IT Cosmetics Naturally PRETTY Vol. 1 Matte Luxe Transforming Eyeshadow Palette

First of all, how clever is that name? Every woman wants to be naturally pretty. At least, we all want to look pretty :)

This is my first ever product from IT Cosmetics which is a cruelty-free, prestige brand of cosmetics for face and body, founded by present CEO Jamie Kern in 2008. It is a relatively new product and have not yet been talked about a lot in the beauty community. I was itching to check it out ever since I heard about it. The name is really catchy :) Most of the eyeshadows I own are shimmery and I often found myself looking for matte crease colors to finish off my looks. I saw and swatched this palette in ULTA during their "21 days of Beauty, Spring 2014" event. The shadows are pigmented and felt so smooth and buttery in my hand! I admit I don't own a thousand and one eyeshadows but these colors are very very pretty and looked so unique to me. I was immediately sold!! But I did not buy it that day, as I already hoarded up a lot of stuff. I was just trying to be a good girl you know :) 

Few days later I received the 'Friends and Family - 25% off coupon' email from IT Cosmetics. They also offer free US shipping on orders of $25; obviously I could not resist the temptation. The regular price of the palette is $42. It contains 14 matte eyeshadows and a transforming pearl shade all of which gives a total of .092 oz (2.62 g) of products. For me, it is definitely worth the price. With the coupon, it costs me $31.50, such an awesome price! Basically, I am very happy that I succumbed to my makeup addiction.

In case you are wondering, that's me in the pictures with my makeup ;) 

The outer packaging is a pink cardboard. The actual palette is also made of cardboard packaging with a velvety pink-colored fabric. I like it; my only complaint is that it is not going to be easy to maintain. It has a magnetic covered-up closure, so it feels sturdy to me. You get a decent size mirror inside. The inner frame is made up of golden colored cardboard which makes the palette look luxe and elegant. I love it.

This is termed as Vol. 1, so there is a chance that they will come up with different editions. The color range is awesome. You get two light shades, few mid-tone colors and then some really darker shades. Needless to say, they are all matte in texture. I feel I have every single crease colors I may ever want! They also can be worn wet or dry. Jamie worked out with plastic surgeons to develop these anti-aging shadows infused with Peptides, Hydrolyzed Collagen, Acai, Green Tea, Silk and antioxidants! Qualitywise, they are very pigmented, smooth and extremely easy to apply as well as blend out. The dark colors have a tiny bit of fallout but nothing too crazy. They also have such awesome staying power; around 10 hrs of wear for me without any distinguishable fading. The other day I put on a smokey eye using Warmth, Midnight and Noir at around 11 am, since it was my day off, I continued with household chores without being careful about my makeup. I even took a 30-min nap wrapping myself in blanket :). The shadows did not budge, I could go out without any touch up needed. 

Let me try to describe the colors for you...

Sheer Joy: This cream color is the lightest among all. Definitely a great crease color for paler skin tones. Excellent brow bone color for me.
Soft Light: Another great crease and brow bone color. Appears as a very muted light brown/taupe color to me.
Warmth: This is a brighter brown; almost undetectable on my skin tone; perfect everyday crease color for me.
Soulful: Looks like a very well-balanced mix between brown and mauve. Extremely pretty.

Mocha: Pretty brown/taupe, however you see it ;)

Violet: Very true to its name :) Such a pretty pretty color. Definitely going to help me in finishing of a purple smokey look.
Midnight: Dark blue comes to my mind whenever I hear the word "Midnight". The color is exactly that. Definitely very useful in creating navy smokey eye looks.

Noir: Matte black. Very pigmented but it also has the most fall outs among all the colors.
Iconic: Very pretty dark purple. Pair it with a Violet for a very elegant look :)
Java: Classic brown.
All Heart: I love how IT cosmetics named these shadows, very crisp and beautiful. All Heart is a more pronounced mauve color.
Sunset: Such a lovely lovely shade. It shows up as a muted orange color, definitely resembles colors of sunset.  It is very hard to choose, but this might be my most favourite among all.
Sunrise: Hmmm, I don't know how to describe this color. A brighter orangy brown color but not too over the top.
Love: A lovely pale pink color, very apt for my brow bone.

Transforming pearl: This is the bigger color in the palette. This can be used on top of the any shades to transform it into shimmer. As in the picture, I don't see much of a difference. Plus the pearl makes the color less vibrant, not something that I enjoy. I love the palette so much that I really don't care about the pearl shade and its performance. I am still going to use it as an eyeshadow to brighten up my tear-duct.

Here are my quick takes:

Pros:

• This palette makes me happy, definitely a plus point for me :) :) :)
• Shadows are velvety, buttery and pigmented. Very easy to blend out. I am very impressed by the quality of these shadows.
• Awesome staying power.
• Very impressive range of color.
• Good value when compared to some other palettes.

Cons:

• The only con I could think of is the fallout. But, nothing too serious :)

If you are a matte eyeshadow fan, I recommend you getting this palette. You will definitely fall in love. Even if you don't LOVE mattes, this is a pretty palette to have. I realize, this has become quite a long post, but I have been really enjoying this palette so much. Hope it was helpful.

