Shiseido owned make-up brand NARS has created the NARS Guy Bourdin Holiday Collection, inspired by legendary French fashion photographer Guy Bourdin. Brand founder Francois Nars has credited Bourdin's glamorous and evocative work in French Vogue and Harper's Bazaar as being what first inspired him to become a make-up artist, stating: “The colours in his photographs are like an artist's palette.” And the collection is said to capture Bourdin's daring spirit.
Individual products in the collection include Cinematic Eyeshadow (£18), a new 'velvety soft' textured formulation in five limited edition shades: Wishful Thinking (macaw blue), Bad Behaviour (deep pewter), Rage (electric orchid), Cambodia (pink copper) and Mississippi Mermaid (champagne). Also new is Cinematic Lipstick (£18.50), available in Future Red (cherry), Short Circuit (fire coral), Last Tango (dusty rose), Goodbye Emmanuelle (hot pink) and Full Frontal (rose violet). Created exclusively for the NARS Guy Bourdin Holiday Collection, the formula contains monoi butter and vitamin E and is said to impart a brilliant shine with intense colour saturation.
The collection features three blush products (£21.50) – Exhibit A (a matte, vivid red), Coeur Battant (magenta) and Day Dream (a peachy pink) – and four nail polishes (£14.50), namely Tomorrow's Red (scarlet flame); Follow Me (deep fuchsia); Union Libre (blossom pink); and a bright pink-violet shade called No Limits.
In addition, the Guy Bourdin collection includes several holiday gift kits, all of which are housed in packaging featuring a selection of Bourdin's most iconic images. Face kit Crime Of Passion (£35) combines a Mini Larger Than Life Lip Gloss in shimmering sheer peach shade Deep Throat with three eyeshadow colours, a blush and bronzing powder, while there are two cheek palettes: One Night Stand (£45) and Splendor In The Grass (£30). One Night Stand combines bronzer with five shades of blush: Deep Throat, a sheer peach; Orgasm, a peachy pink with golden shimmer; bright pink hue Mistinguette; fleshy pink colour Goulue; and Devotee, a luminous alabaster sheen. Splendor In The Grass, meanwhile, features blush products in Dolce Vita, a matte dusty rose; Sex Appeal, a matte soft peach; Angelika, a cotton candy pink with gold and silver sparkle; and a highlighting blush called Albatross.
Fling (£30) is a four piece lip kit containing two sheer lipsticks, a Mini Velvet Matte Lip Pencil and a Mini Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil, which comes in a keepsake lacquered lip case; Beautiful Stranger (£25) features miniature nail polishes in Lost Red (bright red), Shameless Red (bright pink), Dance Dance Dance (bright purple) and Manosque (a deep smoky lavender); Voyeur (£30) contains black, brown, white, violet and cyan blue shades of NARS Larger Than Life Long-Wear Eyeliner products; and lip pencil coffret Promiscuous (£30), which is exclusive to Space NK, features Mini Velvet Matte Lip Pencils in Cruella (scarlet), Sex Machine (pink mauve), Never Say Never (pink lilac) and Dolce Vita (dusty rose), as well as a Mini Velvet Gloss Lip Pencil in gold infused strawberry pink shade New Lover.
The final item in the collection is a Cosmetic Pochette (£50), exclusive to Selfridges. The pochette depicts overlapping hearts, channeling a recurring theme in Bourdin's work.
