Aqualillies for Tarte Amazonian Clay Waterproof Eye And Cheek Palette

"Make a splash with this palette inspired by America’s most glamorous synchronized swimming group! Aqualillies reinvent the classic art of water ballet and mesmerize audiences with their modern strength and vintage beauty. "

Tarte recently released a new collection for Spring/Summer entitled Aqualillies containing several different water/splash proof products.  I decided to picked up the limited edition Amazonian Clay Waterproof Eye and Cheek palette. The Amazonian clay-infused palette contains six new eye shadows, a bronzer, a highlighter, and a limited-edition blush all tucked inside a classically elegant, mirrored compact. It's powered by skin-balancing Amazonian clay and skin-softening mineral pigments to create a splash proof look. 

L to R: Champagne, Park Ave Princess, Captivating

First let's talk about the face and cheeks products in this adorable palette.  Amazonian Clay Shimmering Powder in Champagne is a shimmering pressed powder infused with Amazonian clay that adds a customizable, luminous glow to cheeks, brow bones and décolletage. This powder is super soft and buttery and adds a light angelic glow to the skin. Amazonian Clay Mineral Powder Bronzer in Park Ave Princess (which is one of tarte's top selling products) is a long wearing mineral-based bronzing powder infused with Amazonian clay for a healthy, natural looking glow.  This bronzer is a light yellow gold bronzer with subtle sheen that applies like a dream.   Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush in Captivating is limited edition to this palette. It's a matte warm peach that adds a perfect pop of color to the cheeks. All three powders are highly pigmented and last all day on the skin. 

L to R: Hammock, Bikini, Barefoot, Parasol, Sun Deck, Poolside

Now on to the eyeshadows.  This palette contains six limited edition shades exclusive to the Aqualillies palette; five of which are neutral shades and one pop of color shade.  Hammock is a matte chocolate brown that can be used as a shadow or a liner. Bikini is a golden peach satin duo chrome, Barefoot is a golden nude shimmer, Parasol is a rosy champagne shimmer, Sun Deck is a matte light brown and Poolside is a bright shimmery turquoise.  All of the shadows are soft to the touch and apply/blend perfectly on the lid. The shadows work really great together to great all sorts of looks.  Below is the look card that was included with the palette, both are really stunning. Overall I love this palette and will probably be reaching for it the majority of the summer because all the products I need are there! It will be great  to take on those summer vacation as well!

Face of the Day

Foundation: Chanel Perfection Lumiere B10 & B20 mixed
Concealer: Cle de Peau (blemishes) Bobbi Brown Correctors in Light Peach & Porcelain Peach (under eyes)
Powder: Rimmel Stay Matte Powder

Eyes: MAC Omega Eyeshadow (brows)
         Benefit Long wear Eyeshadow in Thanks A Latte (lid)
         Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette (Naked 2 in crease & Venus/Foxy on brow bone)
         MAC Teddy Eye Pencil
         MAC Opulash Mascara

Cheeks: smashbox Sunkissed Matte Bronze Lights
             tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Fearless
             Edward Bess

Lips: Chantecaille Lip Chic in Daphne
        Luminous Gloss in Pink Melon

Face of the Day



Foundation: tarte Amazonian Clay Full Coverage

Concealer: Chanel Correcteur Perfection

Brows: tarte Brow Architect

Eyes: Dior Night Golds Quint

Liner: Stila All Day Liquid Liner in Black

Bronzer: Bobbi Brown Golden Light

Blush: tarte Amazonian Clay in Stellar

Lips: MAC Honeylove & Anatasia Hydrafull Gloss in Sharona

Mini Mascaras Review

I am a pretty tough critic when it comes to mascara, not sure what exactly. My lashes on their own are pretty long and plentiful, so mascara usually pumps them up pretty good. When I try out a mascara, I look for the following qualities; product consistency (don’t like the formula to be dry), brush size (prefer a larger brush), and separates the lashes (no sticking together, I like my lashes to fan out). Currently, I have been loving and using MAC’s False Lashes but I have received some sample mascaras and thought I would try them out and review. This will be a lengthy post, so here we go!

Benefit They're Real!

Benefit They’re Real! (Full Size $23)

Described as: A jet-black mascara that lengthens, curls, volumizes, lifts, and separates lashes for a spectacular "out-to-here" look.

