| It's about time some big baddies like Nars Train Bleu got the review attention they deserve, so here I go. It's timely too, what with the most important hemisphere heading into winter. Not that seasonality ever influences my choice of lipstick and I don't know why it ever would; do we wear blue on rainy days? Yellow on sunny ones? I mean, my mental health wouldn't win any fucking ribbons, but I'd probably check myself in somewhere if I started that shit. Consider blackened shades in spring, if you are heading in that climatic direction. People may wonder about you, but so they fucking should. There's no real point in making lipstick any darker than Train Bleu, because the intensive opacity just eats light and registers as black to the human eye. At full thickness, TB is an inky elderberry syrup or deeply-stewed blueberry when lit, and fully black with a grape skin margin in any kind of tilt or shadow. But you don't need to go all tits-out with this colour. Because of the fabulous Velvet Matte formula, you can draw it on at half strength and rock a more visibly blue-dominant purple without looking like lead poisoning, I promise. |  |
Every dramaturgical lipstick has its breathless following and Train Bleu's adherents praise its elevated colour balance and suave texture. It's definitely nicer to wear than most of its equivalents, but I'm not sure that's saying very much. Night Moth is the MAC pencil heart of darkness OG, but my god it feels like Akhenaten's crackly taint upon one's lips. More emollient purples just end up in greasy hepatic horror. TB is by no means perfect, but it strikes a pretty rational balance between workability and refinement.
Let's talk a wee bit more about yay and nay, vis-à-vis le violet. There's not much middle ground between sulky, smells like encrusted Hot Topic-type manky darkness, and adult statement purple, is there? The difference is elusive; for reasons that escape me, Train Bleu is dominant and austere rather than angry and slutty. You won't look like you're wishing you still needed fake ID. The choice depths of its intense baked blueberry character is well illustrated in the stigmata swatches below. Perhaps it is its reference to the natural spectrum that keeps it classy.
Let's talk a wee bit more about yay and nay, vis-à-vis le violet. There's not much middle ground between sulky, smells like encrusted Hot Topic-type manky darkness, and adult statement purple, is there? The difference is elusive; for reasons that escape me, Train Bleu is dominant and austere rather than angry and slutty. You won't look like you're wishing you still needed fake ID. The choice depths of its intense baked blueberry character is well illustrated in the stigmata swatches below. Perhaps it is its reference to the natural spectrum that keeps it classy.
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I just want to share with you that I got that above piece of astrakhan in a job lot from an ex-furrier to the Queen. (While I would never buy or wear new fur for obvious reasons, I support the respectful utilisation of old furs, as I would anything that had cost an animal its life; they exist, and it is unethical and stupidly wasteful to discard them).
Anyways: TB can be smudged out and smoothly gradated, as you can see below, and never fully dries down to the extent that you can't budge it. It's thick enough to feel persistently present on the lip, but it won't migrate embarrassingly or stain your mouth very much upon removal- always a bonus.
Anyways: TB can be smudged out and smoothly gradated, as you can see below, and never fully dries down to the extent that you can't budge it. It's thick enough to feel persistently present on the lip, but it won't migrate embarrassingly or stain your mouth very much upon removal- always a bonus.
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The palm swatches demonstrate how little operational difference there is between Train Bleu (big S), MAC Night Moth (little s) and Pat McGrath Blood 2. If you have one, you don't need the others and I would add MAC Smoked Purple, Night Violet, Bite Beauty Marsala liquid lipstick (not shown), and MAC Sin (right smudge) to that list, even though the latter appears very red-brown here in comparison. They're all effectively the same once maxed out. I have the original version of the Pat McGrath and the formula is fudgier and a little more slippy than the Nars stick.
As with almost every super-dark lipstick, Train Bleu has some failings. It's just too perimortem-esque for the squeamish and will amplify dark eye bags and sallowness issues. You will need to moisturise very well if you have ashy skin. It will end up on your teeth at some point, which is odd for a matte. It is slightly, although not tortuously, drying. Those of us with full lips already know that it will skip the middle of our lower one unless thickly and patiently built there. Older bitches like myself may experience a very slight peripheral wander of the purple tint into our biddy wrinkles, though that effect is not particularly odious and can even seem artful.
On the whole, Nars Train Bleu is probably as dignified and utile as this sort of colour can be and I'm glad I acquired it. Its singularity demands an exclusive focus, so it's probably a mistake to contrive a competing eye situation. You could do a tiny hollow flick or a grey tightline, if you look too mooncalfish without a little something. My favourite TB look is minimal and sort of baby-eating; no mascara, brows powdered over. Halloween and Monday, taken care of.
As with almost every super-dark lipstick, Train Bleu has some failings. It's just too perimortem-esque for the squeamish and will amplify dark eye bags and sallowness issues. You will need to moisturise very well if you have ashy skin. It will end up on your teeth at some point, which is odd for a matte. It is slightly, although not tortuously, drying. Those of us with full lips already know that it will skip the middle of our lower one unless thickly and patiently built there. Older bitches like myself may experience a very slight peripheral wander of the purple tint into our biddy wrinkles, though that effect is not particularly odious and can even seem artful.
On the whole, Nars Train Bleu is probably as dignified and utile as this sort of colour can be and I'm glad I acquired it. Its singularity demands an exclusive focus, so it's probably a mistake to contrive a competing eye situation. You could do a tiny hollow flick or a grey tightline, if you look too mooncalfish without a little something. My favourite TB look is minimal and sort of baby-eating; no mascara, brows powdered over. Halloween and Monday, taken care of.
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L2R, MAC unless stated: Russian Red, Nars Train Bleu, Nightmoth, Pat McGrath Blood 2,
Bite Beauty Licorice, Nars Terra de Feu, Vino, Sin, Bite Beauty Clove
Bite Beauty Licorice, Nars Terra de Feu, Vino, Sin, Bite Beauty Clove
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