the Blackthorn Orphans
  • B L O G
  • The Blackthorn Orphans: read it onsite
  • The Blackthorn Orphans TRANSLATIONS PAGE
  • Lovely R BLOG
  • PHOTOESSAYS
  • SELECTED RAVINGS: essays & opinion
  • RUBYHUE Lipstick Review
  • blackthorn ROSE REVIEW
  • KITCHEN BITCH: Recipes etc.
  • verse
  • Hostile Witness FILM REVIEW
  • ALOES & SUCCULENTS
  • Blackthorn Perfume Review
  • B I O
  • C O N T A C T

RubyHue Lipstick Review: Nars Mascate Pure Matte

14/10/2014

 
Picture
Picture
Many of us are still chasing that one stick to rule them all, that elusive Holy Grail badarse dark red.  I consider the recent MAC Just a Bite (LE) semi-HG and have been wearing the shit out of it lately, but as the warmer weather, café visits and resultant lipstickface (bad thing) roll around I've also been wishing it was a little more matte.  So yay for Mascate with its 10/10 Pure Matte formula and rather similar shade. 
In the swatches, Mascate looks closer to MAC Russian Red than it really is.  RR is quite a bit warmer and more of a 'middle' red.  Mascate makes RR look generic (something I've always sort of felt but had never been able to put my finger on til now) and leans in the opposite direction- darker, stronger and blue-based.  Evil garnet is how I would privately describe the colour and it packs a lot of visual punch once applied, turning your mouth into a slash of gothy, velvety, old skool cabaret red.  Think shallow puddle of merlot on the cherry-red hood of a classic car at four in the afternoon.  Does that help?  This stick pic is looking pretty close to reality on my iMac, for reference >
BELOW- here it is, second from left, indoors, natural light.
Picture
Mascate (مسقط Masqaṭ) is the French for what Anglophones call Muscat, the capital of Oman.  Muscat grapes are possibly the oldest in cultivation, the source of the most delicious raisins and Nars Mascate is soaked in exactly this kind of rich, vinous gorgeousness.  But don't go by the image at left (which I oversaturated to get your attention); instead have a look at the tube pics below.  I shot the one below right against a neutral cardboard background in filtered light in the pursuit of accuracy.

Like most reds, Mascate is a complete bitch to photograph, zinging out of gamut as soon as the light hits it, even with a relatively high-end camera.  That's why so many online lipstick review pics are crap, in case you were wondering.  I just hope you can find at least some of these shots informative.
Picture
Picture
And it really is goth rather than pin-up.  Some reds are pleasers; they simper and twirl their hair at you.  Mascate isn't one of them.  It's a dramatic, nocturnal, Dominant ball-crusher.  In that respect it's definitely too much so for some; I'd score it 7/10 for difficulty (as far as pulling off the colour goes), so it's not going to be an everyday thing for the average peep.
Keep mind that my skin is stupidly white and tends to make things look brighter than they are, so add ten percent darkness to what you see here and you'll be close to its lip-look (on a pigmented mouth), especially when thickly applied.  You can wear Nars Pure Mattes as thinly as you wish, though- they're obligingly buildable.  My opinion of this Nars formula is detailed here and it's entirely positive.  The only thing to bitch about is the small size of the sticks, given the WTF price tag.  Other than that, Mascate is a stunning exercise in vivid, dark-sided, strict mistress red.
MAC Russian Red, Nars Mascate, Nars Terre de Feu, MAC Ruby Woo, MAC Just a Bite (LE)
Filtered outdoor daylight.  Mascate is sheered out in the stripe over the vertical swatches.
Picture

*   Oooh, more Lipstick Reviews!   *   Best of the Blog   *   Photoessays   *



Comments are closed.

    RSS Feed

    Picture

    Independent Creativity
    Hi-Fi Introversion

    ORIGINAL CONTENT
    HONEST REVIEWS
    VELVETEEN VERBIAGE
    VISUAL LUXURY
    MORBID IDLING
    THE NATURAL WORLD
     
    ​photography  
    film
    flora  fauna  culinary
    ethnography  objet
    ​

    modest living
    ​vintage shit

    A U T H O R
    Picture
    K ✂︎ l l y
    congenital delinquent
    Human Durian
    celebrating
    glorious deviation in the land of
     the long white cloud

    -  New Zealand  -


    - T h e   B o o k -

    Picture
    T H E  
    B L A C K T H O R N
    O R P H A N S


    What is freedom, when it is
    all that remains to you?
    In exile two brothers pursue an anarchist's trajectory,  from an old world into the new, from East to West, subject always to the pleasures & horrors of an enduring flesh, to the ironies of karma & impunity. Love bears thorns, the lost return & the dead are haunted by the living. 
    ​

    E P I C   D A R K   F I C T I O N
    *   R E A D   *
    T H E
    B L A C K T H O R N 
    O R P H A N S
     O N S I T E  

    H e r e



    Picture

    Selected
    ​Ravings

    opinion essays observation private regret public 
    exaltation semicoherent speculation 

    Picture

    Photoessay​

    epic undertakings
    documented

    ​
    Picture

    Hostile Witness FilmReview

    Cruel but fair

    Picture

    RubyHue 
    ​
    Lipstick Review

    Lipstick: love it
    ​

    Picture

    Our Photography​

    we've seen worse
    ​

    Picture

    Port Chalmers​

    Dunedin, New Zealand
    ​

    Picture

    Blackthorn ​
    ​Rose Review

    Garden Hoe Wisdom
    Picture

    Verse​

    Loss, love, truth, beauty everything, everything
    ​
    Picture

    The  Lovely R's Blog​

    Likes photography  Knows a bit about it

    Picture

    We Liked This​

    Amazing things from other people
    ​

    Picture

    Cacti, Aloes
    ​&
     
    Flora​

    Our garden & general vegetal splendours
    ​

    Picture

    KitchenBitch

    Home cooking
    & raw ingredients
    ​
    Picture

    Ethnographic​

    Strange wonderful things from elsewhere
    ​

    Picture

    Jewellery
    ​

    Picture

    Tiny Little 
    Dinosaurs
    - a book for children -


    All images & text property of the authors 
    ​
    unless stated

    © us
    & original sources
    All Rights Reserved



    Picture

    Privacy Policy
    ​This is a noncommercial site.
    No ads. No shady data jacks. 
    No interest in your bizniz.

    ​We don't personally view, utilise or sell your data, apart from occasionally checking totally anonymous + super basic site view stats. We don't even know how to monetise that stuff, so don't worry.  Everyone's privacy is important to us.

    Our platform is probably harvesting your data, though, via their cookies. Look at their privacy page so you can see what they're up to.

    Please use Adblock or something similar.
    ​
    Google et al superimpose ads that we never see a penny from so fuck them.

    Picture

    Archives

    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013


    Picture

    Categories

    All
    A Thing Of Beauty
    Blackthorn Orphans
    Blackthorn Rose Review
    Cacti & Aloes
    Ethnographica
    Flora
    Hostile Witness Film Reviews
    Jewellery
    Kitchen Bitch
    Make Up Review
    Maximum Respect
    Perfume Reviews
    Photo Du Jour
    Photo Essay
    Places & Things: A Blackthorn Review
    Port Chalmers
    Remembering Dreams
    Roses
    Selected Ravings
    Softcore Rendition
    Sweetmeat
    Textiles
    The Lovely R
    Verse
    We Liked This

    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.