What it’s suppose to do: This mascara features an exclusive brush specially designed to maximize the performance of the long-wearing, glossy formula revealing lashes you never knew you had! Staggered bristles grab close to the root, boosting length and volume beyond belief. The precision bristles on the custom-domed tip lift, define, and curl even your tiniest lashes. The end result is luxurious, silky lashes that won't smudge, clump, or dry out.

My Thoughts:

Look: Lashes where lengthened and volumized, but didn’t separate as much as I like, had to use a flat eyeliner brush to assist in the separation.

Brush Use: Brush is bigger, which I like and delivered the product evenly, got to the lash root easily.

Clumping??: I did find the formula did clump a bit on the lash ends but I was able to smooth them out with a brush.

Wear time: Flake or smudge?? The mascara stayed on pretty well without any smudging but I did experience a little flakiness.

Overall not my favorite, not bad but just not for me.

 

Chanel Le Volume de Chanel

Chanel Le Volume de Chanel (Full Size $30)

Described as: This high-precision mascara achieves instant volume and intensely lush colour in a single stroke. Its innovative formula expands, plumping lashes to their fullest. The exclusive new ‘Snowflakes’ brush combines long and short bristles to deliver an extreme, eye-opening effect.

My Thoughts:

Look:  This mascara gives a good amount of length and curl but did not separate at all L One thing I did like about the formula was that the lashes didn’t look or feel hard and stiff.

Brush Use:  This brush is different than any other plastic bristle brush I have seen so I was excited to use it, unfortunately I found that it really clumped the lashes together rather than separate them. I had to use my eyeliner brush again to separate.

Clumping: Unfortunately I did experience so clumping when I applied but was able to smooth them out quickly.

Wear time: No serious flaking or smudging.

Overall: I really wanted to like this mascara because I really like Inimitable Intense by Chanel but I just wasn’t crazy about how clumpy the product applied. Just not for me….

 

Bobbi Brown  Intensifying Long-Wear

BB Intensifying Long-Wear (Full size $25)

Described as:  Bobbi Brown’s longest-lasting mascara.

What it’s supposed to do: This mascara not only delivers lush, thick lashes but can also stand up to elements (and even a few tears) for up to 16 hours. The unique bristles on its brush easily reaches small lashes that instantly builds volume without clumping. Best of all? There's no need for an eye makeup remover, because Intensifying Long-Wear Mascara washes off effortlessly with warm water.

My Thoughts

Look: Lashes look very natural and lengthened. No crazy volume but does separate beautifully.

Brush Use: The small brush really allows you to get to the root of the lashes very easily and grabs even the smallest of lashes.

Clumping: No here that I see J

Wear time: Wore great all day, no smudging or flakes!

Overall: Really like this mascara! I definitely would purchase a full size of this formula. It’s great for those low maintenance days when you want natural looking lashes. Love!

tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes

Tarte Light’s Camera Lashes (Full Size $19)

Described As: A lengthening, curling, volumizing, and conditioning mascara.

What it’s supposed to do: Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes! 4-in-1 Mascara could be considered a push-up bra for your lashes—a 4-in-1 (lengthening, curling, volumizing, and conditioning) dermatologist- and clinically-proven to increase the appearance of lash volume by 424% after applying giving dramatic, thick and sexy lashes.

My Thoughts

Look:  Lashes were nicely separated and lengthened, looked very natural. Not much curl or volume.

Brush Use:  The brush is standard size with soft fluffy bristles that allows for easy application.

Clumping: I didn’t experience any severe clumping but the standard lash clumping that can be fixed with your fingers or a flat eyeliner brush.

Wear time: I did experience a little bit flaking as the day wore on but no smudging.

Overall: Not bad, I like the brush a lot but the formula itself is so so. I will use the sample up but not purchase a full size.

None of these mascaras wowed me as much as MAC’s False Lashes, I truly love, love, love that formula. I hope MAC keeps it around for ever!!!

Tarte Lights, Camera, Flashes! Statement Mascara in Black

“Reach great heights and achieve maximum volume with lights, camera, flashes! Statement mascara.  Ultra-rich black mascara lengthens, curls, volumizes and illuminates lashes.  This new formula features a specially designed wand that combines short and long amplified bristles for even-coated, clump-free, voluminous lashes.”

