I remember the first movie I saw where Salma Hayek really made an impression - it was the romantic comedy Fools Rush In that came out when I was a teenager. Hayek was a fiery and sassy photographer who learned how much just one night with the right guy can turn your life upside down. Her beauty and ease in her own skin made an impression on me, and she became an actress I followed over the years. She's probably the only reason I saw the movie Wild Wild West. But her dance in From Dusk til Dawn redeemed her.
So when a beautiful decided to take on the world of beauty - and create a line to be sold in drugstores, rather than a high-end department store - I got very excited. I read several bloggers' previews and reviews of the Nuance line and had several moments of "I HAVE to buy that!" From funky shaped eyes quads to the cheek trios to the skin and hair care items, I kept waiting for that magic combination of release date and payday to hit my local CVS and make my own assessment.
Because of the introductory buy one get one free offer, I started with just two items. I got the eye quad in smoky, and the eye trio in Champagne. I got them home and immediately popped them open to swatch and evaluate. I wasn't sure how the trio was supposed to work, so I gently pulled and tugged until I figured out where each part was - so I could figure out how it worked!
The golden cream shadow was a rich brownish-gold, reminding me a bit of MAC Woodwinked. The pigmentation is beautiful, and it is wonderfully blendable. It's a perfect color to wear on the lid for work, or for adding a rich dark brown in the crease to smoke it out for night time. (Or even those days when you feel like being a bit daring at work.) The other end held a retractable black kohl type eyeliner. It goes on very smoothly and due to the small tip can create a thin and precise line or be smudged a bit for a softer line.
The most interesting part of the trio hides in the middle. It's a solid white metallic highlighter, similar to the the MAC shadesticks. The rich pigmentation of the color means it can also be easily blended for a subtle sheen.
The gold color for the cream shadow makes this trio the perfect all-in-one for an office professional. I may have to pick up another (possibly in a different daytime appropriate color) to keep in my desk at work for those days when things...happen...to my makeup.
The second item, the Shadow Quad in Smoky, was love at first sight. I'd seen it called "Geiger-esque" and have to agree. The 4 colors fold up into an egg shape that can be opened one at a time or all at once. Even better, the small grooves in between each petal mean you won't damage your nails opening it!
I chose the Smoky quad rather than the Neutral quad because I have the Urban Decay Naked palette, and thought I would see how I could make these less subtle colors work for me at work. The colors are listed on the outside of the box rather than on the package itself. I don't see an issue with this, unless the line later has singles that also come in the quads. But for now, considering there are only a total of 8 powder eyeshadows that come in the 2 quads, the color only being listed on the box is just fine.
Color number one is called "Cool Charcoal". It does not go on as pigmented as many of my other shadows, but does blend out beautifully, making it an ideal crease color. It's a great charcoal color with pink-green metallic shift. The second color is "Warm Smoke". It looks medium grey in the pan but goes on more as a taupe color. It would make a beautiful color on the lid, and is very blendable. The third color is called "Silver Mist", which just doesn't make sense to me. the color looks pink in the pan, and goes on as a pink pearl. It makes an ideal highlighting color, but the only silver is the metallic shift of the color. The fourth color is called "Pearl Teal". It's a gorgeous teal color, without being too bright. It can even be worn as a lid color for work, because it can be blended very well.
The next day I went back to CVS, and the deal had changed to buy one, get one half off. But I needed a skin primer, and since Fyrinnae's site was down and I was unsure where in town I might be able to find the NYX primer, I decided to give the Nuance primer a try. For my half off item, I picked up a lipstick in Shimmering Nude.
The primer has a slight tint to it in the tube, but does not add any visible color to the skin. It does on very smoothly, and evens out the skin. I don't have large pores, but like every woman, they look ten times bigger to me than they actually are. So having a good primer to smooth out my skin and make a good canvas for my foundation - mineral or liquid - is a must. A lack of strong color in the primer is also important, because I am VERY fair-skinned and even most "light" products just don't look right on me. So I loved this primer right away.
The lipstick Shimmering Nudes was a pearl lipstick in light nude shade. It wasn't too yellow, and had just enough shimmer to avoid erasing my lips from my face. I love a good nude lipstick, but don't do the "match your lip color to your skiin color" trend. If I want to look dead, I'll just skip makeup, thank you very much. This nude is a great color for a summer afternoon. The lipstick was very moisturizing and didn't dry out for several hours. Another win!
Salma Hayek is also the cover woman for Allure this month, and they used Nuance products to do her makeup. Check it out, and see if it inspires you!
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