Tarte: Balanced & Beautiful Amazonian Clay Essentials Kit

If you have been reading my beauty-related posts you already know how much I love Tarte Cosmetics! It is a wonderful natural brand. Their products are infused with superfruit, plant extracts, vitamins, minerals, essential oils and other naturally-derived ingredients and do not contain harmful elements like paraben, mineral oil, phthalate, sodium lauryl sulfate, triclosan, synthetic fragrances, gluten. You can read more about it here. I have always been intrigued about their 12-hr Amazonian Clay blushes that everyone raves about!! But let's be honest, $26 for a blush seems a bit pricey!

I saw this kit online during the last holiday season but I stayed away, the blush looked scary at that time :) Now, few months later, it showed up on sale at Ulta (at $19), plus I had a 20% off coupon; I will be a fool if I don't take advantage of that. Like I said the blush retails at $26, so you are getting two additional goodies at a much lesser price than that of the blush alone! Oh btw, the kit comes at a regular price of $22.

This set is encased in a hot pink cardboard-paper box with a striking gold ikat-print design which is very characteristic of Tarte. The outer packaging of the blush is plastic but sturdy, comes with a nice round mirror and opens entirely flat. Plus, the outside color is exactly like the blush which is always uber convenient. I also love the decorative "tarte" embossing on the lid as well as their typical design carved on the blush itself. Such a cute product to own :) The cream eyeshadow comes in a tiny adorable pot that seems to be very robust. The brush is made in China and has a long-enough 'bamboo' handle, which is always good for our earth :) Overall, I am really impressed with the packaging of all the products.

The kit contains the following products

• Full-size (0.20 oz/5.6 g) Amazonian clay 12-hr blush in "FLUSH".
• Full-size (0.1 oz/ 3.4 g) Amazonian clay waterproof cream eyeshadow in "SLATE".
• Full-size bamboo cream eyeshadow brush.

FLUSH: These amazonian clay blushes are one of Tarte's wildly loved products. Now I know why! They are insanely pigmented and really really long wearing. I have had around 7-8 hours of solid wear out of them. I will not be able to confirm its durability claim for 12 hr as I have not wore them for that long. But it's definitely long wearing.

It's a vibrant pinkish berry shade which looks utterly scary on the pan, but transforms to a very natural color on the skin. I have medium olive skin tone and I just need the lightest swipe to get the color show up beautifully on my cheeks. Perfect color for fall & winter, if you happen to strictly follow seasonal-color rules :) I absolutely love the shade on me, but it will look even more gorgeous on dark-skinned girls. If you have lighter skin tone than me, you will need to be extremely careful not to put on a lot of product, but don't let that bother you. This will look beautiful on everyone. 

SLATE: I adore how cute and tiny this pot is. The color is a bit challenging to describe though. I see it as a beautiful mixture of rose-hued champagne and taupe with cream colored micro-mini shimmers. The color is almost invisible on my hand under broad daylight. On my lid, it transfers as this lovely champagne-beige color. It can be used as base and also as a single color all over the lid, which is my favorite way of using it. Easy, beautiful look in just one swipe. Sometimes, I put this in my inner corner too, which immediately brightens up the look.

Brush: It's a nice flat eyeshadow brush with some sturdy bristles. It is very useful in patting colors on the lid. I have used it in applying the cream shadow above, but I prefer using my ring finger instead. 

Three wonderful products at such an awesome value! With the sale price and coupon, this might be the best deal I have scored in a while (Giddy smile! :) ;) ) As you can already tell, I am totally in love with this kit. But still, here goes my customary pros and cons...

Pros:

• Excellent value for your money.
• Gorgeous long wearing blush in a lovely color.
• Beautiful waterproof cream shadow in a perfect "everyday" shade.

Cons: 

• None :)

I have seen this kit mostly around the holiday season in Ulta, Tarte. You may even try Sephora, QVC etc. As told before, I bought mine a few months after the holiday season in Ulta. So if you are a bit curious about the kit (Believe me, its a nice one to have ;)), keep an eye on the sale section of Ulta, Tarte and grab it whenever it's available ;) Hope it was helpful.

Love,

~Arrru

Tarte: 5-piece Amazonian Butter Lipstick Set "kiss and makeup"

So, here is my second beauty related post. My blog is almost about everything; things that affect my daily life. Beauty and learning about makeup has been a big fat hobby for a few months now. Anyway, I wrote about it quite extensively in my first beauty post.

