NARS Cosmetics review

François Nars was a working makeup artist for a decade before he put twelve lipsticks into Barneys in 1994, and it shows in the part of the catalogue that matters. NARS is a pigment company. The things it does best — blush, concealer, cream products — are the things that depend entirely on how well a pigment is milled, dispersed and bound.

Radiant Creamy Concealer

This is the brand's best product and one of the best in the category. It is a high-coverage liquid concealer that manages, unusually, to cover without reading as a patch of makeup. The pigment load is high, the slip is long enough to blend properly before it sets, and it does not crease into fine lines on most people without powder.

There are over thirty shades. At around $34 for 6 ml it is expensive per millilitre, and it is still the product we would pick if we could only keep one concealer.

The blush range

Orgasm has been in continuous production since 1999 and is the reason most people know the brand. It is a peachy-pink with golden shimmer, and the reason it works on so many skin tones is that the shimmer particles are small enough to read as luminosity rather than glitter.

The wider blush range is the real story. NARS blushes are pressed densely, mill finely, and deliver pigment with the first touch of a brush — which sounds like a small thing until you use a blush that requires four passes to show up. Dolce Vita, Deep Throat and Luster are all excellent. The names are what they are; the product is superb.

Foundation and the shade question

Light Reflecting Foundation and Sheer Glow are the two to know. Sheer Glow is the older formula — a medium-coverage, natural-finish liquid that has been a professional standard for over fifteen years. Light Reflecting is the newer, more forgiving option with a soft-focus finish and a broader shade range.

On shade range NARS is good rather than exceptional. There is genuine depth at both ends and undertone variation through the middle, but the granularity in the deepest shades is thinner than Fenty's, and a few of the deeper shades run ashy under artificial light.

The packaging problem

NARS's signature soft-touch rubberised black coating looks superb for about a year. After that it starts to degrade, turning tacky, collecting lint and, in warm bags, becoming genuinely unpleasant to handle. This has been a known complaint for over a decade and the brand has not solved it, presumably because the finish is a recognisable asset. It is the single most-mentioned criticism from long-term customers and it deserves to be.

Ownership and direction

Shiseido acquired NARS in 2000. François Nars remained creative director until stepping back in recent years, and the brand's aesthetic has stayed remarkably consistent through that transition. Where Shiseido ownership shows is in the skincare range, which reads as a corporate decision to extend a profitable name into a category it has no particular authority in. Skip it.

The lips and eyes

The lip range is stronger than its reputation. Audacious Lipstick is a properly built bullet — dense pigment, a satin finish that does not slide, and a magnetic cap that closes with a click that is admittedly half the appeal. Powermatte Lip Pigment is a liquid matte that manages to be long-wearing without the sandpaper feeling most of the category accepts as inevitable. Afterglow Lip Balm is the easy everyday option.

On eyes, Climax Mascara is worth singling out because prestige mascara is usually a waste of money — drugstore formulas from Maybelline and L'Oréal are genuinely as good, and often better. Climax is one of very few exceptions: a big, wet, volumising brush with a formula that builds without clumping. Single Eyeshadow pans in the matte finishes are excellent and the shimmers are merely good.

The names across all of this remain what they have always been. Nars has never apologised for them and the brand's audience has largely made its peace with it, but a thirty-year-old joke is a thirty-year-old joke, and in 2026 it reads less as provocative than as dated.

Price

$26 to $54. NARS sits squarely in prestige and the value score reflects a real problem: e.l.f. and NYX now make blushes and concealers that are genuinely close, at a third of the price. NARS is still better. It is not $30 better on every product, and long-time customers know it.

The verdict

Buy the Radiant Creamy Concealer and one blush. Consider Sheer Glow if you want a professional-standard foundation and can match the shade properly. Accept that the packaging will not age well.

Thirty years in, NARS is still the brand to beat on pigment quality. It just no longer wins by as much as it used to.