REVIEW - NYX Snow White and NARS Cruella

It's a Snow White themed battle between high end vs. low end today as luxury brand NARS goes up against US drugstore cheapie NYX.

I have managed to get my hands on a NARS velvet matte lip pencil in Cruella (below, right), which costs about $25 in the States and a NYX round lipstick in Snow White (below, left) which is under $5 in good US drugstores, I think.



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I got a NYX 'Snow White' round lipstick from Ebay for about £5 GBP including delivery from a US seller, which is still not a price to be grumbled at. I hear these are regularly on sale so you can try out all the other colours to your heart's content without breaking the bank. I am going to review Black Cherry in the future so keep your eyes out for that, and I recommend their cute blushes to everyone.

Snow White looks quite brown when swatched (see photo below, it is on the left) but applies deep scarlet red. It does have a slight brown undertone that darkens it, but the brown isn't really very noticeable and gives it a very blood red look.

I was very surprised by the quality of this lipstick - despite the bargain price (for US customers anyway), it is very pigmented, creamy, and long lasting.
Although it did look like a lot had transfered onto cups and glasses I was drinking from, the color did not fade from my lips all night, despite it being a warm night. I'm thinking maybe I put too much on, so I reccomend you to not go too mad with this as it is already very pigmented.

I didn't notice any obvious feathering or bleeding into the lines of my lips either, which is common with red lipsticks, this surprised me as I didn't have time to put lipliner on either!


(L-R - NYX Snow White, NARS Cruella)

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Although it is described as a lip pencil, don't mistake NARS 'Cruella' velvet matte lip pencil for a lipliner as it certainly isn't. It's a jumbo sized crayon that is supposed to act like a long lasting matte lipstick, so maybe 'lip crayon' would have been a more appropriate moniker.

When applied to the lips, the colour is not too dissimilar to Snow White - Cruella is also a deep scarlet red. It doesn't have the slight brown undertone to it though, I would say the undertone is slightly berry in Cruella. It is maybe half a shade lighter than Snow White too, but this is more to do with the formula I reckon.

Cruella is also pigmented, but because it is essentially a big soft lip pencil, you have to layer it if you want it really bright and deep. Snow White is a creamy lipstick, so you can just swipe one layer and you are done. Cruella is also very long lasting but doesn't transfer onto cups as much due to the matteness.

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(Top L-R - NYX Snow White, NARS Cruella. Bottom - MAC Viva Glam)

Conclusion - Depending on your budget, both the lipsticks are a pretty good dupe of eachother. As I said, both are a similar deep darkish scarlet red on the lips, though where Snow White has a very slight brown undertone, Cruella has a very slight plum undertone.

They are quite similar to my favourite red - MAC's Viva Glam 1, which seems to be a cross between both of the lipsticks. If you look at the above photo, Viva Glam is on the bottom. It has slight brown undertones like Snow White, but is maybe a shade lighter than it and more matte.
I like to wear Viva Glam most nights I go out as it is a lovely bright red on me, but if I am looking for a change and channelling the inner glamorous vamp in me, I would pick Snow White and Cruella as they are a bit darker and different.

I do love both though, the colors are gorgeous, deep, and vampy and you are bound to take centre stage if you dare wear these. Though for the sake of saving money during the reccession, I reccomend you try NYX Snow White first as it won't break the bank and is of high quality.

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