Product Review: tarte cosmetics’s ready-to-wear/pret-a-porter palette from the Fall 2007 Health Couture Collection

Product: tarte cosmetics ready-to-wear/pret-a-porter palette
Use: to achieve two different types of smoky eye looks with just one palette
Price: $44.00 for a dual-look palette with six shadows, two cream blushes, four lipsticks, mascara, liner and brushes
Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you may have noticed that this fall cosmetics companies have been going buck wild crazy with the smoky eye palettes. I love the smoky eye look, and have no objection to this trend!

When most women think of smoky eyes they probably immediately think of the typical black shadow and liner rimmed eye. But did you know that there are several different versions of the smoky eye? You can do a smoky eye with blues, greens, greys, browns –you are only limited by your imagination (and budget, which hello, is the story of my makeup loving life).

Here’s a green-based smokey eye look I did using tarte’s ready-to-wear/prêt-a-porter palette from their Health Couture 2007 fall collection.

This dual personality palette has two looks packed into one cute case. There’s both green (i love new york) and gray/plum (paris mi amour) smoky eye looks complete with blushes and lipsticks, too.

You also get two short handled travel brushes (one flat shadow brush and a eye liner push brush), a wee tube of 4-in-1 mascara, and a light, peachy colored eye liner called rest assured brightening pencil. I’m not a fan of short handled brushes so I used my own when applying the makeup. If this is your venture into smoky eyes and you don’t have your own brushes then try these first, but know that in order to look like Jessica Alba on the red carpet you will probably need to invest in a few more brushes in the future. If you can make them work for you more power to ya. I know that for me I need at least a brush for my brows, a blending brush for the shadows, and a small angled brush to do any eye detail work in addition to a shadow brush and eyeliner brush.

What I liked about the i love ny side:
– Pretty, sheer green shadow colors that combine well
– Detailed “How to” booklet included with the palette
– Buildable honey peach cream blush
– Long staying power for the lipsticks, beige shade didn’t make me look questionably undead
– 4-in-1 mascara builds well for thicker, dramatic lashes

I love the bone highlighting shade; it’s shimmery but subtle. The moss and olive shadows are sheer, and while many seasoned shadow lovers might not like that I think that it’s great because it gives beginners a lot of leeway for mistakes.

The honey peach cream blush and the lipsticks were nice surprises. Because I have oily skin sometimes cream blushes slide right off but tarte’s formulation stayed on throughout the entire day. It’s also sheer but easily buildable, like the shadows. Both the beige and pink lipstick shades are pretty by themselves or mixed together, have good staying power, and don’t have a weird taste or smell.

I have lashes on the wimpy side so I really like to make them big and dramatic. I didn’t feel like one or two coats of 4-in-1 mascara was enough for me, so I ended up putting on four coats on. While this might seem like overkill, it actually turned out pretty well. The mascara builds up nicely without looking too spidery or truck stop hooker.

What I didn’t like about the i love ny side
I am a brush fiend and I’m very particular about brushes so I wasn’t crazy about the ones that came with the kit because of the short handles and the lack of weight.

I also wasn’t crazy about the rest assured brightening pencil. It’s this light, peach shade you apply to the inner rims of the lower lids to make you look more awake. Hmm. I ended up applying it along the lower lash line, and had to smudge it out so that it wouldn’t look to obvious. I’ll probably skip this step in the future.

I also wish that this came with a shadow primer or some kind of base to help “grab” the shadow. Beginners who use the palette without some sort of creamy shadow base might be disappointed with the results because of the sheerness of the shadows. I used MAC Paint in Bare Canvas and I think that helped the richness of the colors come through.

The final word
The i love new york side of the ready-to-wear palette gets a solid Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating of A. I was pleasantly surprised that all of the colors worked for my skin tone (which rarely ever happens for me with all-in-one kits), and I liked the quality of the products. If you’re new to the smoky eye and aren’t quite ready for a full on black raccoon eye then this is a good introduction. However, know that you’ll have to invest in some brushes in the future.

Stay tuned for the next installation of this palette review for the paris, mi amour colors in the next few days, along with rewiews for the rest of the Health Couture 2007 collection.

So, I’m still kinda cranky because the internet is still out in my house but the Comcast guy is coming at one to allegedly fix the problem. We’ll see if it actually happens. Later this afternoon I’m going to my friend’s house for lumpia rolling/cooking mini-party. If ya don’t know what lumpia is then grab your closest Filipino friend and have her/him take you to a Filipino lunch counter stat. (If you live in the East Bay or in Daly City I’m sure you’ll have no problem doing this, lol.) It’s basically a superior form of the typical egg roll, and it’ll take you into fried food ecstasy. Before I roll out though I gotta do some pre-lumpia cardio at the gym, so I’m off!

How has your weekend been so far? I hope you’re feeling good this Saturday.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen