NARS One Shocking Moment Cheek Palette

I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS POST, I CANNOT EVEN ATTEMPT TO EXPRESS IT WITHOUT
THE TRUSTY CAPS LOCK. Also this post is going to be VERY picture heavy, just a
little warning because A. I couldn’t pick a couple B. I want you all to
appreciate this beautiful palette C. Its the only thing I’m gonna buy makeup
wise in an 8 month period, so allow me my excitement please ^____^

The NARS One Shocking Moment Cheek Studio Palette (£49) is the only palette from the holiday releases,
which really stood out to me and captured my heart. If you’re a regular
reader of my blog you’ll know that approximately 54 days ago I
decided to set myself a challenge and not purchase any more makeup till
my 21st birthday (which is on the 25th of May 2016). However in that post I
mentioned that I did give myself a small budget (or ONE purchase) from the
holiday collections, as these tend to give you excellent value for money, the
opportunity to try more products for a cheaper price and normally they come in
travel friendly palettes.

When I saw the Hourglass release, like many others my eyes turned to
heart-eyed emojis and I tweeted that I would probably be needing that! But
honestly I am SO happy that I am not buying makeup because it really forces me
to think carefully before making a purchase. I’m going to be honest, if I wasn’t
on this challenge/ban I probably would have bought it as soon as it was
released, but after watching several YT videos I realised how much of an
absolute rip off the palette is. I think I heard that the amount of product in a
single sized Hourglass blush/bronzer/powder is more than the total amount of
powder in the 6 pan holiday release….how did they think that was fair at all??
Anyway if you do have it I really hope you’re happy with it, but after looking
into it a little more I knew NARS was the way forwards.

Again regular readers here will know that I am quite the NARSsisst, I am yet
to regret any of my purchases from NARS and I use the brand on a daily basis.
Last years palette had the most stunning packaging and I generally liked it – I
would have 100% switched the highlighter, but the fact that they included casino
over laguna for once AND THE MINI ITA BRUSH, I still think it was worth it’s
price tag. This year NARS collaborated with edgy photography Steven Klein and
its safe to say the packaging is boardline…creepy. This palette’s in
particular isn’t too bad, it certainly is unique, but I can’t say I’m head over
heels y’know? Anyway I quite like the lack of rubber packaging, it is wipeable
and the lid itself is made of a glossier kind of plastic.

Size wise this palette is the largest I own from NARS, as it houses seven
different powders! The total amount of product in this palette is 29.5g which
for the £49 price tag is pretty amazing value for money. The Paloma contour
blush duo (3.5g x 2) is one of the main reasons why I choose this, because I had
seen this range before but never really felt like I needed any of them.
A full size of Paloma, which is the middle shade from the range, contains 2.7g
of the lighter shade and 5.5g of the contour, so you actually get more of the
highlight in here. You get 8.5g of Laguna, which is extremely generous seeing as
a full sized Laguna is 8g and costs £27.50 alone. There are four blushers and
you get 3.5g of each one, again  I think that’s pretty generous seeing as a full
sized NARS blush costs £23 and you get 4.8g in a full sized pan. So all in all,
this is one of the best palettes value wise that you can get your hands on.

Now lets get on to what I think about the actual shades included. So far
Paloma has been a mixed bag. I like but don’t love the darker ‘rosy
brown’ shade, it works decently well for chiselling the cheekbones, however it’s
not grey toned enough for me to want to purchase a full size. The highlight
shade is decent for setting under-eye concealer, however it isn’t as yellow
toned as I had hoped. This is more of a natural setting powder for me and I’m
very happy to own it, because I now know it would have been a bit of
disappointment to one day purchase the full size for £30. I do however think that
this duo is versatile enough for a decent amount of skintones and the quality of
the powders are just as I had imagined, pigmented enough to do the job,
buildable and of course very blendable.

