Product Shout-Out: NARS Saint-Raphael Precision Lip Liner

OK, this is one of those off-label uses of a makeup product, so if you’re a stickler about only using products in the way they’re intended, you might want to look away. For a second.

On the other paw, if you’re open to experimentation, I found a very effective color corrector completely by accident.

Well, technically, it isn’t a face product. It’s an opaque matte orange lip pencil, NARS Precision Lip Liner in Saint-Raphael. It’s one of the new NARS Precision Lip Liners.

I’ve been using it to color-correct a desiccated former pimple that’s now purple, and it totally works.

I wouldn’t use it on under-eye circles, though, because it is a lip pencil, and I don’t know if it’s approved for use along water lines or around eyes in general. But I’ll use it on my chin, my cheeks, forehead, nose and the sides of my mouth.

Here I’m using it as a color corrector on my chin to hide Julian the pimple, who is STILL plaguing me.

We (or I) could literally talk about color correcting for hours. I think it’s fascinating, but to briefly summarize (haha, good luck to me), orange color-correcting products appear to cancel out/neutralize purple and blue shades, because orange and purple sit across from each other on the color wheel, where they stare each other down 24/7, throw shade and give each other the evil eye…

Typically, you’d apply orange color correctors on purple areas, then layer concealer or foundation on top.

Saint-Raphael is so good at hiding dark purple areas because it’s completely opaque. I draw a thin layer directly on top of Julian the pimple, using the smallest amount of product I can muster, which I then set with a smidgen of translucent powder to lock it down.

And yes, I think you absolutely need the powder, because if you you skip it, the orange corrector can bleed into your foundation or concealer, thereby drawing MORE attention to what you’re trying to hide.

Say, what?! I KNOW. Yeah, I never skip powder when I use color correctors. It’s crucial.

This particular lip pencil is the one I use for this trick, but other orange lip pencils should work. This one is soft and creamy, though, so it glides along the skin, and it’s easy to feather out the edges. I also like how pigmented and opaque it is. It’s $24, and you can find it now in the NARS permanent collection.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen