NARS x Steven Klein Despair palette review

NARS x Steven Klein is enough to give even the most toughened makeup addict heart palpitations. From the slightly weird, yet amazing photography on the front of the packaging, to the limited edition holiday palettes, it’s enough to make you hand over your bank card with the words ‘I’ll take it all’.

There’s a whole range of solo pieces on offer, however for me, the stars of the show are the holiday gift sets and palettes. 'An Abnormal Female' is worth a purchase for the bullet style casing alone (the Velvet Matte Lip Pencils inside are obviously a second good reason to buy, ahem) and the Despair face palette is going to be one you need. Fact. There’s also the One Shocking Moment palette which looks just as amazing, but it does contain Orgasm and Laguna, for which I’m deducting half a point. So if you already have one of those two shades (or both, as let’s face it, NARS put them in everything) get Despair instead. You really won’t regret it.

The Despair palette features four cheek shades:
Nico – light beige with satin shimmer
Savage – warm coral red, matte finish
Esoteric – medium pastel orange, matte finish
Ferocious – soft plum with a hint of sheen in the finish

As you’d expect from NARS, the pigmentation on each of these is amazing; you really do need just the lightest sweep to get a good wash of colour. Savage is a little too red for my skin tone, but Nico and Ferocious are definitely going to become staples in my daily routine. 3 of the shades included are special editions for this palette, which is such a nice change from the usual lines ups. It does mean that if you fall in love with them it’s going to be hard to find a replacement though. Maybe I should buy a backup palette just in case?

Nico falls somewhere between a highlighter and a blusher shade so is a bit of an anomaly among the other three shades, but I really love the soft sheen it gives to the skin, without being overly shimmery. On me, it works well used in place of my normal highlighter, with a light dusting across my cheekbones and brow bone. It has the lightest pigmentation of all the products in this palette, but it layers up a treat if you want to go for a bolder look.

While the other three shades might look pretty bright in the pan, they all blend out well on the skin – especially so for Ferocious. I suspect Savage would look stunning used on medium to dark skin tones, but for light/very light ones I’d advise a very light touch to avoid looking like you’ve just run a marathon.

They’ve also thrown in a travel size Ita Kabuki brush, which to be honest is fine for on the go, but if you’re planning to use the palette at home I’d recommend using a larger, fluffier brush for a better finish.

The Despair palette costs £45 and can be found on the NARS website, at Selfridges and via Look Fantastic/Feel Unique.

What do you think of the NARS x Steven Klein collection? Will you be ordering anything?

*PR sample