Moving on to Laguna, this bronzer is one of my all time favourites. I
actually purchased the NARS Tahiti Laguna bronzer haul post
here, which is HUGE, because I love it that much. In the pan it looks
pretty meh and on the orange side of things, but on my skin it works
fantastically well to warm up my face without much effort. It has little bits of
shimmer in the pan but I don’t find that they show up on the skin. It honestly
is one of my HGs, alongside the Too Faced Chocolate Soleil in medium/deep and
Benefit’s Hoola. But from the three of them Laguna is the bronzer which can give
me a believable warmth to the skin, make lighter bases work and not appear
streaky in any way as it isn’t exactly matte. I certainly didn’t need anymore
Laguna in my collection at any point soon, but I cannot complain because I use
it so often!

The blusher round up is again versatile and better than last years holiday
blush palette too. Shades from light to deeper, all of which can work well for
most skintones. Also the advantage of having a few blushers in one palette,
means you can mix and match to get the perfect shade – always a good thing! From
left to right, Robotic a new shade is a pretty cool toned
light-medium pink with shimmers. I wish it had slightly more golden tone to it
because those are my favourites, but its wearable. Would I buy a full size? No.
But that is the beauty of having it in palette form. Blasphemy
is my favourite from the four shades and instantly made me think of my HG NARS
blush (reviewed
here), however this has a much stronger peachy tone. In fact this is like
D.T and Torrid merging to form this colour and I like it! Definitely the type of
shade I can practically apply with my eyes closed as it ticks my boxes and
it looks super flattering on olive skintones – yes I’d purchase this in full
size! The next two are part of their permanent line and I’m really happy to have
Luster, a peachy-golden blush, in this form because I really
wasn’t drawn to it when passing NARS counters. I haven’t really used this yet,
but I’ll report back soon. Finally the gorgeous Dolce Vita
blush is included, which I already have a full size of. It is STUNNING for A/W
time, a medium plum shade with little barely there golden shimmers and
it also has a gorgeous sculpting effect too.

The palette contains a huge mirror on the inside, which is always a good
thing in my opinion and after having this in my possession for around a week, I
can give you the verdict that I am SO happy with this purchase. The amount of
products to trial, the amount of product provided and the consistent high
quality of NARS powders makes it a wonderful purchase in my opinion, and well
worthy of the ‘one purchase in 8 months’ slot!

I purchased my palette from SpaceNK and
I can’t believe they’ve actually dropped the price ._. I got mine for £49 but it
is currently £45 – so if you want to save a couple of quid (plus free delivery!)
they I advise you get your hands on it right now, because I don’t think it’ll be
this price for long. I love SpaceNK and I found the speed of the delivery to be
super quick PLUS I got a bunch of really decently sized samples! I picked the
Caudalie anti-wrinkle lip and eye cream, Caudalie anti-wrinkle defence serum,
REN Invisible pores detox mask and the Chantecaille face oil. I’ve been using
the lip and eye cream and I’m surprised by how much I like it. I also can’t wait
to try that REN mask! Thanks SpaceNK for being so generous ^.^

Overall
Rating

Rating: 9

Pros: 7 different powders, very generous sizes
and an affordable price. Sturdy packaging, large mirror and unique design. The
laguna bronzer is almost the same size as a full sized, the paloma contour duo
work decently well and are suitable for light/medium skintones. The four
blushers have a good range between them, with a cool tone, a peach tone, a very
golden tone and a stunning deeper shade. Two brand new blushers in this palette.
Consistent high quality across the palette. The size of each of the products are
large enough for you to really test them out and find out if they’re worth
buying a full size of. Excellent value for money!

Cons: The colours, though versatile, are not
useable for darker skintones. I always think its a shame that high end brands
don’t come out with two versions of their holiday palettes.

Repurchase? As it’s L/E I wouldn’t be able to
but if it disappeared, yes! If you like it, get it ASAP, I doubt you’ll regret
it!