NARS – N° 42 Brush

It’s a crease brush day 🙂

There is something special about this brush, its weight, its length and its looks remind me of something mysterious, sexy and captivating, something like the Carnival of Venice for example. A close friend from Venice knows how much I love Carnivals and all the make-up and atmosphere that goes with it so he brought me this gorgeous mask directly from there!  Imagine this black mask paired with red lipstick…  Perfect. I have been wishing for a black mask since the day I saw Lisa in this video, and I subtly forwarded that link to my friend Alex who is an angel 😀 please go watch it, or don’t, because you’ll want one too  🙂

This Nars brush is heavy, long (specially when you are used to Koyudo or other very short brushes). It’s all matte black with discrete logos and, at the end of the handle it’s painted red.  When you hold it and start using it, there are a few scenarios possible, either :

1. you feel like you are a femme fatale, holding such a heavy brush can be elegant, glamorous and give you a killer look
2. you feel like a two year old, using an oversized pencil for his tiny little hands but that can actually look quite adorable
3. you feel drunk-ish or allucinating, super clumsy,  thinking that the pan shrunk since last time you saw it and fearing you are not even going to hit it from such a loooong distance

I was there, in all 3 of them ! it started with the n°2, how am I going to hold this thing ?  then I got used to it but I was on medicine these past days and was feeling like being on drugs, I thought the pan was shrinking live in front of me, now I am in phase n°1, finally, I master it with elegance and I am very ready for Venice.

I am all about emotions when I buy a brush and even though I did not necessarily love the material, I fell in love with the looks.

It weights approx 13 grams, that doesn’t help you does it ? Imagine holding both the Mac 239 and the Mac 217 (7g each) when put together, that equals the weight of the Nars 42 on its own.

It is 19cm long, challenging most of the brush holders you may have… length of the head is 2cm, width at the base of the ferrule:  0.5cm, at widest point of the head : 1cm.

This brush was recently recently with Nars new brush collection that you can view here, I have only a few from his old collection because they are simply very rough for my skin but I still use the old 12 and 13 which are the old crease brushes, I use them because they are effortless but they are on the rough side, not as rough as the Mac 226 I own though. The new n°42 is the same material as the old Nars crease ones, (squirrel but a bit on the rougher side) but I will talk more about the comparison later on.

This is how the head looks with the macro lens:

The handle is matte black with this red paint at the back :

Macro lens:

The logo is carved on the handle : 

while the number is embossed:

… and origin:

Compared to the old Nars crease brushes, this #42 offers less precision as it is less tapered, more a domed shape actually, also has less density, more flexibility and little bit more softness than the 12 and 13. It’s softer but if you stipple your crease it may poke, the thing is you don’t usually violently stipple product onto the crease so with a normal usage, even on quite sensitive skin it’s ok to use. If you are used to Mac goat brushes for the eyes, this will be softer, if you are used to Hakuhodo goat bristles, it may not be as soft (I know it’s squirrel here but still, not as soft as some goat bristles some of us are accustomed to).

I use it for many reasons, mostly because I love how it looks but also because I can blend and apply more harder textures in a very easy way, buildable and diffused. I am just surprised that it is so big and that there is only one of them now, unlike in the past, well, there is the new #44 but I am not sure this is to replace the Nars 12. For smaller eyes you may struggle to use the #42 and better to try it in person, when blending, the head actually covers all my eyebrow area and I don’t have small eyes, better be safe and try in person because it costs 32$. If I put  pressure (same as for blending), the diameter of the surface becomes 1.5cm wide.

So, that Nars 42 is slightly softer than the other 2, less directional, less tapered, a better quality brush but I’d rather preferred if they had add a second one more directional and dense added in this new collection.

I am a bit obsessed with crease brushes, here is the shameless proof… and this is not even the entire crease brush collection (if you click on this pic you get the full size pic opened in a new window if you want a closer look):

I am obviously not going to review every single brush because that would take me weeks but I’ll share some details and if you have questions, don’t hesitate to leave it in the comments.

The White crease options

In general white goat crease brushes are fantastic to use with powder but also with cream products. Some strong darker squirrel bristles may also sometimes be ok to use with both but better keep cream  product for non-dyed brushes or the ingredients of the cream products may sometimes alter the dye and then damage the bristles.

I prefer to use a flat crease brush to apply cream shadow all over the lid, I know my crease is not flat but it’s easier for me to pick a cream shade and apply it with for example a Hakuhodo J5533 than a Hakuhodo J146.

In order to work better with cream products (because some are more difficult to work with), the bristles should be thicker, firm and dense and not too long (or if long, keep the firmness till the surface) so for cream, you don’t need to go for a very soft brush, it’s actually better not to, unless your skin is very sensitive.

Synthetic crease brushes

I am not that fond of synthetic brushes because I often find they blend and apply with less efficiency but that Illamasqua is a fantastic synthetic brush, applies evenly and diffuses the color quite well, furthermore I find it to be just the right size for my crease. I use it with powder and even though I get stronger results with a natural hair brush, I admit I am seduced by this Illamasqua, effortless and soft to use.

Bigger crease ones

Bigger crease brushes are not much for placement unless you go for a one-shadow look or don’t require precision, but they are good and necessary for blending.

Smaller ones 

If you are looking for a crease brush that delivers a precise placement you better head up for smaller tapered ones, you’ll see in this pic how much bigger the Nars 42 is.

The most similar ones

If you choose a firmer brush than the Nars 42 it will allow you more control on the application, more blending power and if it’s more tapered, more precision for placement.

Bottom line  

I cannot use the Nars 42 for precision and control, but if I want to place and blend a shadow on the crease and across the browbone, then it will be fine. Since the bristles are thicker than other Japanese squirrel brushes, it picks harder textures better, for example I like to use the Chanel quads with it (not that I love Chanel that much anyway but just saying…). When I use dark shadows it doesn’t apply them too heavily since it’s not too dense, a very dark crease shadow will end with sheer or medium intensity which is more appropriate for the crease than a whole opaque dark application all over that area.

The Nars 42 is not my favorite brush from all the ones here but overall, I am satisfied with it. If it wasn’t that different in terms of how it looks, I wouldn’t be as happy. I am not that tempted by the others from the collection, seeing the close-up pics here, I can nearly feel how rough they are (or seem to be). I am just a bit tempted by the #44 but I am afraid since it looks firmer, that one will put too much pressure on my sensitive skin and feel too rough for me. I’ll see if I find it in a counter somewhere, I checked in Lausanne (Switzerland) in a mall called Bon Genie, which I think may be the only shop around here to carry Nars but they did not had them in April when I checked.

Hope this was helpful, wishing you a happy (long) weekend if you are celebrating the bank holiday!