The most important product in your beauty cabinet is cleanser because without healthy, radiant skin, no foundation/bronzer/blush you put on will look as nice as it should. Nars agrees, which is why he created the NARS Skin line. I’m forever trying out different cleansers (even if you’ve found the best one, it’s good for your skin to change it up), so I was excited to try this out. It’s a hybrid cream/foaming cleanser that even has tiny beads to exfoliate. The first test is always my mascara challenge. I rub a glob of mascara into the skin on my hand, let it dry, and then see if the cleanser can remove it. Considering you wouldn’t normally use this much mascara, it’s a hard test to pass. When the alternative is losing precious lashes, though, it’s best to try this first (you can even test cleansers in stores this way).
Nars passed with flying, but that’s about where the good news ends. While ingredients include Monoi oil, a hydrating coconut oil that’s infused with Tahitian gardenias, and soothing wild rose extract, the cleanser leaves your skin feeling stripped and dry. Forget moving on to toner – I immediately went to moisturize. Oddly enough, NARS claims this is best for normal to dry skin. The packaging was also an issue. The oversized screw top was unnecessarily heavy and product leaked through, so forget traveling with this. The tube is designed to stand on one end, meaning there’s no way to avoid the problem – even at home. It should come in a pump or dispenser. At the end of a long day when you’re contemplating not washing your face, the last thing you need to deal with is a mess! Available at Barneys New York for $29.
