Be A Power Player With The New NARS Powermatte Lip Pigments

When you’re planning on rocking a really bold, pigment-saturated, capable-of-stopping-traffic lip color, a precise application is a necessity. Personally, I typically line my lips first and fill my pout with the lip pencil before applying a high-voltage pink or red, but I have been guilty of applying the color directly from the tube, which sometimes works perfectly but often results in a half hour of going over stray lines and smudges with concealer. Tracing the outline of your lips with a liquid lipstick can often be even trickier since these typically have a puffy sponge tip applicator or a brush with bristles than can easily fan out and fray. Always coming to our rescue, NARS Cosmetics devised a product that addressed all these concerns, the NARS Cosmetics Powermatte Lip Pigment ($26 each at NARScosmetics.com and Sephora stores), a liquid lip color with a matte finish and an innovative applicator with a tapered design (wider at the base and narrower at the tip), perfectly flat and sloping edges on all four sides, and a small doe-foot tip that allows you to draw straight lines with minimal effort. Unlike other liquid lipsticks which have more of a creamy feel, this one is incredibly fluid — in fact, NARS claims it “applies like an ink,” and the analogy strikes me as accurate. Given its fluidity, then, the liquefied pigment feels weightless when applied to lips and, once dry, the colors go from having a wet sheen to featuring a perfectly matte finish — all without losing their potency.

Available in 20 shades, the NARS Powermatte Lip Pigment is another triumph under the NARS belt, but I must warn you: these can be a bit drying so, if your lips tend to get chapped easily (as is the case with me). I’d suggest applying an intense lip balm before reaching for your favorite Powermatte shade. I typically dab on either the LANO Lanolips or the Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment and, once my lips have fully absorbed their nourishing ingredients, only then do I apply a Powermatte shade. Also, after wearing one of these for the day, I try to apply a rich lip mask (BITE Beauty’s Agave Lip Mask is boss!) to avoid having my feel tight and to eliminate the possibility of chapped and cracked lips.

The Powermatte colors range from nudes, perky pinks, and bold reds to really edgy greige hues, vamp-y eggplant purple, and stark black hues. When it comes to innovative shades, NARS is always ahead of the game, and this color selection is just another example of that flair for creating nuanced hues that are grounded in contemporary sensibilities but feel sophisticated and high fashion. And the pigment pay-off is insane!

Ready for a tour of the shades? Let’s start with Warm Leatherette, a magenta pink that makes me want to sing Prince’s “Raspberry Beret” and the top of my longs; Save The Queen, a mauve rose with cool undertones; and Get It On, a rosy nude shade (and one of the only nude colors that’s actually flattering on me!).

Next up, check out swatches of Low Rider, a light honeysuckle pink; Don’t Stop, a geranium red that borders on a poppy red color, but has enough cool undertones to distance it from typical vermilion hues; and Give It Up, an Elle Woods-worthy fuchsia.

Next, check out swatches of Get Up Stand Up, a bright coral pink; Light My Fire, a robust vermilion shade; and Just What I Needed, a brownish rose hue.

Below, you can see swatches of American Woman, which is described as a chestnut rose; Rock With You, a slightly goth, deep mulberry shade; and Starwoman, a power-packed red with blue undertones.

Next on our tour of Powermatte shades, we have swatches of Under My Thumb, a sangria red that’s perfect for the autumn season; Walk This Way, a rosy pink shade with neutral undertones; and Just Push Play, an acerola cherry color (or, to use another berry hue comparison, a currant shade).

Next up, we have a few of the edgier colors in the Powermatte collection: London Calling, a moody, grayish, lilac with pink undertones; Slow Ride, a hot cocoa hue; and Paint It Black, a witchy black.

Last, we have Done It Again, a chocolate brown; and Wild Night, a deep eggplant purple hue.

Next, since I’m sure y’all want to see how these look when on lips, I’m sharing a few pics in which I’m wearing a couple of the colors.

First, here’s me wearing the Light My Fire hue, one of my absolute favorites in the collection:

And here I am wearing wearing Warm Leatherette, another must-have:

As I mentioned briefly, nude shades tend to wash me out, but the Get It On Powermatte color is actually pretty flattering on me so I’ve come to love it. Here’s me wearing Get It On:

In the pic below, meanwhile, I’m wearing the Low Rider shade, which is really vibrant and playful (even though my facial expression is so weird in this photo!):

Below, I’m wearing the Get Up Stand Up shade. For some reason, it almost looks like a red hue in the photo, but it’s actually a really deep coral pink:

One of the more demure shades, meanwhile, is Save The Queen, which I’m wearing in the photos below:

All in all, I’m obsessed with all the red shades in the collection (particularly Light My Fire, Don’t Stop, Just Push Play, and Starwoman), as well as Warm Leatherette, Get It On, Low Rider, Give It Up, and Walk This Way. Of the edgier shades, I really like London Calling since it’s not too goth or costume-y, and it’s just the right amount of quirky and unexpected. All in all, the Powermatte Lip Pigments pack quite the punch, and they knocked me off my feet!