Today’s product is a lipstick set from Tarte. I believe this was also a holiday set. It is called the 5-piece Amazonian butter lipstick set “Kiss and makeup”. Isn’t that a fun name J? I bought this from their website directly when they were having some kind of spring sale. It had a retail value of around $45; I had a 20% off coupon and ended up paying a final of $34.80, the individual butter lipsticks retails for $16. I was also pleasantly surprised to receive a deluxe sized lights, camera, flashes™ statement mascara as a birthday gift…who does not love free cute items? The set is also available in QVC, hautelook from time to time.

Let’s go to the main product now, Tarte is a natural brand and as they mention in their website these butter lipsticks are infused with precious Amazonian butters to hydrate and smooth lips throughout the day. The product is formulated without parabens, mineral oil, phthalates, triclosan, sodium lauryl sulphate, synthetic fragrance. This set is consisting of 5 amazonian butter lipsticks in some lovely shades ranging from ultra-nude, peach to bright red and pinks. Tarte has a variety of lipstick formulation. I love the packaging of the kit (so obvious with any product I buy from them J ). It is adorned with the typical golden pattern all over the packaging. The actual tube of the lipstick is also very cute and adorable. Each one has a different base color like mint green, lavender, coral, violet and light pink with the same Tarte gold pattern. However, the cap is just cardboard and for me it does not appear to be very very sturdy. As one of my fellow blogger pointed out, there is a risk of the lipstick melting down in summer if you carry it in your bag.

The texture and formulation of the lipsticks is so very lovely. It definitely proves true to its name. It is not extremely opaque but really buttery on your lips. For me, the formulation seems to be something between a lip stain and a lipstick because of its sheerness. Personally I am a big fan of super pigmented opaque lipsticks in bold color on my lips. However, the pigmentation on these is really great but they are a bit sheer. You may build it up though. For me, it tends to accentuate the fine lines in my lips just a tiny bit. But I do not mind any of these, because these lipsticks give such a hydrating, moisturizing feel to my lips. I have not been playing a whole lot with the set. But yes, they do stay for up to 6-8 hours without much need of retouching.

Angelic nude: It is the palest of all. Not a great color on my olive/tan medium skin tone. But I do believe with a little bit of pink or peach gloss, I can carry the color without any huge difficulty. I can definitely see softer skin tone girls rocking this color.

Sweet peach: this shade has pleasantly surprised me. For the current spring season, I was looking for a soft peach color, not yet ready to dive into the whole orange color looks. I think this is the prefect peachy coral shade for me. Having said that, I will also add that the shade will look a lot more perfect for girls a little paler than me. But I just love the look on me; it’s very refreshing, very spring like.   

Merry berry: such a fun color and equally fun name. It’s a bright red berry color with blue, pink and gold micro glitters. If you ask me, quite a bold and adventurous color. But luckily I happen to look good in bold dark colors or so I have been told. I am not sure yet, if I like the sparkles. I am not a huge fan of frosty look on my lips. But I love LOVE the shade. It never hurts to have some variety in your vanity.

Pink poinsettia: Another fun name. Poinsettia is a bright red flower indigenous to Mexico and Central America, I read so in Wikipedia J. It’s a bright red-pinky color, but because the lipsticks are sheer, this shade gives me that particular brightness without appearing to be extremely bold. I love this shade.

Candy red: this is a blue-based classical red. The name has such a strong holiday spirit to it. It has not been very long ago that I have started to wear red colors, and I already have developed a weakness for red. I love to play up my lips and my entire mood with a bright red lipstick. I must admit that Candy Red is my most favorite in the bunch with Sweet peach being close second. I love how elegant and playful a look it gives me. Sure, it is not an everyday color, but the set has other everyday colors for you J

Even if I don’t reach for them every other day, I love them. They are really moisturizing on the lips. The darker colors do have a little more staying power than the rest. They do have subtle minty feel to them, but not as strong as the LipSurgence from Tarte as well.

So here are my quick takes---

Pros:

• Excellent value
• Great range of color as a set
• Very moisturizing
• Added bonus…extremely cute packaging

Cons:

• Not a very sturdy packaging for the tubes.

I know I am quite late in putting up my thoughts for a holiday kit; however I still do hope this will be helpful to at least some of you.

Love,

~Aru

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