NARS Night Series Mini Palette

Back on the beauty wagon again kids.

I have a huge backlog of products to review, so my apologies for writing about seasonal products whose season has passed. Not that it's completely wrong to wear dark green or dark purple eyeshadow in the spring, but this particular, lovely palette was part of the NARS 2007 holiday collection. Can we all just pretend that the holiday in question was Victoria/Memorial Day and I can feel a little less behind?



Now we can't talk palette until I do my usual pitch about the brilliance of palettes. All the colours you need for accent and impact put together in an idiot-proof package. Honestly, life needs more of this.

I usually write about how a makeup product has changed my life. Well, this is one of the few products I've found that I want to change my life for. These six beautiful and sparkly shadows make me yearn for the kind of life where I have reason to wear them on a near daily basis. An even more glamorous life where it's sexy, smoky eyes 24/7.

Practically speaking, I can wear them once, maybe twice a month. There have been moments when I've pushed the envelope of appropriate with the purple shades during the day. Honestly, they're so lovely I challenge anyone to exercise restraint with them.

HRH

NARS Monoi Body Glow and Body Glow II Set

Somethings are worth using on the basis of their smell alone. I like to think of Tahiti as a place that smells like every good smelling thing in the world, mixed together in the perfect ratios.

Monoi de Tahiti is a sacred oil that is traditionally a mixture of coconut and the Tiare flower (aka gardenia). It's such a glorious combination that it makes me want to hop on the next plane to French Polynesia and just bury myself in flowers. Scent is very powerful for me and honestly, just taking a sniff of the oil is like eating a boatload of Kraft caramels without any indigestion or weight gain.

The oil is intensely moisturizing and Tahitians use it for skin and hair. The NARS versions of the oil not only smell glorious but have distinct personalities. The original Body Glow is mixed with a rich chocolate shimmer, which gives pasty, white skin like mine a soft, beautiful shimmer. Just what I need coming out of the long, dark winter.

Body Glow II is a purer strain of the Monoi de Tahiti and can be used as a daily moisturizing product, as it provides sheen, not shimmer. This oil is developed through a more complex process than it's shimmery powder. According to NARS:

Monoï de Tahiti oil is the result of macerating the Tiare flower (Tahitian gardenia) in refined coconut extract for at least ten days, slowly infusing the oil with nutrients as well as a delicate, natural fragrance.

On top of this process, each bottle of Glow II has at least one Tiare flower in the actual bottle to intensify the fragrance.

I adore this stuff and I wish I led a life that called for me to wear bronzer and strong, yet amazing Tahitian scents each day. At the very least I can come home, smell it and be off on a mini vacation to the South Pacific. It's not just body oil, it's a vacation.

HRH