I haven’t had official word of NARS coming to Malaysia yet, so we are still waiting. The most popular blush colour form NARS has to be Orgasm. It is truly a cult classic. Many people I know love it but I also know of many who don’t like it because they find it too shimmery or too pink.
NARS Orgasm is in fact a shimmery pink-peach shade. I say pink-peach because I think it applies on me looking more pink than peach. The peach tones are just enough to temper it so it doesn’t look too pink going on. The shade is rather medium-light so if you have fair-medium skin, I’d say it’ll show up. However, if you are tanned or have darker skintone, all you might get is shimmer. That said, I have never noticed Orgasm going on highly shimmery. For me, its just nice so I suppose its to do with your own level of comfort.
If you are on a budget or have no access to NARS Orgasm, which brand or blush colour is a NARS Orgasm dupe or lookalike? Here are a few I have compiled from my own collection.
Anti-clockwise from bottom left:-
Nars Orgasm, Majolica Majorca RD255 , L’oreal Front Page Peach Blush Delice, Shu Uemura P Red 13, Guerlain Abricot Souffle D’or, Cargo The Big Easy, Milani Luminous
Unfortunately, many of those brands I found dupes in are also unavailable in Malaysia. The only 2 I know that are easily available are Guerlain Abricot Souffle D’or and Shu Uemura P Red 13. I’m not even sure if Shu Uemura P Red 13 is part of the regular line of glow on blushes. Mine came in a pre-made palette which was a limited edition item a couple of years back.
Anyway, to aid you along, I took some swatches of Nars Orgasm and its dupes on my arm in natural sunlight:-
You can see that some colours are closer to Orgasm while some aren’t. However, they are all close enough in shade and tone.
Out of all, I find that L’oreal Front Page Peach is slightly too pink to qualify and the Shu Uemura P Red 13 is more matte than the rest. Guerlain Abricot Souffle D’or is a little too peach. Bear in mind though that this is a side by side test. On your cheeks, no one can tell you aren’t wearing Nars Orgasm! 🙂
I hope this helps anyone who’s looking for a Nars Orgasm dupe! Happy experimenting!
thanks for this!!!! hmmm..based on your swatch, I would say…on picture, Cargo big easy is the closest, i based on the shimmer and the color itself…hmm..thanks for this, I am too cheap to buy on NARS orgasm, I may try the dupes…are all the dupes color payoff the same to NARS orgasm? Which do you think is your best bet?
This is great! Thanks for posting this great info!
Nikki: You’re welcome! The cloest bets are probably Cargo Big Easy, Milani Luminous and Majolica Majorca RD255.
Fashionable Housewife: Thanks for coming by and I’m glad you enjoyed the post.
Funny how it looks pink on in the case, but peach on your arm! Love your collection…sigh…I dream of blushes.
That giant Cargo tin is calling out to me…
You know what? You’re turning me into a blush addict. LOL. 😀
Hahahhaha. Rinnah, you’re the not the first to be turned into a blush addict by ParisB =P
Monstro: Yes it actually goes on me peachy. Cargo is nice but its too bad we don’t get it here.
Rinnah: Come come! We can set up Blush Addicts Anonymous 😉
S-kay: Blush lovers love company! 😉
fantastic dupe selection!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Had the good fortune to have tried on the Orgasm my mom bought in the States (… somehow that just sounds a bit wrong, hahah) I’ve got a couple of suggestions to add to the list: how about MAC Peachykeen? Pretty close but maybe a tiny bit reddish and more intense color. Second suggestion: Silkygirl Dune Rose… yeah no kidding, but it had silver shimmers and not gold. Maybe you could check it out and tell us how they compare, esp the Silkygirl since it’s uber-cheap 🙂
Yay! hurray for the Shu uemera blush!!!
Gosh… is there anyway to make my skin not itch from shimmer? Even if I don’t scratch it, the area that has shimmer on it gets hive-vy. The more shimmer, the more hives. Less shimmer, and I get a little bit of hives here and there.
When I have the money I think I’ll turn into a Matte blush addict. HAHAh!
