u/Screw_coloranalysis

i have been testing this blush for the last four days after getting the shade que calor in a 1ml sample packet. Feel free to jump to any section that interests you I’ll be talking about:

- Review of the blush

- Comparison to the other previous two liquid blushes

- Comparison to other liquid blushes

- Review of the other currently available Nars blushes (except the new blush-highlighter hybrid)

**Review**

This is a water free squalane based serum blush. It’s very pigmented, but because it’s essentially a tinted oil, you do get a lot of blendability and it’s easy to get both cheeks even, which is often a challenge with pigmented blushes. I applied it on top of two different satin foundations that were set with powder. I personally didn’t experience the issue of it removing my base, but I could see it doing that on a more hydrating foundation given the first ingredient. The finish is a natural dewy. Nars claims that it’s long wearing, it wasn’t without using the sandwich method of applying it, setting it with powder and then adding the smallest amount of it back to get the finish back. It’s also quite pretty on top of a more matte blush. The shade is a sunburnt warm rosy shade it’s less muted than dolce vita.

**Comparison with the other previous liquid blushes**

It’s not at all similar to the previous two liquid blushes. The afterglow blush was a sheer more gel like formula that gave a watercolour effect and the original one with the pump was a very glam full coverage blush that you had to be careful with. They were also both more typical liquid blushes. The new insatiable blush is essentially a dewy cream blush in liquid form. My favourite was the afterglow, but I also quite like the insatiable blush too.

**Comparison to other liquid blushes**

- The rare beauty liquid blush in the liquid finish is more pigmented, longer wearing and harder to sheer out. It’s one of those formula that looks best if you don’t try to sheer it out too much or it can be patchy. Not my favourite on my fair skin.

- The glossier cloud paint are closer to the afterglow blushes but but more milky and pigmented. Finish wise they’re not far off from the insatiable blushes.

- The Huda beauty blush filter are more grippy and are a bit less pigmented. They are also longer wearing.

- The glow recipe flush are the most similar thing I’ve tried. I looked at the ingredients and they also contain a lot of squalane, but these ones also contain water. Honestly, if I had to pick one on the formula alone and not the shade range, I’d go for these one instead of Nars. That Nars sample actually reminded me of how much I like the glow recipe one when I got a sample.

**Comparison to other Nars blushes**

I feel like these blushes take the place of the old multiple blush pre-reformulation because they look a lot like a cream blush on. I wasn’t a fan of the original multiple, these are better and the colours are more vibrant. The multiple blur look a lot like a matte liquid blush on but in a stick format. Leave it to Nars to do a cream blush that looks like a liquid powder hybrid and a liquid blush that looks like a cream. My favourite blush from Nars are the talc fee powder blushes in the matte finish. They don’t swatch well but they are very smooth and long wearing once on. The multiple blur would rank second and these new insatliable blushes last, but I still enjoy them.

I have a lot of Nars products so I feel like the competition is strong and it wouldn’t make it in my top five, but it’s still a beautiful product.

Did you notice how common it is for people to want to buy something new or return something after barely trying instead of changing their technique?

I’m not talking about products that fully don’t work or weren’t as advertised here. I’m mostly talking about things like the season has changed and what worked in colder weather is now sliding off. Instead of skipping some steps in the skin prep or using less foundation, people rush to buy a new warm weather routine. Oftentimes removing products is the solution, not adding something new. Sometimes also the solution is already in our drawers. When it’s warm and very humid, I use my baked setting powder as a lightweight foundation.

Every summer like clockwork there are a lot of bronzer releases and a lot of those are very warm. And every summer I see small influencers being super disappointed that the bronzer, who looks just like the picture, looks orange. Good example of that are the new Dior sticks and the new Tom Ford.

These small influencers don’t get a lot if any pr and I don’t understand why they are spending top dollars on a luxury product they’ll just dislike. Also as a viewer, I want the opinion of someone that actually like these types of shade. Just like I’d rather watch someone with oily or combo skin reviewing a matte foundation.

There has been a switch in makeup since tutorials fell in popularity. Shades and looks are not as much at the forefront, and it’s all about reviewing formulas. Regardless if we’re the intended clientele or not.

I think a lot of us in online beauty communities have a certain collection size. If you’d go back where would you trim your collection?

My answer:

I’d definitely trim everything, except mascara, tools and brows where I’m fine.

I wouldn’t be a minimalist for eyes and lips, but I think 10 lipsticks (3 reds, 4 pinks and corals, 3 natural shades), 3 lip liners (2 reds one brown) and 2 glosses would be a nice goal. For eyeshadows, I currently have 20 mostly small palettes and that’s definitely higher than what I can rotate frequently. If I could go back I’d limit myself to 5 (one multicoloured, one all matte nude, one warm colourful one, and one cool nude quad and one warm nude quad) and focus more on powder singles and eyeshadow sticks while not going overboard there either.

For cheeks two powder highlights, 2 powder bronzer and one cream, 2 cream and/or liquid blush and 5 powder would be more than enough while once again not being minimalist.

Finally for base, three foundations (two liquids, one powder), one primer, one powder and one corrector and one concealer would be enough.

So overall, if we’re being generous with the eyeshadow singles and considering brows and mascara I’d be around 50 products. My collection is about 4 times that which is a little frightening. How about you?

