Nars Tropical Princess and Lost Coast Review and Comparisons

Nars Duo Eyeshadows Tropical Princess and Lost Coast, part of their Adult Swim collection for summer 2104 was released awhile back and I had been all set on only purchasing TP simply because the combination looked more unique and ‘Nars-y’, not to mention, taupe is a colour I’ve always found challenging for my warm yellow skintone.

Then I saw this gorgeous look on Liz over at Cafe Makeup and I went out the next day to purchase LC too. Let me get this out there right now: I’m suffering a bit of buyer’s regret with both.

In terms of quality of the duos taken as a whole, I think TP is much better than LC, but it’s not exactly on par with their star quality duos like Surabaya or the phenomenal Kauai from the spring collection earlier in the year.

Tropical Princess (LE) consists of a ‘neon lemon lime’ and a ‘icy lavender’, both shadows finely milled, buttery and silky in texture. Upon application, the frost shimmer green-yellow lime shade is the stand out half, with good colour payoff and uniqueness. The lavender in my view is too ‘icy’/frosted and looks closer to silver than lavender on me. Wear time is where this duo fails me, as the lime slowly fades away and by the end of the day I can only see worn in frosted silver. This was what I’ve experienced without a primer though, so perhaps it will work better with, but I’ve got loads of eyeshadows that work beautifully on my lids without primer, so this duo might become too much effort.

Lost Coast (LE) consists of the shimmery ‘golden pewter’ taupe and a matte ‘lilac snow’. The taupe leans slightly neutral nude, making it slightly easier for me to use than a true cool toned grey taupe. The texture of the taupe is soft and silky, but not as buttery as the shades in TP. The lilac shade is a little too powdery, the lilac-ness hardly showing up, pulling mostly white with a tiny hint of pink on my lids. In terms of wear time, the taupe for me is better than the lime in TP and doesn’t fade unreasonably. The lilac is decent, but Nars matte powders do tend to disappear from my lids more easily than their shimmers.

I’ve been more or less using both duos together as a sort of quad, because the two purple shades combined actually make a pretty good shimmering lilac, the taupe is a good definition/crease shade, and the lime a unique accent or detail.

Here are several quick lazy looks. Sorry for the poop-quality phone pictures, they do look more pigmented in real life. Also, I've been largely skipping on the eyeliner and mascaras because lazy.

a. LC taupe

b. LC lilac

c. TP green

d. TP lavender

Green Wings

1. Began with a good wash of d. all over lids up to brows using Smashbox Tapered Shadow brush (7)

2. Layered b, focusing on inner third of lids and blended to outward over middle third of lids using same Smashbox brush

3. Used a. to add definition, blended from outer third of lids to the socket line with Mac 217.

4. Winged the eyes with c. using Bobbi Brown Angle Eye Shadow brush

5. Opened up eye look with d. on inner corner and lower lashline with BB brush

6. Used mix of a. and c. for lower outer third liner using BB brush.

Green Wings version 2

More or less like the above, but the lime shade is blended over outer third area, and skipped using the taupe.

Purple Mischmasch

Mixed b. and d. all over lids up to brow using Smashbox 7. Then layered c. all over keeping it under socket line, and blended out with Mac 217.

Green Mischmasch

1. d. all over lids up to brows with Smashbox 7

2. b. focused on inner 2/3s and up to brows with Smashbox 7

3. c. all over outer third of lids with Smashbox and edges blended with Mac 217

4. Tiny bit of d. at inner corner and a on lower outer lash line with BB Angle brush

Now some stash comparisons. Those who have a good collection of taupes and purples, I think LC can easily be duped, and the lilac shade isn’t all that great quality anyway. As for TP, indeed I don’t have a close dupe of the lime, so I'm going to need to play around with it some more to get it to last.

(Sorry for the weird resized fuzzy quality with some of the pictures, html isn't cooperating with me today.)

The Lime

a. Nars - Tropical Princess

b. Majolica Majorca - The Little Humming Book I

c. Nars - Iceland (right)

d. Giorgio Armani - Silk/Intense Eye Shadow in Gold Hercule (32)

e. Rouge Bunny Rouge - Long-lasting Eye Shadow in Resplendent Quetzal (018)

f. Laura Mercier - Caviar Stick in Seashell

The Nars is about midway between the Armani and the RBR, and it really is an interesting mix of yellow and green.

The Purples

a. Etude House - Look at My Eyes Cafe in PP502

b. Nars - Lost Coast

c. Nars - Tropical Princess

d. Giorgio Armani - 4 Color Eyeshadow Palette in Parma (8) second shade from top

e. Makeup Forever - Aqua Cream in 54

f. Muji - Eye Color Quad in Lavender x Pink

g. Bobbi Brown - Luxe Eye Palette top right shade Pink Pearl

The LC lilac is closest in colour to the Armani which is a shimmer. The TP lavender is distinctively silver, seen in the below comparison.

a. Nars - Tropical Princess

b. Muji - bottom left pearl shade

c. Laura Mercier - Caviar Stick in Sterling

d. Giorgio Armani - Silk/Intense Eye Shadow in Silver Chaffer (35)

The Taupe

a. Nars - Lost Coast

b. Becca - Eye Colour Powder Shimmer in Lame

c. Benefit - Creaseless Cream Shadow in Skinny Jeans

d. MAC - Pro Longwear Paint Pot in Antique Diamond

e. Too Cool for School - Too Cool Art Class Eye Color in Khaki Gray (9)

f. Muji - brown taupe shade

My closest dupe of the taupe is probably the Too Cool for School Khaki Gray, which I think is much more complex and beautiful on the eyes as well as being a whole lot cheaper.

I think this is one lesson well learnt. I might have still picked up TP, but if I had shopped my stash properly I would have definitely skipped LC. Also, judging by my stash pics, it looks like I've hardly touched any of the products (a few of which applies true), so I should really go out of my comfort zone more and up the amount and pigmentation sometimes.

Have you suffered from any buyer's regret lately?

xx
Noodles