Shadows and Shimmer

Tarte 6-piece color collection upcoming QVC TSV: What has your makeup done for you lately (swatches will be added soon!!)

I was SO excited when I heard that QVC was doing another Tarte Today’s Special Value with auto delivery. As a brand I love Tarte and I love their products and when I heard that their TSV had a new foundation in it I knew I had to have it. I am in love with my Tarte Amazonian clay full coverage foundation so I certainly wanted to see how the Maracuja Miracle 12 hour foundation compared. The TSV does not air until July 13^th but I pre-ordered it and already received it. The kit was packaged very nicely in a floral sturdy box and contained these items:

-Maracuja Miracle Foundation

-Pure Maracuja Oil .6oz rollerball

-Foundation brush

-modernEYES waterproof creaseless shadow/liner duo in the colors plumberry/plum brown

-LipSurgence lip shine in the color Smitten (with a built in sharpener at the top)

-Full Size Gifted Amazonian clay smart masacara

-BONUS: .088oz Maracuja C-brighter eye treatment

I know everyone is probably most excited about the foundation and so am I! My initial reaction is a little mixed though. I love the consistency, it actually reminds me a lot of the Healthy Mix Serum foundation from Bourjois but just a tad thicker. It is also very similar to Neutrogena Healthy Skin and Nars Sheer Glow foundations. The color however (I ordered the kit in the color LIGHT), is a little too orangey. I wish Tarte would make more colors in these kits besides just a fair, light, medium, tan and deep. I really am an “in between” color and I certainly don’t want a foundation that is going to make me look like a Oompa Loompa that just stepped out of Willy Wonka’s factory. I have swatched it below by itself and beside a few comparable foundations. Overall I will try to make it work because I really love everything else in the kit and I do love the slightly (and I mean VERY slightly) dewey finish of it. As a girl with a pretty oily T-Zone I find it really difficult to find foundations that aren’t completely matte that won’t break down on my skin throughout the day and that will keep me looking fresh throughout the day without looking like a greaseball. I did use the foundation brush that came in the kit with it today and while it gave me an awesome finish it soaked up A LOT of product since it isn’t a synthetic brush so I think I will be sticking with my expert face brush from Real Techniques or the Tarte airbrush foundation brush that is synthetic from here on out for this foundation. I do like the brush though and will certainly use it with powder foundation.

I am a little confused as to why Tarte changed the packaging of their LipSurgence pencils. I have heard from Tarte that these “lip shine” versions of the pencils will be the only ones with the sharpener on it but I really love the twist up feature of the lip lusters and am a little sad that this pencil will need to be sharpened. The color is gorgeous though and not like any of the other lipsurgence pencils I have. It is REALLY shiny, almost like a gloss but has no shimmer or glitter in it. It does still have the same minty taste and tingle that the regular LipSurgence pencils have.

The Maracuja rollerball will be AWESOME to use when Im traveling and will be great for around the eye area and on my cuticles when they are dry. The only thing I would change about the packaging is I would somehow make it refillable for those of us with other bottles of maracuja that would like to be able to throw the rollerball in a travel bag or our purse.

I really like the double ended eye liner/shadow pencil as well (another item that will be great for travel!). The color of the shadow stick portion is a really pretty violet color with gold shimmer to it. It reminds me A LOT of Mally’s evercolor shadow stick in Violet and I swatched them side by side below so you can see. The Mally is on the right and the Tarte is on the left. The liner is a gorgeous deepened plum that almost looks brown when swatched. I rubbed my hand like crazy once these set and the color didn’t budge. I actually had to use eye makeup remover to get them off my hand because just washing and scrubbing my hand wasn’t doing the trick.

I am excited to try the gifted mascara as Tarte’s light, camera, lashes is my holy grail mascara and I have heard from some people that they like this one even better! I will keep you updated on my thoughts about it after I have used it for awhile. I have not been able to use the eye cream yet either but I am so happy that they included that as a bonus in the kit. The consistency seems really nice and it doesn’t have a strong obnoxious scent which I really appreciate.

Overall I have to say I am really impressed with this kit and I hope I can make the foundation work for me. If anyone has purchased the color fair I would really appreciate a swatch of it if you could email it to me. If it is less orange I may exchange the kit for that color. I hope this helps any of you that may be interested in purchasing the kit and if you want to get it before it airs the item number is  A-228564.

Have a great day everyone!!

Kimberly