Remember when I got really excited about tarte cosmetics’ huge friends and family 30% off sale? I received my box of goodies within a few days of ordering and have been playing around with most of the products so I can tell you about them here. First things first: my order came packaged with unicorn-printed tissue paper that I’m totally keeping so I can re-use it in my niece’s birthday present!
I ordered a few makeup items, not that I really *needed* any of these (actually, I did need eyeshadow primer, so there!):
What I ordered:
- clean slate 360 creaseless 12-hr smoothing eye primer (no longer seems to be available on the tarte or Sephora website): $20 regular // $14 sale
- quench lip rescue in rose: $19 regular // $13.30 sale
- clean queen vegan deodorant: $14 regular // $9.80 sale
- limited-edition eye love you eye set: $22 regular // $15.40 sale
- rainforest of the sea super size deep dive cleansing gel, 10.14 oz: $36 regular // $25.20
- rainforest of the sea color splash hydrating lipstick in island life: $21 regular // $14.70 sale
I’m excited to try the brand’s new vegan deodorant, Clean Queen. I’ve been wanting to try an aluminum-free deodorant but I want to finish up the current tube of Kiehl’s deodorant that I’m working on before I start using this product. I can say that it has a clean, powdery scent that I hope won’t be overpowering on me. Fingers crossed that it works well…stay tuned for an update on this one.
It’s too bad that tarte’s eye primer seems to be discontinued, because I’m liking it so far. The product is white and has a thinner consistency than Urban Decay’s cult favorite Eyeshadow Primer Potion, which is what I was accustomed to using. I don’t mind that this formula is white because once you smooth it onto your eyelids the color thins out and blends into your skin. It’s easy to use and a little goes a long way (I feel like I say that about soooo many products, so I apologize if I come off like a broken record!). And in my experience, I do believe its claim of being creasless is accurate. Good stuff! Maybe they’ll come out with a new eye primer soon.
For some reason when I ordered the eye love you eye set, I didn’t realize it came with a travel sized lights, camera, lashes 4-in-1 mascara, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that in the package! I’ve purchased and re-purchased that mascara in the past, and it’ll be great to have another mini tube to travel with. The eyeshadow palette contains 16 neutral shades in a mix of matte and metallic formulas.
This eye set is SUCH a great value, even at the full price of $22! I’ve been experimenting with this palette over the past couple of weeks and am really liking it so far. It takes a couple extra layers to get the lighter shades to show up on my fair skin, but I love that they’re super subtle for an everyday look.
Let’s take a look at swatches of these eyeshadow colors, shall we? I swatched four shades in each of the below photos, starting with the color at the top of each row in the palette and working down. I know the shades are hard to see in this first photo because they basically blend with my skin, but the darker swatches show up a lot better in the rest of the pics!
Moving to the second row from the left:
On to the third row from the left:
And the last row:
The eyeshadows are silky and blend easily without a ton of fallout. There’s nothing worse than an undereye area full of glitter after applying your eye makeup! I’m really loving this palette and will get a lot of use out of it. Also? The colors in the palette are GREAT for brown-eyed girls like yours truly!
I’ve had my eye on the rainforest of the sea quench lip rescue ever since tarte released the line last year, and this sale felt like the right time to try one. I chose the “rose” color, and man…I really love this lip product! First of all, A+++ for the gorgeous packaging! Second of all, this product literally goes on like butter. It is SO smooth and leaves a very pretty rosy tint with a shiny finish. The product has a minty feel because it contains peppermint oil; I like that sort of thing, but it’s something to note in case you’re a mint hater. Personally, I’m way into this little tube!
The last makeup product I ordered was the rainforest of the sea color splash hydrating lipstick. I spent awhile looking at the wide array of available shades (there are 24!) and googled some swatches so I could pick out the right color for me. I settled on “island life,” a rosy mauve:
This is a full coverage lipstick with a somewhat matte finish (though not anywhere near as matte as tarte’s lip paint). The lipstick is actually more pigmented than I expected, and though it’s very creamy I somehow don’t find it as hydrating as it claims to be. The shade I selected is probably not the best for my skin tone, though it certainly doesn’t look bad on me. Overall, I’m not as thrilled with this lipstick as I am with the quench lip rescue, but I’ll still use it. Below are swatches of these two lip products:
I didn’t include a photo of my super sized bottle of the rainforest of the sea deep dive cleansing gel here because I’ve posted about the product in the past. Suffice to say, I’m a fan!
All in all I spent $92.40, so for six items that’s an average of $15.40 apiece. If I count the mini mascara as a seventh item, it brings the per item average down to $13.20! Pretty awesome deal for all of this fun stuff!
Did you take advantage of tarte’s friends and family sale? If so, what did you get?