The muse: Thank you!
Jooj: I don’t do MAC blushes in general – nothing has really worked for me but your suggestion will help many I’m sure! I used to have Dune Rose but I gave it away a long while back. Sigh… Maybe I’ll swatch it at the pharmacy and compare. 🙂 Thanks for the tip!
Ms. Blacklace: From what I know, if your skin itches from the shimmer you might be allergic to mica (which is the usual ingredient in shimmer products). If your skin’s sensitive, it might be best not to aggravate it and stick to matte. Matte blushes are lovely too! I’ll write about them some day.
you know that i hate NARS blushes but I can tell you that MUFE 153 is one to try. i love that. and did you try that MUFE Sculping Blush 10 to see if it’s close? there are way too many dupes for NARS Orgasm, which I have nothing good to say about. it’s actually a very common shade. don’t you think?
(ps: thanks for clearing up the TNS store. but i won’t be revisiting it.)
Just dropped by to say thank you so much for adding us to your blogroll. I have only just discovered it and returned the favour. You have an amazing site here, and I’m so glad the Malaysian beauty community is going strong.
Also allow me to throw in my pleading voice with other Malaysians (even if I no longer reside there) NARS please come to Malaysia!! Oh heck, SEPHORA come to MALAYSIA!
Jojoba: Yes, the MUFE blush review is coming up! I love it! I agree that Orgasm isn’t a “unique” colour per se. I reckon the hype is in the name, not so much the colour!
Kahani: Thank you for dropping by! I was happy to discover your site too. Rumours are that Nars is coming in middle of the year but I guess we’ll have to wait for a long long time more for a Sephora!
PB: yeah i know you hate MAC hehe but i love their eyeshadows. i usually do my research on MUA and then go to the counter to check stuff out. that way i minimize my dependence on the SA’s to help me out. what annoys me is that there is a lot of stuff they don’t import into Malaysia. Some permanent items were only brought in as limited edition, some colors are never imported, brushes and empty palettes are out of stock for months and they have no idea when the new stock is coming… really very annoying but heh, what to do…
let’s start a petition to beg sephora to come to malaysia!! they’ve got one on china now! even if in singapore it’s better than nothing… 🙁
I’m still trying to see the big hype of Orgasm :S I had it swiped on me numerous of times but it came on ORANGE on me. Like someone had taken an orange chalk and swiped it on my skin. Wrong time of the month, could be anything. I’ll give it another go this weekend. ><
Hello!
Just wanted to say I love your post on Orgasm dupes! Fantastic swatches too. But I was just wondering, how did you manage to get your hands on Cargo, Nars and Majolica Majorca?
I’m also so glad to find other Malaysian beauty bloggers! You’ve got a great blog going here. =)
Great news that NARS is coming here! And as for Sephora, perhaps we can all band together and write a petition? =P
Jooj: I reckon Sephora might not do as well here as in other countries. People might figure they’d rather go to Sasa than Sephora!
Geekchic: Orgasm is one of those colours that either work for you or don’t. I’m sure many other colours suit you if Orgasm doesn’t! 🙂
Syen: Thanks for coming by! I got the Nars, Cargo and Majolica Majorca through friends and buying online. I sometimes take my chances on ebay too.
I tried out the Orgasm at Mecca, it didn’t suit me. Not contented, but still too cheap to buy the Orgasm, I bought the dupe by Silk Naturals. It still didn’t suit me, so now it’s just left in my blush container, unused. All in all, I should just forget about the Orgasm. I see the hype, but just not on my face 🙁
Still, this is a great post, for Orgasm lovers (tee hee hee! :p) who cannot get their hands on it in M’sia.
Oh, and Rinnah and S-Kay, you girls aren’t the only one turned into blush addicts by Paris. Me too 😉
I’ve never seen how NARS orgasm looks like and have always wondered about it. Thank you for this post and for breaking the mystery!!!!
Because I realised that it looks very very similar to Majolica Majorca RD255 which I already have!! So now, all the mystique around NARS Orgasm is gone for me and I can just use RD 255!!!