Nars Explicit Lipstick is the refillable satin the brand launched in July 2024, with 36 shades and a precision-tip bullet. This edit starts with how Nars began in 1994 and ends on the pencils and deeper shades that finish the look.
A Nars Explicit Lipstick Notebook, Shade by Shade
On July 29, 2024, Nars launched Explicit, a satin lipstick with 36 shades, a refillable case and three new global ambassadors: Ciara, Camila Morrone and Pom Klementieff. The timing was not an accident, because the brand was celebrating thirty years of lipstick. Nars began in November 1994, when the makeup artist François Nars sold twelve lipsticks at Barneys New York. He designed them himself, and he described the process as playing apprentice chemist, telling the chemist exactly how he wanted each one to behave. That hands-on habit is what I keep coming back to in this Nars Explicit Lipstick edit. Explicit sits between matte and glossy, and the precision-tip bullet is made to hug the lip line. It is also a refillable lipstick, so you pull the old bullet out and click a new one into the same case. The first grid gives you four Explicit shades to start with, from a cool pinky beige to a classic red, and after that come the pencils and a few deeper colors.
The pencils that frame it
Grid two is all about the outline. The two Powermatte pencils, Dolce Vita and Take Me Home, are the brand's high-intensity matte formula, which Nars says has up to 12 hours of staying power. Dolce Vita is a dusty rose and Take Me Home is a tan rose, so they sit right next to Dirty Talk and Liaison from the first grid. The Long Lasting Matte Lip Liner is the creamier one, a velvet-matte pencil the brand says glides on with no tugging or feathering. The Precision Lip Liner in a dusty mauve is wooden and sharpenable, made to line, mix and layer. Here is the practical bit. Sharpen the pencil, draw the outer edge, then fill the whole lip with it before the bullet goes over the top. The lipstick has something to grip, and the color looks deeper. If you like a soft, blurry edge, use these lip pencils only at the corners and press your lips together.
Deeper shades and one glossy cousin
The last four lean deeper. Morocco is a warm cinnamon, Rendez-vous is a mahogany red, and Exposed is a cool taupe, the one I would hand to anyone who insists brown lipstick is not for her. The odd one out is Devotion, a mauve rose from the Afterglow Sensual Shine line, which the brand pitches as a color-and-care hybrid with shea butter, mango butter and eight hours of hydration. It is the glossier cousin, and I wear it on days when the satin feels like too much. Every Explicit shade shares the same rosehip seed oil and hyaluronic acid, which the brand says are there to lock in moisture. What I would skip is the heavy first coat. The brand's own directions say to fill the top lip, press your lips together to move color to the bottom, and only then add one or two more layers if you want it more opaque. Going in thick from the start is how a satin turns tacky. Start light and build.
Which one I would start with
A lipstick brand that began with twelve sticks and one very particular chemist has earned its thirty-year victory lap. What I like about Explicit is that it still feels like the original François Nars idea: a good stick, honest shades and a few tools around it. Pick Liaison or Envy for an everyday color, Unauthorized if a red is the goal, and add one pencil to the bag. When a shade runs out, click in a refill and notice which color you reach for without thinking. That is your answer. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Nars Concealer, Radiant or Soft Matte and NARS Orgasm Blush.