The Journey to Natural Beauty kit includes the brand new Lights, Camera, Flashes! Statement Mascara. It has similar packaging to tarte’s Lights, Camera, Lashes but it comes in a metallic gold case. The plastic wand has long, stiff bristles with two rows of short ones in between, different than any other wand I have seen. It’s a rather large wad but still easy to use/apply; I could get down to the roots of the lashes easily.  I got decent separation and lots of length after applying this mascara.  As for volume, this formula is middle of the road.  I didn’t experience any smudging or flaking at all and it was as easy to remove as most mascaras.  Overall, this is a pretty good mascara. I won’t be reaching for it everyday but maybe once in a while or in combo with another formula.

Tarte Amazonian Butter Lipstick in Plummy Rose

This new lipstick formula from tarte is supposed to drench lips in moisture for super soft lips that are full of creamy color. This new product is infused with healthy, hydrating butters (cupuacu and murumuru) for maximum lip hydration.  The plummy rose shade is perfect for any complexion and great for spring, a little deeper than my normal lip shade. 

The formula is super creamy and feels like a lip balm on the lips, though it is full of color.  It also has a bit of shine to it and has a very slight mint fragrance. I do hope tarte releases more shades of this lipcolor formula because it really is quite nice. I do prefer it to the LipSurgence and Glamzon pure performance formulas, which can be a bit drying.  I have been pairing this color with tarte’s maracuja divine shine gloss in adored, great combo!

Tarte One Brow Architect Brow Shaper

Brow Architect Shaper, Liner, and Definer is a new product introduced in the Journey to Natural Beauty kit.   It's a unique 3 in 1 brow perfector that comes with a universal brow pencil, an underscoring concealer (comes in 3 shades depending on your foundation choice), and a spoolie brow brush.

Brow Pencil

You are supposed to the use the Brow Architect in the follows steps:

• First use the underscoring concealer powder to hide strays and clean up the surrounding brow area.
• Next, fill and define with the universal pencil ( the more pressure you apply the more color you can achieve)
• Finally, comb the brows to stay in place.

Underscoring Concealer

Typically I use Omega eyeshadow from MAC with an angled brush to fill in my brows for a more natural look.  I haven’t really been a fan of too many eyebrow pencils because I find that most are hard to use and don’t fill the brows in very naturally. That is not the case for this product. The slanted brow pencil allows for easy application and coverage so to speak.  The underscoring concealer is an interesting product and I am not sure that I have gotten use to using it. It applies a little heavily under my brows when I use it straight on the applicator so I use another brush or my finger to blend it out.  It’s a neat concept but I am not sure I am sold on it. Overall, I really like the brow pencil and brow brush and will be using this product more often.

Brow Pencil, Concealer

Tarte 12-hour Amazonian Clay Blush in Fearless

Tarte’s The Journey to Natural Beauty kit comes with the award winning Amazonian Clay 12-hour blush in the shade Fearless. Amazonian Clay Blush a long-wearing, supremely soft blush infused with Amazonian clay harvested from the banks of the Amazon River and naturally baked by the sun. I already own one of these blushes in the color Exposed and absolutely love it, so I am excited to try another shade. 



Fearless is describes as a “warm pink” in the brochure for this kit but to me it’s a bright pink with gold shimmer.  When I first opened the compact I was a little worried that this color might by too bright since this blush formula tends to be quite pigmented. Also when I swatched it, it was definitely quite pigmented but applied the color was quite subtle and beautiful. It give a nice natural flush to the cheeks with a hit of shimmer, it really is stunning.

Fearless swatched

Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Full Coverage Broad Spectrum SPF 15 Foundation & Airbrush Finish Bamboo Foundation Brush

Tarte describes their Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Full Coverage foundation as a “long-wearing, skin-perfecting full coverage foundation with UVA/UVB SPF 15 infused with Amazonian clay for better, longer, truer wear.”  The formula is powered by Amazonian clay which is a “nutrient-rich, multitasking and total-skin balancing clay reduces dryness and flakiness, improves skin clarity, elasticity, firmness, and texture while removing oil from the skin's surface for smooth application and wear.  I decided to try out the shade fair but will probably need to switch to light in the summer months.

