As I mentioned in my blog last week, I have lifted my year-long embargo on Tarte Cosmetics. I’ve mentioned it a thousand times, but if you missed the drama, you can catch up on what happened here. However, Tarte has a lot of products I’ve loved over the years, and then every now and then, they release things that make me wonder, “Who asked for this?!” (One of my fave YouTubers, Angelica Nyqvist says that all the time in relation to new makeup releases. I love it.)
So… because Tarte is back on my radar, I thought I would go through five products I’m really into and may be purchasing soon, and five products I don’t understand, and obvs will NOT be purchasing.
Top 5 Products: Best of the Best
Tarte Aquacealer Concealer ($26): This is probably my favorite Tarte product of all time. And quite honestly, this little guy lasted me almost the entire year I wasn’t buying Tarte, which is kind of amazing. It only started to show signs of running out LAST WEEK. So I am very excited to buy this again. So many people love the Tarte Shape Tape, but that makes my 36-year old eyes look like I am 136, and ain’t nobody got time for that. However, THIS concealer has a thinner, more serum-y formula, which lays really well on my skin and doesn’t emphasize lines or texture as much as the Shape Tape. I’m getting this again next month and I CAN’T WAIT.
Tarte Chrome Paint Shadow Pot ($22): This is a product that came out when I was not buying Tarte that made me think… “Can I start buying Tarte again?” I really did. I went to their page and looked at their other releases, and was like, “No, Lauren. You’d be a hypocrite.” So I didn’t get it. But man… these look incredibly beautiful. They make the eye look so foiled and almost wet- just like liquid metal. I’ll probably pick up the shade Top Yacht first, which is sort of a champagne-y gold, then go from there.
Tarte Tartelette In Bloom Eyeshadow Palette ($39): I think the Tartelette In Bloom palette might be Tarte’s best shadow palette. I actually recently decluttered mine but only because I wasn’t using it as often as I should, and I knew it could go to a better home. I def gave it to a friend I liked! I think the formula of this is GORGEOUS and it’s a beautiful semi-rosy toned neutral palette. There really isn’t a dud in the whole palette. I think this is a BOMB beginner palette, as the formula is incredibly easy to use, and the shades pretty much blend themselves. I recommend.
Tarte Timeless Smoothing Primer ($39): I’m not sure what it is (ok, I’m sure it’s getting older) but at one point I went from No Visible Pores to All Of The Visible Pores. I’ve been trying primer after primer trying to address this issue but nothing has been working. I’ve only heard great things about this primer from Tati, who is around my age. But I’ve been holding off buying it for all of the reasons above. But now… it might be my time. This is essentially almost a putty texture that you use to spackle over your pores and that is what I want. TBD if this works for me but I’m sure as heck gonna try.
Tarte Knockout Tingling Treatment ($18-$39): I’ve been interested in this skincare product ever since Stephanie Nicole, aka YouTube Queen of Skincare, gave this her blessing. This isn’t a bad price for an exfoliating treatment, and it’s kind of surprising to me that Tarte would even have a product like this. This stuff is supposed to help balance skin and improve the overall look and clarity, while also minimizing fine lines. They make a mini of this which seems like a great way to try the product and then have a little bottle to travel with if you end up liking it and buying the big guy. Skincare isn’t part of my low-buy, so this is going into my cart.
Bottom 5 Products: This Is Self-Explanatory
Tarte Wine Not Lip Set ($24): Y’all. This is so tacky that I can’t even. I can’t. WHO ASKED FOR THIS. This looks like kid makeup except it’s obviously wine so it’s for adults. I just could never use a brush like that and take myself seriously. Could you?! Maybe the lip product is nice but the brush is just so atrocious that I can’t. I think a lot of people like to store their brushes in a cup, and because the base is a giant circle, you couldn’t put it in there. So you’d just have to display it proudly. No. Nope. 👎🏻
Rose is Bae Lip Set ($24): See everything I just said above. NO.
Tarteist PRO Remix Amazonian Clay Eyeshadow Palette ($49): This palette is so strange to me. Tarte has historically gotten a lot of shit because all of their palettes look the same and there is no color in them. For April Fools last year, Tarte pretended like they were going to release a blue/green palette that looked like their In Bloom palette called Icy Betch. The internet went wild. Everyone was so excited for this palette because it had color and it was so gorgeous and different than everything else out there. Tarte was like, “APRIL FOOLS WE GOT YOU! *WE* WOULDN’T RELEASE ANYTHING INTERESTING AND EXCITING! JOKE’S ON YOU!” And the internet just looked at Tarte bewildered because they played themselves so hard. So I think since then, Tarte wanted to prove that they understand colors exist, so they released this palette. And like… y’all. The palette casing ITSELF is colorful? But the colors inside? You put your finger over one or two of the colors and you see it’s just another neutral palette. It’s so bizarre.
Additionally, in their first Tarteist Pro palette, the four square shades were coordinated color stories and the color in the circle was a special color (duochrome or glitter) that would enhance that color story. So there was an actual reason why the palette was set up that way. I don’t know why they set up this palette in the same way if… all the colors would just be random? None of this makes sense. I’m sure the quality of the shadows is really nice– but let’s be honest– Tarte still does not see color. (And yes- I phrased that purposefully.)
Tarte Rainforest of the Sea ™ highlighting eyeshadow palette vol. III ($36): There isn’t anything WRONG with this palette necessarily except… every shade looks the same? It just looks so… beige. Like most Tarte palettes. It just doesn’t inspire me at all. That said, the quality of these Rainforest of the Sea shadows is incredibly nice. So if this does it for you, I think you’d be happy with it.
Let’s Flamingle Brush Set ($25 – on sale): Yikes, y’all. YIKES. This brush set came out with their holiday collection (which was confusing on its own) and again… I just can’t. The brushes themselves got horrible reviews when used as brushes, versus… something to look at? They just really weren’t functional at all. The shapes are just so bizarre and seem very awkward to hold. And I just think they are so ugly. Obviously, this is a personal preference, but I think these are tacky AF. But that’s just my opinion. If you are into these, you could get them on sale before they go away!
So that’s my top 5 and bottom 5. Are you going to buy any Tarte products now? Are you still on the Anti-Tarte train? Do you love any of the things I hate? I want to know all of these things. Let me know in the comments below.
xo,
L
laurenelectro
A self-proclaimed beauty junkie/hoarder with a serious Sephora problem. This blog is a total rationalization of that problem. Everything is TOTALLY fine. Her free time is a mixed combination of making fun of reality TV with her husband, hanging out with cats and finally trying to figure out how to do her hair.
Dropped into the comments to add that the Tarte wine bottle lip products pretty much ripped off a Korean brand called Labiotte! I’m not sure if the copying was intentional, so I don’t want to call them out too hard, but Labiotte definitely did it better, and it’s been their thing for like at least 2 years. *shrugs*
I’ve seen them and those are actually cute!