Re: Magical May Hauls 2024 🎩✨
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@makeitup305 I wore Teased today and I have thoughts. First, lemme cross-post my photo from the
100 Days of Lipstick Challenge:
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@makeitup305 I wore Teased today and I have thoughts. First, lemme cross-post my photo from the100 Days of Lipstick Challenge: I blotted Anne Lilac down at the perimeter of my lips for a softened look.Summary: the new blush formula trades buildable color and very easy blending for full powered pigmentation. Still blendable, but not as easily as the old formula. Longer feedback: SpoilerI used my favorite powder cheek brush (Chikuhodo Z-4, a grey squirrel small cheek brush) to apply Teased. With Coeur Battant (old-formula shade), I normally sweep my Z-4 a couple times across the pan and then do my usual stamp and buff application. But with Teased, I just lightly dipped the Z-4 once in the pan to get a very small bit of color on the brush—and I wound up having to buff more than usual on my cheek because holy pigmentation, Batman! If Rare Beauty’s liquid blush was a powder, it’d be this NARS reformulated powder blush. Also, I don’t think Teased blended out with the Z-4 as easily as Coeur Battant does. I know Teased doesn’t look super bold in that photo up there. That’s because I buffed and buffed and BUFFED and buffed to blend it out. On my skin tone, the lighter shades like NARS Talc-Free Powder Blush Orgasm Edge – 778 (I have the mini size) still need building up, unsurprisingly, so pigmentation power may vary across skin tones. I won’t call Teased a bad performer. I’ve used far worse powder blushes that were barely (if at all) blendable and had other issues. And I didn’t need to use a powder foundation or anything else over Teased to tone it down or soften its edges. I mean, it does blend. Just not as easily as the old NARS formula. I’m no cosmetic chemist, but I’m 90% sure this is because the new formula’s missing talc. Teased did last all day on my cheeks, so NARS’s blush is still long-wearing. 👍 And it doesn’t feel dry and chalky to me. I still don’t think it feels as silky as the old formula, but that could be personal bias; it’d be interesting to have someone help me do a blind swatch test where I can’t tell which pan/compact I’m feeling. Oh, and I do appreciate that NARS has made these blush compacts refillable, so now I can just buy refill pans instead of full compacts. I used my favorite powder cheek brush (Chikuhodo Z-4, a grey squirrel small cheek brush) to apply Teased. With Coeur Battant (old-formula shade), I normally sweep my Z-4 a couple times across the pan and then do my usual stamp and buff application. But with Teased, I just lightly dipped the Z-4 once in the pan to get a very small bit of color on the brush—and I wound up having to buff more than usual on my cheek because holy pigmentation, Batman! If Rare Beauty’s liquid blush was a powder, it’d be this NARS reformulated powder blush. Also, I don’t think Teased blended out with the Z-4 as easily as Coeur Battant does. I know Teased doesn’t look super bold in that photo up there. That’s because I buffed and buffed and BUFFED and buffed to blend it out. On my skin tone, the lighter shades like (I have the mini size) still need building up, unsurprisingly, so pigmentation power may vary across skin tones. I won’t call Teased a bad performer. I’ve used far worse powder blushes that were barely (if at all) blendable and had other issues. And I didn’t need to use a powder foundation or anything else over Teased to tone it down or soften its edges. I mean, it does blend. Just not as easily as the old NARS formula. I’m no cosmetic chemist, but I’m 90% sure this is because the new formula’s missing talc. Teased did last all day on my cheeks, so NARS’s blush is still long-wearing. And it doesn’t feel dry and chalky to me. I still don’t think it feels as silky as the old formula, but that could be personal bias; it’d be interesting to have someone help me do a blind swatch test where I can’t tell which pan/compact I’m feeling. Oh, and I do appreciate that NARS has made these blush compacts refillable, so now I can just buy refill pans instead of full compacts. The “clean” bandwagon: I’m sure folks are tired of hearing my usual rant about “clean beauty” and how it’s nothing but a fear mongering marketing scam (I’ve noticed Sephora’s trying to hook environmentalism and sustainability into their “clean” ranting; I wish they’d separate that out from “clean” since there’s actual scientific data for the environmental aspect). So I won’t repeat the whole thing. 😅 I don’t think NARS has marketed this blush reformulation as “clean” though… all marketing I’ve seen (or stopped to read) has focused on the formula being longer wearing and more pigmented than the old formula, plus vegan. (Vegan =/= “clean.”) I haven’t picked through all NARS’s marketing, but from what I’ve seen, I’m very happy they haven’t publicly slapped the “clean” label on this blush reformulation.