Review by Joeybunny - NARS Aigle Noir Soft Touch Shadow Pencil

Once upon a time, there was a little bunny who loved a man named Nars. She had adored him from afar for many years. She bought hundreds of dollars’ worth of his makeup. She met him, even! However, Nars didn’t love her back...well, not quite. His cream eyeshadows didn’t love her. Mr. Nars did love her (although sadly not with the intensity with which she loved him). But that’s beyond the point.

And thus begins my sad little foray into NARS Cosmetics’ cream eyeshadows. A couple of years ago during the Sephora Friends and Family sale I purchased Mykonos cream eyeshadow. I don’t need to tell you it was a taupe, because you clearly already knew that. Mykonos is a gorgeous, deep metallic taupe with purple undertones. It was love at first swatch when I saw it at Sephora, so at 20% off, I had to have it.

Alas, Mykonos and I were not meant to be. It creased on my eyes, even with a primer. Believe me, I tried my hardest to get the eyeshadow to work; I just could not get it to agree with me. However, Mykonos still resides happily in my NARS collection, because it looks lovely on my lips and cheeks (when on the lips and cheeks, it’s a burnished-bronze-taupe).

With this sob story in mind, I was hesitant when I saw that NARS had released their Soft Touch Shadow Pencils as part of their Winter 2009 collection. The colors, especially Aigle Noir, looked gorgeous. And I’m a sucker for anything NARS. How could I resist, especially after I saw Lina’s (who else?!) pictures on her blog? I had to have Aigle Noir. I just HAD to.

So I bought it with a Sephora coupon. My will is weak, guys.

NARS describes these pencils as having a “smooth, creamy, long-wearing formula, [with] easy and seamless blending,” and claims they are the “ideal base for layering with powder eyeshadow to increase color intensity.” Ok NARS. Let’s see how right you were.

Well, my Aigle Noir is both smooth and creamy. It’s a gorgeous black with gold sparkles that makes it appear olive-gold on the skin. When I swatched it on my hand, it had pretty good staying power - a definite improvement over the cream eyeshadows (FYI: I apologize for the lack of a real swatch - my camera is MIA tonight!).

On my eyes, however, it was a bit of a different story. I actually had to figure out the best way to keep this shadow from creasing! On the first day, I used a layer of TFSI and then applied Aigle Noir over it as a base for a gold-pewter eye look I wanted to do. The pencil did blend well, and it blended quite well with powder shadows, but the gold shimmer disappeared when I applied the pencil over the TSFI and my shadow creased after about two hours. This never happens. Ever. I was so disappointed.

Day two, I tried using Aigle Noir as an eyeliner. Well, this was a bingo (I had to throw in an “Inglorious Basterds” reference)! It looked smoky and shimmery and it stayed all day and all night. Win!

Day three, I had a chat with Lina about this pencil, and I had the idea to try using it over a powder base instead of directly over TFSI. This worked a lot better. I used TSFI, then Jane Rockstar eyeshadow, and then the Aigle Noir pencil. This was a bingo too! My shadow still creased, but it lasted at least triple the amount of time than the Aigle Noir over TSFI did (about six hours versus two). Also, the gold shimmer was a lot more vibrant when using this application. When I went to blend out the creases, the color and shimmer stayed.

So, I do quite like this pencil, but it is a bit of a hassle to keep an eye on any creasing I may experience. Even if I decide to just use this as an eyeliner, I would repurchase it just because the color is so lovely. For now, though, I’ll be sure to just stick with NARS’ powder eyeshadows.