tarte

The Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympus and now Tarte. Someone wake up Herodotus. It’s time to add one more to his Seven Wonders of the World, and this one’s a QVC exclusive.

Tarte continues to sizzle this spring. Their recently released $53 limited edition 8th World Wonder Kit comes with some Tarte colors you can’t find anywhere else, like Amazonian Clay Blush in Glisten.

Hi, Glisten… Pardon me while I wipe this drool off my chin!

In the kit, Glisten joins six other pieces for eyes, lips, face and cheeks, all in a cute purple clutch purse.

Tarte 8th World Wonder Kit ($53)

• Amazonian Clay Blush in Glisten — I’m in love with the glow I get from this shimmery peachy pink. Like the other blushes in Tarte’s Amazonian Clay Blush line, Glisten is pigmented, easy to blend and lasts and lasts and lasts.
• PureOptic Lipgloss in Golden — I think this shimmery golden peachy pink kinda sorta resembles MAC Nymphette, except that it’s lighter and doesn’t contain quite as much pigment. I find the minty scent and flavor refreshing, but I’m not crazy about the thick, sticky texture… It feels too heavy on my lips.
• Amazonian Clay Waterproof Eyeliner — Something tells me this rich, shimmery bronze-plum eyeliner will look incredible on brown brown eyes and green eyes. I’ve worn it successfully along my lash line, but when I wore it along my waterlines, my eyes teared up.
• Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Balancing Foundation — Medium, the shade I’ve been testing, seems too light for my skin tone, but I’m still wearing it around the house for fun. With the kit, you can choose the shade of foundation you want.
  
  The feel of this lightweight, fluffy mousse reminds me of Laura Mercier’s Silk Creme Foundation. Like Laura’s creme, it’s pigmented and full coverage, yet it still feels darn near weightless on my skin.
• Airbrush Finish Foundation Brush — Designed to apply liquid foundations, this soft, full brush head produces diffused looks with aplomb.
• Lights, Camera, Lashes Mascara — This jet black mascara adds natural-looking length and thickness to lashes.
• Eyeshadow Palette — I didn’t get to try this palette of brown, bronze, purple and pink powder shadows, but here’s what Stef thought about it at We Heart This.

Here are six of the items shown next to my iPhone for scale (the missing product is the eyeshadow palette)
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universally flattering |yü-nə-ˈvər-səl-lē ˈfla-tə-riŋ|
adjectival phrase
1 A phrase which has come to mean “looks great on everyone,” but which more properly understood means “looks great on almost everyone” : I’m looking for a shade that’s universally flattering.

The idea of makeup designed to look great on everyone always gets me excited. What a cool idea, right? — products without boundaries or inhibitions; colors able to get along with everyone.

It reminds me of the time I walked in on a party to find a bunch of people in a huge drum circle. At first I thought, “Uh, oh. Not my scene,” but then I grabbed some bongos and started banging away. Before long I felt right at home. 🙂

Tarte must have had a world like that in mind (maybe?) when they developed the new Tarte NeutralEyes Eye Shadow Palette ($44). Like all of their products, it’s cruelty-free, which scores may-jah points in Tabs’ book. New for spring, the palette comes chock full of good stuff like…

• 10 shadows (eight mattes and two shimmers) with light-to-medium pigmentation in a cute, refillable case
• A full-size EmphasEYES Aqua-Gel Eyeliner in Brown
• A dual-ended eyeshadow brush
• A tiny bottle of Lifted Eye Primer
• Printed instructions for both a “Day Look” and “Night Look”

Tarte selected neutral colors they felt would work well on a wide range of skin tones, and I particularly like the darker shades — the matte deep teal, shimmering bronze, matte brown, matte plum and matte navy. I can can see them looking fab on pale and dark beauties alike.

The shadows apply smoothly, exhibit minimal fallout, blend like a dream and contain a healthy serving of pigment. They’re intense, but not so intense that I look overly made up with them on. The look has punch, but it’s still safe and work-friendly.

Now, I had a little trouble with the lighter shades… The matte beige, pink and taupe — the three shadow colors that come with special “Day Look” instructions — looked chalky on my tan skin, and at one point while using them I hit something I call the blending “point of no return.” That’s where the colors just start to run into each other and turn into a monochromatic mess. After my third attempt with them, I figured the beauty gods were trying to tell me something, so I scrapped the idea and tried a different look with the Shimmering Soft Peach and Matte Deep Teal colors instead…

Yup, if your skin tone is similar to mine (or darker), you may find the lighter colors in the palette a bit challenging to use.

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Tarte LipSurgence Natural Lip Luster in Adored on lips

You know how they say that every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings? Well, every time I take out a Tarte LipSurgence Natural Lip Luster, a drag queen cheers and whips out two snaps in a circle. 🙂

The six new moisturizing lusters ($24 each) are souped-up versions of Tarte’s best-selling LipSurgence Lip Tints with punchier pigmentation and a finish so shiny (I gotta wear shades).

In the plus column, I really like that these pencil tips are twisties, because I don’t like having to tote around a sharpener (ahem, I’m talkin’ to you, NARS Velvet Gloss).

I also tip my hat to Tarte for keeping a lot of the common lip gunk out of these, like formaldehyde-based preservatives. They’re also gluten, oil, talc and MEA/DEA/TEA-free. And because they’re also cruelty-free, Tabs gives his husky-pawed kitty stamp of approval.

I’ve been wearing shimmery red Fever, shimmery light pink Adored and shimmery nude Buff on and off for about a week so far, and they have an almost lip balmy, non-sticky texture that feels thick and smooth. I like it, and I also dig their light peppermint flavor and scent, which, for the record, fades pretty quickly. That’s something the colors themselves don’t do, however; they last about three hours on my lips.

From left to right: Fever, Adored and Buff

Swatches from left to right, top row: Fever, Frisky and Buff; bottom row: Adored, Glisten and Pouty
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