 | François Nars and his henchpeople know their shit. In a market saturated with every imaginable thematic variation, they remain colourists par excellence. Every time I think I've seen everything a shade can possibly offer, they boop out something like Mysterious Red and spank me with the broom I flew in on. Colours are difficult. Ask anyone who routinely makes stuff from scratch. That the Nars talent pool can afford to toss off something like Lonely Heart with so little fanfare is frankly amazing; other brands would blow their sphincters and build a collection around this shade. For Nars, it's just... tuesday. Respect. I was thrilled to find Lonely Heart far more beautiful than it appeared online. Its singularity really fed into my current obsession with dark, haute neutrals. |
That doesn't happen every day, let me tell you. Brown is often just too fucking harrrrd to accurately describe or depict, apparently, which is possibly why so many punters revile it. We've all been lured into blowing our dollar dollar bills on something regrettably poopy. But I firmly believe there's a brown out there for everyone.
 |  Brown's haters need to build a bridge and move on to a higher taste level, quite frankly. Lonely Heart awaits them, a coolish, slightly dusty true brown in which the ghosts of cinnamon and violet mingle; charred rosewood, if we're to get specific. |
| As a shade, it is stunningly nuanced. Just as Nars Train Bleu is purple done right for anyone over 25, Lonely Heart is the apotheosis, the very pinnacle of brown; deep, aloof, nocturnal. It references all those things in nature that please us- temple timbers, dried spices, autumnal dusk, a shadowed iris. Darker lips just pull out the violet tones a little more. Sigh! Imagine how Puccini-tragic it was to discover its in-situ behaviour was nowhere as stellar as its imperial tonality. Comment osez-vous, François! Je suis devastate. |  |
Yes, and fuck it all; beautiful it may be, but Lonely Heart's performance sucks massive arse, in practical terms. It is the Keanu of the Velvet Matte line; picturesque and useless. Puzzingly for such an irreproachable stable of pencils, this shade is problematic in a basic, cheap-arse sort of way, suffering all the cardinal sins of separation, migration, line settling, patchiness and cementitious mouth-feel. I was gobsmacked when I applied it for the first few times, amazed by the crappiness of the result.
 |  | < The neutral light in the left palm swatch represents it most accurately. Don't get me wrong, Lonely Heart applies initially with the typical, startling ease of most Velvet Mattes, stroking over your edges like a dream. The trouble starts with infill and building. It won't layer up without clumping and skipping out. Just when you think you might have achieved a passable application, you move into better light and see that the devil might as well have used your piehole as an ashtray. My god, the frustration. |
It's true that I have been an apologist for lesser shades and am all about recouping value with amendment. Just like Keanu, Lonely Heart is too beautiful to ignore and I am still experimenting with redemptive measures that won't pollute its divine tonality. Look at the hand swatches; see how it resists looking unsophisticated, even in the strongest warm sunlight? Looking at it on the back of the palm, you would never suspect the kind of fuckery it pulls when applied where it counts.
I tried it over Urban Decay Ultimate Ozone primer pencil and, while that dealt with the clumping/patchy issue, the resulting finish made the Sahara look positively dewy and felt like Moroccan leather layer cake. It also abolished the lovely violet leaning Lonely Heart gleaned from my natural lip, so I CPR'd that rosewood tint with some dabs of Bite Licorice. It looked good. For ten minutes. Before quickly lapsing into muddy, clown-ring horror. Mixing it with the recent and beautemous Bite Beauty Clove liquid lipstick (I will review it soon) offers some degree of salvation; 'tis still a tragic compromise.
Resist Lonely Heart. Enjoy the pictures and dream of what could have been.
I tried it over Urban Decay Ultimate Ozone primer pencil and, while that dealt with the clumping/patchy issue, the resulting finish made the Sahara look positively dewy and felt like Moroccan leather layer cake. It also abolished the lovely violet leaning Lonely Heart gleaned from my natural lip, so I CPR'd that rosewood tint with some dabs of Bite Licorice. It looked good. For ten minutes. Before quickly lapsing into muddy, clown-ring horror. Mixing it with the recent and beautemous Bite Beauty Clove liquid lipstick (I will review it soon) offers some degree of salvation; 'tis still a tragic compromise.
Resist Lonely Heart. Enjoy the pictures and dream of what could have been.
L2R, MAC unless stated: Russian Red, Nars Lonely Heart, Paramount
Nars Audacious Deborah, Chilli, Jasper, Auburn pencil natural outdoor light
Nars Audacious Deborah, Chilli, Jasper, Auburn pencil natural outdoor light
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