Nars Light Reflecting Foundation is the brand's skin-improving medium coverage formula, and it works best with the matching powders and mist. Here is the whole Light Reflecting family, the other Nars bases, and the cheek and lip pieces that finish the face.
Nars Light Reflecting Foundation and the Makeup Artist Who Started With 12 Lipsticks
François Nars was a French makeup artist and photographer when he launched his brand in 1994 with twelve lipsticks at Barneys New York. He kept the debut that small on purpose, to see whether anyone would care about his name, and by 1996 he was shooting the brand's campaigns himself. He sold the company in 2000 and stayed on as creative director, and you can still feel a photographer's eye in how the complexion products are built. They are made to look like skin under any light. Nars Light Reflecting Foundation is the clearest example. It is a medium coverage formula with cacao peptides that blurs and smooths, and the brand says it visibly improves skin's clarity over time. On me it gives a skin-like finish that survives a full day without looking powdered. The rest of the first row is the family around it: the pressed powder for touchups, the loose powder for setting, and a hydrating mist to melt everything together. Use the loose powder only where you shine, and let the mist do the rest.
When you want more, or less
Light Reflecting sits in the middle of the Nars range, and the second row covers either side of it. Natural Matte is a medium-to-full coverage foundation with a serum-like texture that blurs pores, the one for oily skin or long days. Natural Radiant is the medium-to-full coverage option with sixteen hours of wear. Pure Radiant is a tinted moisturizer with SPF 30 for weekends and summer. The Light Reflecting undereye brightener is the piece I would add first, since it lights up the area without the weight of concealer. Match all of them in daylight, at the jaw.
The finishing touches
The last row is where Nars gets playful, which fits a brand that named a blush Orgasm in 1999 and expected it to be censored. The Alpine Rush palette is a limited six-pan set of blush and highlighter, so if you see it, pick it up. The Afterglow lip shine is a glassy gloss that hydrates for hours, and the Afterglow balm is its sheer, buttery sibling. Monoi Body Glow is scented with tiare flower soaked in coconut oil, and it makes shoulders look lit from within. What I would skip is layering a highlighter over a radiant foundation and a shimmer body oil all at once. Pick one glow and let it be the only one.
How I would build it
Start with the foundation and the loose powder, and add the mist once you know you like the finish. Then choose one finishing piece from the last row and stop there. It is a small, deliberate routine, and it looks better for it. That is how François Nars started the whole brand, with twelve lipsticks and a point of view.
If you are still choosing between formulas, I went through them one by one in choosing a NARS foundation.
