Why Fix It It Ain't Broke?

Now you are probably thinking that Lex likes to try everything just about once and is fearless of change. And you'd be wrong to think and assume that! I find that the older I am getting the more I cling on to things and fear change.

Why would you change something if everyone loves it and didn't have a problem with it in the first place? 

Like the Coke formula back in 1985? McDonald's apple pie - not sure about the year but it use to be deep fried and delicious and now it's baked and just tastes, I don't know - weird? I can also go on and on about systems used at my previous job. When you've been employed by a company for seven years, you see a lot of people come in and try to change the system and then go because not everyone was ready for change.

Now that was a change I did get behind.

How does this apply to cosmetics? I'm getting there.

A few short years back, like when I was on maternity leave, I discovered a lip gloss that didn't leave my lips dry and itchy the day after I wore it. It was by NARS and I discovered it by reading one of my favorite blogs. I remember Karen waxing on and on about her love for the shade Supervixen, a metallic mauve and I was just smitten by the name. This was a few weeks after the birth of my daughter. I was achy, tired, bloated, simply a mess.

I needed something called Supervixen on my puffy face! 

Five years later the love has been quite strong. I found the one shade I always had to have a backup for, Sweet Revenge, a sheer grapefruit that blended beautifully on top of any nude pink shade I had. It was my security blanket and I could go from feeling demure to well...smoky eye bad girl depending on my eye look. 

When NARS announced a new formula to their lip glosses, my interest piqued and I was also a bit fearful.

What if I don't like it? What if the unscented gloss now had some weird scent that will nauseate me? What if...god forbid...it made my lips, dry and itchy? Ugh, the suspense was killing me. 

Until I found a goodie package on my doorstep today.

Introducing NARS Lip Gloss 2.0...
(left to right - Sweet Revenge, Tasmania, and Easy Lover)

And here's the stylized promo shot (courtesy of the PR team at NARS):

So what changed?

Now the glosses contain even more nourishing ingredients that help smooth fine lines and keeps the lips supple, while sea lavender helps against signs of aging. Sounds great, right? What helps even more...all 23 original colors have been revamped including 7 new shades. That's right 30 shades of nourishing love for your pucker!

My thoughts? Well for one I am very happy about the packaging. The clear tube allows you to see a true representation of the shade versus the frosty tube of the original formula. You couldn't really tell what the color was:

So back to Sweet Revenge. It's the perfect pink nude for me. It's described as a pink grapefruit so you'd expects some coral or orange. Not on me...it's all pink beige with a super subtle shimmer.

Top is the old formula and bottom is the new formula. I apologize if you can't see but the newer version feels a bit more pink on me. That's not a bad thing. What I love most is that it's a bit thinner than the original. It goes on easily but because I feel like it's thinner and a bit more sheer, I need at least three coats to make somewhat of an impact on me and it's not by much either. I definitely need to wear this on top of lip liner or lipstick. I do like to wear this solo if I'm taking my daughter to school on a day off and I haven't gotten ready for the day yet or I'm on the train to work in my gym gear before I've showered and made myself up for the day. When worn by itself, it does enhance my natural lips a bit but since I have some discoloration on my lips I would have loved more opaqueness but I'm starting to get over that. The shimmer is very subtle so don't let the color swatch on the site scare you!

Here's Sweet Revenge on top of Whirl lip pencil (from MAC):

The other shade I tried is new to the collection, Tasmania (pink cantaloupe):

It looks like a pink coral in the tube - perfect for Spring/Summer naturally. On my lips, it's super sheer and would need a boost from a pink nude or coral to amplify the color. I still like this shade regardless. Also, it's named after the island state of Australia. Sorry, but when I see the word, Tasmania, I am thinking of that adorable spastic animated character from Looney Tunes and I believe he was like a rat brown color and the real Tasmanian devil are black. I just appreciate the ease of this shade - perfect gloss to throw into your bag in case of an emergency!

Here's a swatch:

Lastly, Easy Lover (sheer, hot pink):

I love this shade on top of fuchsia for extra shine but surprisingly I get a lovely look when this tops off a pink nude shade.

This is the only decent picture I was able to take of Easy Lover on my lips - as you can see, it's a VERY sheer hot pink.

So again, I'm very pleased with this new formula. I love that it's thinner and it comes out of the tube - not a gloppy mess. Also, the doe foot applicator feels great on the lips. There's no scent so hyper sensitive noses can rejoice! It may be a drawback for some that it goes on so thin, you may need three extra coats or ten extra minutes to layer to get some type of color on the lips, well from these light shades. I have yet to test the darker, brighter colors.

You can find these new glosses at department and specialty shops that carry the NARS brands. And as always you can go to the site, www.narscosmetics.com and order to your heart's content.

NARS Lip Gloss - $26/USD

Glosses were sent to me for consideration by the PR team at NARS Cosmetics.