Nars Lips; Heat Wave vs Red Square

I have become quite the Nars lipstick addict. It is one brand that I can really rely on for great pigmented lippies with staying power. They are also a favourite of the JCREW team; they regularly feature Nars lips on their models for the catalog shoots including the two colours profiled here.

One of my all time favourite colours is Nars Heat Wave but when I stumbled upon Red Square I wondered how could Nars have two Orangey Reds in their line up and is this the same colour?Obviously not but what is the deal?

So I ordered the Red Square Velvet Matte lip pencil to decide for myself which was the best orangey red?

Nars Heat wave vs Red Square

To the naked eye it is really hard to tell the difference between the two shades (Heat wave vs Red Square) until you see them swatched like they are above.

From here you can see that Heat Wave has more blue undertones and is closer to a true red on the red spectrum. Red Square on the other hand has a stronger orange/yellow base.

I like both of the colours on my lips but the Nars Red Square is brighter and much more orange.  Which I really like for summer.

To be honest I can’t decide which colour I like better. They are both fantastic. Still if you want to go more orange Red Square is the best bet. I also love the velvet matte pencils. They glide on super easy and because it is in pencil form it is much easier to get your lips outlined properly.

As for which shade (Heat Wave vs Red Square) is more flattering? I would probably err on the side of Heat Wave for the most flattering shade. You can see from the picture above that Red Square brings out the yellow in my skin tone and I can get away with that in the summer when my skin is more tanned but Heat Wave works better year round.

Which shade is your favourite in the Heat Wave vs Red Square debate?