Tarte Starlet Collection Unboxing and First Impressions

I was absolutely THRILLED yesterday when my order of Tarte Cosmetics arrived from Sephora.  I've been anxiously awaiting this delivery as I have been eager to try "natural" makeup. I have been migrating my life towards natural/organic products about 6 years ago when I was pregnant with my first daughter.  We've transitioned our food consuption and household cleaning items to about about 70% organic/natural.  I chose to do this mostly for my kids.  Although I've given up soaps and lotions with parabens in it a while ago I didn't think I would be able to give up some of the "harmful ingredients" when it came to cosmetics....until I found Tarte though a friend Jenn, take a look at her blog.


http://www.jennstaz.com/2011/09/parabens/

She's in the process of eliminating toxic ingredients out of her cosmetic useage.  And I'm all for it.  Which is why I decided to put Tarte Cosmetics to the test.

This wonderful Tarte Starlet set has just about almost all eyeshadows you'll ever need unless you want to get super colorful looks that something like a Coastal Scents 88 Matte would come handy.  The packaging is sooooo irresistably cute.  It comes in this miror-like acrylic case that resembles a fancy jewelry box that can actually be reused after you finish all of the shadows.  You get so much bang for your buck with this set for $52 you get (24) shadows, (1) eyelash primer, (1) mascara, (2) blushes, (1) bronzer and (1) shimmering powder.  That is such an unbelieveable deal it's hard not to get excited about it.

One of my friends who's an avid makeup junkie warned me that Tarte had quite a bit of fallout so I was very mindful of that this morning when I was using it.  I made sure I "tapped" my brush several times after I swiped the shadows with my brush to minimize fallout.  I honestly did not find the shadows to have extreme fallout.  No more than my Smashbox shadows which I found to have more fallout than MAC.  The Tarte shadows were powdery as  you might be able to see from the swatch pictures.  The pigmentation is good, I wouldn't say extremely pigmented but I actually don't mind my shadows being what I like to call medium pigmentation because it allows me to build on the look and color.  I primed my eye with a MAC paint pot and I found that the shadow stayed on pretty well all day without any creasing.  Unfortunately the pictures I took of the look I did, did not do the colors any justice.  The colors were so much more vibrantly plummy than the pictures show.  As well, I wore the pink blush and it stayed put all day.  I have to say that I am extremely happy with this Tarte set so far! I will definitely be trying more Tarte products.  And to make it better, it's made with "good ingredients."  Tarte has earned another fan-Me!

Ok, so here is the method to the madness in the swatching, I swatched each row of shadows i.e. top left and top right were row one swatched.  And I tried to include pictures with flash and without.  Hope this is helpful!

 The gorgeous case!

 Swatches with flash of the top/first row of shadows

 Swatches of the first row without flash

 Swatches of the second row of shadows with flash

 Swatches of second row of shadows without flash

 Swatches of the third row/second drawer of shadows with flash

 Swatches of the third row/second drawer without flash

 Bronzer, (2)blushes and shimmer powder with flash

 Swatches of bronzer, (2) blushes and shimmer powder without flash

Close up with flash of e/s-I used the 2nd row plummy quad

  Full face look!

Thanks for reading! Hope this was helpful! xoxo Jen