When you’re faced with the decision of choosing wide array of colours, I guess it is the safest bet to start with the neutral. They will never fail you. The question is – which neutral will suit best for our skintone?
NARS blushes that are on the brown/neutral family are Luster, Sertao, Lovejoy and Madly. I can see from swatches that Silvana and Zen have also have a hint of neutralness in them.
Luster looks very neutral on the pan, not too dark but just right. However if you look closer under the natural daily light you can see that there’s actually a hint of peach on it. NARS website describe it as sheer golden apricot. For lighter skintone the peach will be more obvious, whereas for those on the medium or darker complexion side the golden sheen will bring the most natural healthy looking sheen that you will ever see. Use full rounded brush if you want more pigmentation and stippling brush if you want just a hint of peach on your cheeks.
Sertao on the other side is the true neutral brush. In the pan Sertao looks almost the same with Luster but a shade darker. The truth is it is nothing alike. I presume this is caused by the golden sheen that both blush possesed but where Luster is peach, Sertao is actually more on the tawny side. I heard many people with medium to darker complexion much prefer Sertao than Luster because it’s more pigmented and it’s easier for them to get the healthy glow with this. True it is more pigmented, but what I see it’s this blush have darker golden sheen compared to Luster but missing the this-is-my-natural-cheeks-colour effect that Luster give me. I would choose Sertao if I want a true neutral beige blush and not for other reasons. Since it’s very neutral tone it is save for warm and cool undertone.
Lovejoy is one of my favourite NARS blush. It can be used in so many ways – on its own, with highlighter or mixed with more in-your-face coloured blushes. Lovejoy is shimmering bronzed with a hint of rose that you can barely see on the pan. But once sweeped to your cheeks you can see that there’s not just plain bronze in your cheeks. This is truly one of the unique blush that NARS have. For those with lighter skintone you might want to be very carefull with this because it’s very pigmented and opt for stippling brush or fan brush to apply it. Whereas for us on the darker complexion it’s like a dream come true, one sweep is all you need.
Madly is another blush on the brown family. I havent seen it in real life so I could not comment much. From the swatches that I’ve seen Madly is actually like Sertao with more terracota in it. I get the feeling that this is one of the less popular blush.
I’ve tried my best to capture the true colour of these blushes but picture will never do justice to the real beauty of them.
