One of the most raved about concealers in recent years must be the NARS Soft Matte concealer. This is really one of those products that took the market by storm and just hit it with a bang. It promises to have an intense level of coverage yet still look natural on the skin. Let’s see whether the NARS Soft Matte concealer makes good on that promise.

NARS Soft Matte Complete Concealer Light 1 Chantilly

I got mine in the lightest shade available. I now live in a town where they sell the brand so I was able to go in store and try on the shade before buying it. I was instantly impressed by how this looked. Sadly, NARS doesn’t come cheap. This concealer will set you back €29.50. Is it worth the price point?

The Packaging

NARS packaging always looks chic but the rubberized texture of the black lid means you very easily get a messy look on your products. That is a bit of a drawback, but that isn’t the main thing I don’t like about the packaging. This concealer comes in a jar because it is a cream concealer and I am not a fan of concealers in jars usually. It’s just quite messy and it gets gross quite easily. I decided to solve the issue by not sticking my fingers in here too much and mainly use a brush for the application. That really makes for a lot cleaner use of the product.

The Concealer

The NARS Soft Matte concealer is a cream concealer. It is not a concealer that I usually like. I don’t know about you, but most cream concealers are usually quite drying and just not great for using on the under eye area. In a way this reminds me a lot of the Catrice Camouflage Cream concealer, which I liked at first but ended up decluttering as I felt the shade was a touch too dark for me and it make my undereye area look quite wrinkly after a few hours of wear if I applied a little too much.

This cream concealer promises to end that era. It should camouflage and conceal any imperfections and create a soft focus effect. Another promise is that this is longlasting, but it should also contain some hyaluronic acid to help with covering fine lines and larger pores. In short, this concealer promises to something quite revolutionary.

The Swatch

To show you the texture of this concealer I wanted to show it on my finger tip. This is quite a thick concealer, much thicker than I am used to. I am used to liquid concealer so this is definitely a little bit tougher to blend. I find that the best way to apply this is by applying a thin layer with a brush as it gives you most control with how much you apply. Because if you apply too much of this, which is easy to do, I feel it doesn’t look great.

The shade of this is spot on. It is a bit lighter than my skin tone, so it nicely brightens up the areas that I feel need brightening up. Another thing I love about this concealer is the wear time, it is a really longwearing concealer. It is definitely a heavier coverage than I normally would go for, but it does mean I can forego using a separate corrector as I usually do in the winter time. Rather than applying two products, I only have to apply one when I use this. So this is quite the time saver. 

The Application

So what does this concealer look like on the skin? For such a thick product, I was surprised by how good this looks. It looks quite natural, yet it is full coverage. I find it does need a bit of a special touch in terms of application to make it look good. Apart from applying it to the skin with a brush, I like to bounce it into the skin with a sponge.

However, on the undereye area, I had a lot of trouble to blend it well. I found out that the trick is to use your finger tips and gently push the product into the skin. Then set it with powder and it won’t move, yet look nice for the rest of the day. I found this only started looking cakey and makeuppy after a high intensity cardio workout. That’s when it started to pull into lines and look a bit worse for wear, but it survived regular workdays just fine.

The Conclusion

This could very well be the best cream concealer I have tried so far. It is unusual to find a cream concealer that doesn’t pull into lines and look like a cakey mess within hours. The NARS Soft Matte concealer however delivers on all of its promises, once you figure out how to apply it well. In short, if you are looking for a high coverage concealer that stays put all day, then this is a good one to look into.

What is your favorite cream concealer?