By now, many brands have been moving towards being talc-free due to upcoming changes in EU Regulations, but Nars was among the first by reformulating their bronzers in 2023 and the blushes in 2024. What baffles me is that the formulas of their products are not consistent across the board.

As I mentioned in my review of the Hot Escapes Palette, the highlighters in there share the same names as the highlighters in the Light Reflecting Luminizing Powders range, but the ingredients don’t match up, nor even all of the colors. This has been a growing annoyance for a lot of customers hoping to repurchase their favorite shades, only to discover that they are not identical. For example, my reformulated bronzer in 06 is darker than the even newer 06 bronzer from the Hot Escapes Palette. My older Dolce Vita blush is similar, but not identical to the newer one either.
It’s also confusing to buy a product expecting a certain finish and texture, only to end up with something different. The highlighters are a prime example of that.

In an effort to finally put my curiosity to rest, I bought a Light Reflecting Luminizing Powder to compare with what is in the Hot Escapes Palette. I also purchased three blushes in the new formula to compare to the older one.

Nars Powder Blushes in Dolce Vita, Infatuated, and Orgasm Rush

A change that Nars made, that I can definitely support, is that these blushes are refillable. Less packaging being produced is better for the environment, but of course I like the ability to just purchase a pan of blush for a cheaper price and be able to stick it in an empty magnetic palette. Unfortunately, Nars hasn’t improved that option since the launch. At the time that I’m writing this in 2026, there are still only 5 shades available as refills. None of those are dark-skin friendly.

The cost of refills from the Nars are €29 each, but I have been able to get the full products from Flaconi for €19 each. So, I don’t have much incentive to buy refills or purchase directly from Nars anyway.

My history with Nars blushes has been long and unstable. To sum up the gist of my Rediscovering Nars Blushes post: I tend to like them, but I rarely love them. They almost always play second fiddle to my MAC blushes.

The matte blush from Hot Escape shares the same ingredients as the current matte single blushes, but the order is shuffled around. The shimmer blush from Hot Escape contains no kaolin, but the current shimmery singles have some (and definitely less than the mattes).

One of the biggest reasons I didn’t like some of Nars’ past blushes is because they looked a little dry on me. So, I thought if the current line of powder blushes use less kaolin, that could have explained why I prefer the blush singles over the older ones, but it’s still the second ingredient in the matte formula. Now, I’m unsure what is responsible for the reformulated blushes looking better on me.

Dolce Vita is described as a “matte dusty rose” and Infatuated as a “matte deep plumberry” but I can see faint shimmer within the surface of the blush pan of Dolce Vita. I cannot see that shimmer in swatches, but there’s a slight glow on my cheeks in the photo below. Both of these blush shades look much softer on my cheeks than the previous Nars blushes. They’re pigmented, but they build color slower than their predecessors. I’ve always given credit to Nars when they’ve launched dark-skin friendly shades. However, they tended to be very intense in pigment and/or bold in color. For someone like me who prefers subtle natural flushes of color and the occasional pop, the lack of nude options is why I often turned to MAC instead.

Although I love the shades Taos and Liberte in the old formula, I didn’t wear them that often because of the issues of being easy to overapply and looking drier on my cheeks than I like. The reformulated blushes don’t have these issues.

I like my new version of Orgasm Rush better than Night Swim because it’s slightly more buildable and blendable. They don’t seem hugely different in terms of texture (perhaps Orgasm Rush is the slightest bit silkier), yet the small changes made all the difference to me.

The only time Nars used to put this much shimmer in a blush was in their baked gelee formula, so I was surprised to see the shimmer level of Night Swim, and see shades like Orgasm Rush in the permanent blush line. I never ended up reviewing the Nars Orgasm Four Play Blush Quad, but I had the shade Orgasm Rush already from there in the baked gelee formula. Unfortunately, I cannot compare that one with the current talc-free version I own because I left it in the US.

I really like how these single blushes look on me, and I am more likely to reach for these over any others from Nars. That being said, there are still plenty of blushes I like even more from other brands. So, I will only buy additional shades in the future if they are truly breathtaking colors that I can’t resist.

Of course, in true Nars fashion, these relatively new and reformulated blushes aren’t enough. According to @VoceMagazine on Instagram, Nars will be releasing Light Reflecting Luminizing Blushes in seven shades in April or May. I’m guessing these will also be refillable since they share the same compact design as the Light Reflecting Luminizing Powders range.

The link to Voce’s swatch video can be found HERE.

If anyone is wondering, I don’t intend to buy these upcoming blushes.

HIGHLIGHTER

In October 2025, I purchased the refill of the Light Reflecting Luminizing Powder in the shade Ophelia for €19 from Flaconi. I already figured this would not become a favorite of mine based on the review from NikkifromHR, as we have similar highlighter preferences. However, I couldn’t rid myself of the need to buy it in order to personally see how it differed from the Hot Escape highlighter. These kind of decisions based on intense curiosity is something I’m trying to get better about in 2026!

As expected, this did not become a favorite. If I use enough highlighter to get easily visible shine, it’s more metallic looking than I typically go for and the individual shimmer particles are easy to spot when you click the photo to see the enlarged version.
It’s smoother than I expected and it’s pretty when looking at it from afar, but it’s still not really to my taste. It’s more important to me to have products that look great in person over ones that look better in photos.

The smallest amount of Ophelia is comparable in luminosity to a light(ish) application of Skinny Dip from the Hot Escape III Palette. Skinny Dip blends into my skin more because it’s darker, but I also find the shimmer particles to be less reflective in a good way. It’s all a matter of preference though and someone else could still love the Light Reflecting formula.

The photos above and below are some examples in different lighting, plus unblended vs blended swatches.

I prefer Skinny Dip, but even that isn’t my favorite. I’ve created many posts featuring highlighters that I prefer even more. Additional ones not included on that list are the Prada Light Glowing Highlighter Powder as my current number one and the Hindash Gradient Highlighter. I love the effect of the Prada one so much that I could be swayed into never buying another highlighter again if not for it being so heavily scented! In any case, I’ll be reaching for Skinny Dip instead of Ophelia if I ever want to create a “Full Face of Nars Products” type of look.

One final thing to note about the Light Reflecting Luminizers is that the refills have plastic mesh backing, so the product is not housed in a pan. I could try to attach a metal sticker to the bottom, but I just store mine within the original refill packaging and not an empty magnetic palette.

That’s all for today. I hope you enjoyed reading and visiting this blog!

-Lili ❤