I think the title is pretty self explanatory what are some types of products that fell in popularity with beauty lovers (some of those might still be popular with average consumers)

I have :

- **Classic brow pencil you can sharpen** It seems like now felt tips and micro pencils are more popular.

- **Brow powder** The first thing I ever used on my brows were these little smashbox trio that came with a wax.

- **Potted gel liner** When more skinny gel pencil came to the market they won over that for convenience.

- **Classic thick matte lipsticks** I’m talking like the Mac ones before reformulation or Pat McGrath matte trance. It looks like Nars is also getting rid of the powermatte bullets. I sense a velvet formula taking its place.

- **Pearl finish eyeshadows** like the Mac frosts, satins and veluxe pearl and inglot pearl finish. They still are common in the luxury world, but a lot of hit brands are going for sparkly or full on metallic.

- **Build your own palette** there are currently no options at Sephora to build your own eyeshadow palette. They used to have MUFE, Urban Decay and ABH. You have to go for Mac or online shopping now.

- **Loose eyeshadow** MUFE star powders and MAC pigments were all the rage in the past. The last brand I can think of that released one was the defunct GXVE beauty.

- **Loose mineral foundations**

What other products can you think of? Are you still using some of these?

I definitely still use my palettes I made and powder and classic brow pencils. I can’t say I use my Mac fluidlines all that often, but when I do I wonder why I haven’t. I also use a lot of subtle shimmers on my eyes. I bought the ABH embers palette which has these more pearl finish shimmers.

I feel like I’ve become significantly better at resisting the appeal of sales and the fomo of limited editions. But there’s something about the appeal of minis and mini gift with purchase that really tests my willpower. It’s the appeal of being theoretically able to eventually finish the products that is making me a gold medalist in mental gymnastics. And it’s not like I have a good track record of actually finishing mini makeup. Of all the minis I had, I’ve finished all of the mini primers and mascaras, all of the mini sheer lipsticks/tinted lip balms, one mini powder bronzer, a deluxe sample 0.5g eyeshadow stick and two mini setting powders.

Even though that doesn’t sound that bad, I have right now in my collection:

- 1 mini twist up brow pencil

- 3 mini liquid blush, 2 mini cream stick blushes and 1 mini powder blush

- 3 mini primers (I’m not really worried about theses they should be all gone soon) and I’ve finished one this month.

- 2 unopened mini mascaras I got as gift with purchase and another gift with purchase in use.

- 2 mini lipsticks I had a third one I finished this month. One of those is a very pigmented matte long wearing red lipstick.

- 1 mini stick bronzer and 2 mini powder bronzers

- 8 mini eyeshadow sticks all proper minis not deluxe sample size

- 1 mini eye primer

- 1 mini powder

That’s 27 freaking mini products. I know the 3 primers, the mini nude lipstick, the two backup mini mascaras and one of the mini powder bronzers I can finish in 2026. But that’s still leaves me with 20 mini products left. I’m writing this to hold myself accountable, because Nars just released a new liquid blush and knowing them they will offer a mini as an offer on the Sephora website soon and it will test my willpower.

With the upcoming bans of Cyclohexasiloxane, Cyclopentasiloxane and talc in cosmetics in the EU, more and more products have been and will be reformulated or discontinued. There seems to be a panic in beauty communities and a lot of people are running to buy the latest discontinuation. 

I can understand that some people with a minimalist collection that regurlarly finish the same products could see some benefits with buying a replacement a bit earlier to delay the inevitable. But let’s be honest with myself, if I’m in this subreddit, it’s because I have a lot more products I can use.

One of my favourite lipsticks is on its way out, not because of the ban, the line still exists, it’s a colour discontinuation. I caught myself thinking about buying a backup. I have 25 lipsticks and while is well used, it’s nowhere near finished, I don’t need a backup. There are plenty of really nice formulas out there, once I’m actually almost done I can always bring the bullet with me shopping to find a close alternative. I also wanted to maybe buy a backup of my eye primer because it contains talc. Once again I’m nowhere need finished, I’ll figure something out once I’m actually done.

How about you, have you fought the urge to buy a backup lately? 

When I was young, I always liked makeup and I had more eyeshadows (single and quads pre palette craze) that I could realistically finish. They had noticeable dips and hitting pan happened from time to time without needing to seek it, it was a byproduct of repeated usage. My whole collection would fit in a hard makeup boxy case and besides lipglosses and eyeshadows, I had one of each.

I’ve been realizing for a while that my collection is far bigger than when I was younger.  But I didn’t realize how much my mindset has changed since I started reading product reviews on makeupalley and then watching product reviews. Before reviews, I wouldn’t try to get a holy grail product, I didn’t even knew it was thing. 

What changed the most is what was driving the purchases. Before I would buy something in the goals of creating new looks and not because I was chasing the next hyped product. Usually it was a new shade of an eyeshadow or lipgloss formula I knew I liked. Of course hype did exist then too, but it was fairly long lasting, it wasn’t a new product every month.

I now feel less inclined to even want to add products now that I have had a “breakthrough” on my behaviours. There will always be a product I like slightly more than something I already own in a given category, I’ll never be done if I keep on chasing the new and improved generation of something or essentially the same thing I already own but with a nice new hat.

What about you, what made you accumulate too much?