As a long-time admirer of Japanese elegance, François Nars brings that culture’s sublime beauty aesthetic to life for Holiday 2011 with a “kabuki-inspired” collection, the crown jewel being this ‘Hanamichi’ eye palette. Like an exquisite work of art, this palette bears three lotus blossoms in hues of red, gold, and black upon its glimmering white canvas, which also includes a traditional-style brush, hand-wrapped with wisteria vine. Personally, I fell in love with the delicate beauty of this palette from the moment I saw it – now I’m torn whether to wear or frame it! All swatches are on skin primed with Giorgio Armani’s new ‘Designer Lift Foundation’ in #5 (not yet reviewed).
The outer box, with NARS’ signature black lettering on a black background below a wide red band, a colour traditionally associated with Japanese culture.
Like Russian nesting dolls, each layer reveals a new wonder: here, the satin case that houses the ‘Hanamichi’ palette, lovingly snuggled within.
A closer look at the satiny sleeve that protectively cradles the palette, gently tied with its attached “silken” cord.
I love how the palette fits so perfectly within its sleeve, with the brush kept separately above, held securely by an elasticized band.
The compact itself is in NARS’ usual black “rubberized” finished, albeit in an oversized format.
The short-handled wisteria vine-wrapped brush, has a fairly compact head that comes to a gentle dome shape, and bears luxuriously fine bristles. I confess that I haven’t been able to bring myself to use it yet, although its shape is one that I prefer for working colour into the crease, and I will be putting it to the test very soon to see how it fares.
With yet a further layer of protection, the top of the palette is covered with a silk-screened plastic liner.
… et voilà! Presenting ‘Hanamichi’, which is Japanese for “flower path”, but also stands for the walkway that extends into the audience in a traditional Kabuki theatre performance (see above image). If you observe the pattern embossed pattern on the palette closely, you will notice that starting in the bottom left corner, the raised flower “stems” appear to guide you up towards the largest flower in the upper right – very similar to the way a walkway would draw your eye as well. Made in Italy, this is an exquisite eyeshadow-disguised-as-art palette, created with finely milled powder that can be worn either dry or wet, bearing excellent pigmentation and blending capability, while the colours themselves stay true to the stylized looks created by traditional Kabuki performers.
The red shade, is actually rather magenta leaning, with an intense inner ultra-fine shimmer and excellent colour payoff.
The gold shade bears an “antiqued” patina with a beautiful reflective shimmer, and while not as saturated colour-wise when applied dry, it deepens significantly when it’s worn wet.
The black shade holds the least amount of shimmer, although it also has a beautiful charcoal warmth to it, making it not only lovely to wear as a sheer shadowy wash of colour, but easily deepened to a more ebony shade when applied wet.
A good portion of the palette (background) is a soft white shade, that while it’s the sheerest of them all, is also the most versatile of the four colours as it can be used in a multitude of ways: worn alone (either wet or dry), layered over any of the other shades for an entirely new colour, or used strategically as a highlighter.
The following swatches of all four shades were all applied wet (on the left) and dry (on the right).
Sunlight enables you to really appreciate all the shimmering beauty of each of these shades.
Natural (indoor) light adds a more silvery cast over these hues.
A final view taken with flash truly brings out the intensity and depth of each of these gorgeous colours.
Staying within the theme of this palette, here is my version of “kabuki-chic”, created using only the four shades. I decided to avoid mascara, in keeping with tradition, and realized that it actually became unnecessary once I applied the black shade as a heavy liner.
Final thoughts: Easily one of the most covetable as well as versatile items of NARS’ Holiday 2011 collection, the ‘Hanamichi’ palette does not disappoint, either in appearance or quality. I found that applying the shadows wet lent excellent definition to several looks I tried out, but I still liked that the shades themselves were not so pigmented dry as to be impractical, seeing as how they seem so vibrant in the pan. Another plus was that I experienced absolutely no fallout in application, and using NARS Smudge Proof Eye Shadow Base to prime my lids first meant I received a good 6 hours of wear before I noticed any visible colour fading. Available at NARS counters (excluding Sephora), this is a limited edition palette and if it attracts you even half as much as it did me, I wouldn’t delay in snagging one!
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