NARS have collaborated with Steven Klein for their holiday collection this year, and the collection is called Fantascene and includes 23 different items. I bought both of the cheek palettes within the collection as they looked stunning, and I’ve already reviewed the larger One Shocking Moment Palette here on my blog. This is the second cheek palette within the collection; the NARS Despair Cheek Palette £45.
Just like the One Shocking Moment Palette, the Despair Palette features one of Steven Klein’s photographs on the lid which is pretty creepy if you ask me, but it’s definitely different from the average palette.
The NARS Despair Cheek Palette contains one highlighter and three blushes, as well as a miniature NARS ITA Brush. Each of the powders are 3.5g grams each and are worth £16.77 each, making this palette worth £67.08 without counting the brush as it’s a miniature one, but the brush head itself is almost full size.
I have always wanted the NARS ITA Brush, but it’s £43 which is a price I’m not willing to pay for a single brush so to get a travel sized version in this palette makes me very happy. The bristles are quite soft, although I do think it’s strange ton include it within this palette as it’s a contour brush and none of these shades are contour shades, but I’m still happy it’s inside the palette.
Nico is a pale champagne shade with a subtle sheen.
Savage is a matte bright peachy pink.
Esoteric is a bright orangey coral, with a subtle sheen.
Ferocious is a purple toned berry with a satin finish.
All four shades within the NARS Despair Cheek Palette are amazing in terms of quality, with great pigmentation and they blend beautifully with very little effort. Nico is the only shade within the palette which is from their permanent range, and the other three shades are palette exclusives but they really ought to make them permanent as they’re just gorgeous.
I particularly like that this palette has all of your bases covered; a pink, a coral and a plum, and you can mix the shades together too. If you’re not a shimmer blush fan, I’d recommend the NARS Despair Cheek Palette over the One Shocking Moment Palette as this contains less shimmer but both palettes are stunning and they’re very welcome additions to my makeup collection.