tarte cosmetics: Spring Greening

A little over a year ago, tarte cosmetics was one of the first companies Jen introduced to me that I hadn’t tried before. I remember first trying their cheek stains and just falling in love with the whole concept and ease of the product. Then I tried the lights camera lashes mascara, and the light, natural look and feel of the formula made me realize tarte is really on to something.

The ’spring greening’ palette had a few nice surprises for me as well. The straw case is reusable (my son has already claimed it as the future home of his hockey card collection) and even the foam tray inside is constructed of post consumer recycled material.  It features 6 eye colors, a bamboo handled shadow brush, and 3 of their t5â„¢ infused lipglosses. t5â„¢ is tarte’s proprietary blend of 5 super fruits, packed full of antioxidants and nutrients, and it gives you a healthy anti aging boost in a product you were going to apply anyway.
The brush is cute, but the hairs are too long and not quite dense enough to get heavy color application. If you need something for contouring or blending then this won’t work, but for a quick light application of color it will serve it’s purpose. To be honest, I’m not crazy about the lip glosses though. They just don’t stay as well as I’d like them to and the colors are very very sheer. The eye shadows though, oh, I’m very happy with them. There’s one of my all time favorite colors, a pretty coppery pink, and it pairs up wonderfully with the rich golden bronze.  The palette also includes golden lime, soft pink, lilac, and teal, all with a very fine shimmer throughout. The colors are super smooth and perfectly pigmented, and there are several fantastic combinations to be had. The six eye colors and the compact make the $38.50 price tag fairly reasonable, more so if you have tried the glosses and like them.

Some of the recent cheek stains have fallen a little flat for me. I purchased one last fall and it just didn’t stay quite as well as some of my previous stains. I still love the gel texture and color of “sunkissed”, but I hadn’t quite found a nice long lasting pink for spring. Then I got a perfect whirled. The coral and seashell pink swirls blend perfectly to a happy rosy pink and it quickly sets with a light smooth finish. It’s not just me either, I forced a cheek stain resistant friend to try it and she was just as pleasantly surprised as I was. And it does such a good job without parabens, fragrances, pthalates, sulphates, and talc. WITH recyclable packaging and another luscious dose of t5 super fruit complexâ„¢.

The other anti aging product I was able to try was the ReCreate foundation. An anti aging foundation with more extracts and a nice SPF 15 protection, the color was a touch dark and I passed it on to a dear friend a few years older than myself who would appreciate it a bit more. As a mom of 6 who lives on a mini farm, she’s very active and almost always out in the sun. She was happy and surprised with how light and moisturizing it was. She told me that it stayed especially well, particularily after I gave her my spare tube of primer to use beforehand. Not only does she think it gives her a smoother, brighter complexion, it doesn’t irritate her sensitive skin and hasn’t caused the breakouts that so many other foundations have. She even told me she’d be willing to pay the $37 for her next bottle, which means a lot when you have 6 smallish mouths to feed.  I’m especially happy that she liked it because it means I have converted another gorgeous woman to the importance and ease of having an SPF in your foundation!