tarte (l-r): Amazonian Clay Foundation, Maracuja Creaseless Concealer, Amazonian Clay Matte Waterproof Bronzer and BB Tinted Treatment Primer. Bonus: Real Techniques Bold Metal Brushes 101 (just used) and 301
The first time I tried a tarte product was last August, when I bought the Amazonian Clay Foundation on a whim (review: here). I was so happy with the results that I ended up doing a bit of a brand exploration. Today, pretty much all of my everyday face products are tarte. My latest purchases are the Maracuja Creaseless Concealer and the Amazonian Clay Bronzer (purchased in April 2015).
I am still on the fence about the concealer– some days I love it and other days I don’t. It is rather creaseless and moisture packed, so it does stay out of fine lines, but blending it can be a challenge because of its super thick, tacky consistency. It also takes more powder than I want to use to get it to set. I may just be using too much of the product, so I’ll follow up on my experience later. The bronzer, however, has been awesome and never leaves me looking muddy or orange. I bought the BB primer somewhere between those first three products and wish that it came in more colors; I do feel that the shade is slightly off though it isn’t any issue when worn under foundation (something I don’t do very often these days). Overall, this is my everyday face makeup and I’m pretty darn happy with it.
Last winter, I picked up the Away Oui Go Portable Palette & Collector’s Set and while the eyeshadow colors seem a little redundant from quad to quad (you can see a few photos: here), I find myself using them fairly often and the included blush has worked great. I haven’t bought any single blushes yet but I plan to soon. The big surprise for me is that my everyday mascara is now also from tarte. I was given sample of tarte’s gifted mascara last September and it has completely replaced my former brand. When I look for a new mascara, I’m usually looking for something that isn’t waterproof (I just don’t like risking the potential pain of scrubbing it off as gently as possible) and that gives me moderate volume and decent length. Gifted hit all the marks though I will say that there is some flaking that I usually have to clean up by early evening, fair warning.
tarte: everything listed in above captions except for the Amazonian Butter Lipstick in Angel
To be honest, tarte has been a great discovery. I think that I’ve mentioned before that I avoided the brand for years because the packaging just doesn’t appeal to me. Truthfully, it still doesn’t appeal to me. However, packaging doesn’t trump quality and I’m happy to have found products that, while aren’t sold at drugstore prices, are cheaper than some of the other products I’ve used on a regular basis. I also appreciate tarte’s attempts to be environment and animal friendly, as well as their attempts to take a critical approach to ingredient selection.
If you have any questions, want to see a specific swatch or have recommendations of what I should try next, be sure to leave a comment. Otherwise, see you next time!