Last but not the least, I love the quote by Jamie, on the back of the packaging "You are naturally pretty, you are beautiful, you are one of a kind, you are it!". 

Love,

~Aru

P.S.: As of now the palette is avaliable in ULTA ($42), and in QVC with a double ended brush ($39.56). 

Tarte: Baby It's Bold Outside The Stand Outs Limited-Edition Best-Sellers Kit

Of late, I have been into exploring the world of beauty and makeup!! Having a generous amount of spare time has been helping me in picking up new hobbies. Hobbies that were, quite friendly, very unappealing to me few years back!

Let me be extremely honest here, I have always been the geek girl. There was so much on the plate, I never had much chance to explore the “girly girl” in me. But now that I finally have a little bit of time and can spend a little bit of money on pampering myself, I am exploring the world of makeup. The high-speed internet here and few so called “You-tube Gurus” definitely helps ;)

Here is my first ever user-experience shared with you all out there. I do not prefer it to be called "review" as I am not at all an expert. It is just a few honest opinions from a simple girl who have used these products.  

Today I am going to talk about “the stand outs limited-edition best-sellers kit”, a holiday kit from Tarte. Tarte is a US based cosmetic company that is mostly known for using naturally-derived ingredients in their products. Apart from that, I just love their bright beautiful packaging; just a side-note.

Anyway, I ordered it directly from tartecosmetics.com at a $25 value, which cost me a final of $16.50 after the 40% sale going on that particular day. The kit includes

·         Full size LipSurgence lip luster in POUTY

·         Full Size Amazonian Clay waterproof liner in BRONZE

·         Full size double-ended liner brush

·         Deluxe lights, camera, lashes 4-in-1 mascara

You can already tell, it is an awesome value. Let us just consider the regular cost of the items, the lip luster sells for $24, the waterproof liner along with the brush runs for $24. The full-size mascara is $19, but the deluxe sample you get with this kit is also a very decent size.

Let me first vent out my disappointment at the beginning. I was in between move to a different state when I ordered this. I was supposed to move out of my old place after around 10 days of my placing this order. It took few days for them to ship, when they finally shipped it, the tracking page showed that the packet will reach me before I need to move out of there. But then there was some storm in the East coast and the entire delivery got postponed by few days. I contacted customer care to let them know about my problem and hoping that they will at least offer to pay for the extra payment charge that I needed to carry to deliver the items to my new place. When I wrote to them about asking them to cancel my order or pay for the extra shipping charge, I did not get any reply. But when I wrote to them writing that I fixed my problem, I got a reply just after few minutes stating that “They are glad that my problem got solved”. Being a prestige brand of cosmetics, I really hoped some more customer "care" from them. I have to say I was disappointed.

Now let’s bring in some positives. I have heard a lot of good things about the brand. After waiting for around a month, (remember I was in between moves, so my friend collected the package for me, and then he sent it to me), when I finally got these and played with them, they immediately won my heart. Great quality products!!

POUTY is a nice bright pink color with a little bit of shimmer. It is not the kind of color that I would wear. But when I wore it I felt that it really went very well with my medium/tan/olive skin tone. It also has a minty smell and feel to it which is quite refreshing to me. I really enjoy the very subtle tingling affect it has on my lips. I love that it is a retractable product, which saves me from the pain of sharpening. I also love the fact that I do not need to be careful while applying, no need of a lip liner as well. For me, it’s a great product for the days when I want to have a somewhat brighter lip, without being extra careful and time-consuming with the application.

The waterproof liner in Bronze is a nice addition to my eye products, it is a very deep brown bronzy color which seems to have a very satin finish. I am not able to achieve a very crisp liner with it yet, but I like to wear it all over my lid and just use a normal black liner. You can wear it alone on the lid or just use as a base (I have not done it though), it is also buildable. I love that I can control the depth of bronzy/brown color that I want with the layering of application. I store it upside down so as to prevent it from drying. But yeah, it seems to be a little bit dry in nature. The brush seems to work just fine, nothing extraordinary about it. I have not used the slim side yet. Hopefully it will enable me to achieve the crisp eyeliner look I am looking for.

I have heard great many things for the mascara. But because I have so many mascaras already and also because I really use a very minimal amount of make-up for my day to day activity, I really have not had a chance to use it.

Did I already tell you that I love Tarte packaging? I love how they pick unconventional patterns and colors for their packaging. This one comes in nice sea-green and golden cardboard packaging. Adorable J

By the way I got the neck-piece at $4 at Claire's; Isn't it a steal? J

So here are my quick takes

Pros:

• Awesome value
• 3 full size products
• Love everything about the LipSurgence (color, texture, application etc)

Cons:

• Somewhat disappointing experience with customer care with my very first purchase.
• The eyeliner is a tad drying.

Had that shipping issue would not have occurred, I would have loved the kit a lot more. But anyway from my personal experience I have realized that holiday kits are an amazing way to try out products at a much more affordable price. While enjoying my POUT, I will definitely look forward to these little kits from Tarte in the foreseeable future J

~Arrru