also includes a generous selection of smokey shades to pair with for evening looks.

The only negative I found was that it didn’t have a brow highlighter/ base shadow shade like most palettes do. Not the end of the world considering that many of you probably have multiples of those stashed away, but it never hurts to include a light neutral in the event you want to travel with just one palette.

Product Info

The Dual-Intensity palette comes with 8 x 1g shadows while the singles contain 1.5g of product. So you basically get 2/3 the product in this palette per shadow.

If you do the math, this palette is well worth the price tag.

Currently available at the Tangs Nars counter retailing at SGD 110.