For being a full coverage, this foundation was surprisingly light-weight; it felt like nothing once applied to my skin. I’d say it provides light to medium coverage that can be built up for a more coverage where needed (t-zone).  After a few hours of wear, this formula didn’t make my combination skin look too shiny or oily at all. As time wore on (about 8 hours of wear) I was a bit shinier, but nowhere near as oily as I usually get with other foundations. I found that this foundation wore great all day (about 10 hours), without needing any major touch ups.

The Journey to Natural Beauty kit comes with the Buffer Airbrush Bamboo Foundation brush to apply the Amazonian Clay foundation. It is a densely packed yet fluffy large brush with super soft bristles, it normally retails for $32. I have never used such a large brush to apply foundation before (I was a little intimidated by it...), but I must say it does a fantastic job of applying and buffing the product into the skin. The brush manages to blend out edges and gives a smooth coverage, a semi-matte airbrushed finish.

tarte Journey to Natural Beauty 6-pc Collection

I have read and seen many reviews on special collection released by tarte on QVC but none have really struck my fancy or if they had, they were already sold out. So when I got the email from QVC that a tarte collection would be the Today Special Value ($59.94 for $168 worth of products) and saw a preview of the products on various other blogs, I decide it was time to check one out! The collection is call Journey to Natural Beauty and includes the following products:

• Amazonian Butter Lipstick in Plummy Rose
• Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Full Coverage Broad Spectrum SPF 15 Foundation
• Lights, Camera, Flashes! Statement Mascara in Black
• One Brow Architect Brow Shaper
• 12-hour Amazonian Clay Blush in Fearless
• Airbrush Finish Bamboo Foundation Brush

This collection comes with Auto-Delivery that will ship out new products or colors two more times this year. Here is the details on those deliveries:

 

• Second shipment: ships June 2013; includes lipstick in Pink Peony, blush in Empowered (an apricot-pink color), and a smaller, tighter foundation brush

• Third shipment: ships November 2013; includes lipstick in Roseberry, blush in Inspired (a mauve-rose color), and a blush brush

I will be doing separate reviews on each product in the collection over the next week, so stay tuned!

Beauty Favorites of 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 2012 has come and gone…..boy does time fly! It’s been a crazy year for me; I never knew that raising a little kiddo would be so tiring and amazing at the same time. Having a child has changed my spending habits for beauty/fashion items; instead buying lipgloss, I have been buying formula and diapers buy the truck load. I feel like I didn’t purchased as many new products this year but the ones that I did have turned out to be some of my favorite, most used products of the year. So with out further ado, here are my favorite beauty products of 2012!

Skincare

• Peter Thomas Roth Anti-Aging Cleansing Gel ($35) - Contains Glycolic & Salicylic Acid to exfoliate and clarify. It’s oil-free and leaves my skin feeling squeaky clean.

• Ole Henriksen Sheer Transformation Moisturizer ($45) - Lightweight, Oil-Free and melts into to the skin to hydrate beautifully plus contains multiple anti-aging ingredients. Only wished it came in a pump!

 • Caudalie Pulpe Vitaminee Eye & Lip Cream ($49) – I use this morning & night, super lightweight, I feel my dark circles have lighten a bit and definitely feel like I look less fatigued in the eyes.

• Caudalie Pulpe Vitaminee Anti Wrinkle Serum ($62) – I use this a night to give my skin a little moisture before bedtime. Contains Hyaluronic acid and Grape-seed Polyphenols to smooth and correct wrinkles. Got to start early to combat those wrinkles!!

 

Makeup

• Foundation – Chanel Perfection Lumiere ($54) B10/B20 – Love Love Love this foundation! I get even coverage every time and it lasts all day…it really is perfection.

• Concealer – Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer & Corrector ($23 each) Sand/Light Bisque – Use together really covers my dark circles and other skin imperfections.

• Powder – Rimmel Stay Matte Translucent Powder ($3.99) – Heard about this powder on Pixi2woo’s YouTube channel. Extremely affordable & works great to set my makeup.

• Blush – Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Exposed ($25) this is my favorite color currently but I love the formula of this blush and have it in multiple colors. Lasts all day and this is a perfect everyday nude shade.

• Bronzer – Edward Bess Ultra Luminous Bronzer in Daydream ($45) – Been my go to bronzer for about 2 years now. I love it, can’t say anything but good things about it.

• Eyeshadow – (tie) MAC Carine Roitfeld Desert Camouflage Palette ($44) & Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette ($50) – These both are excellent neutral palette perfect for everyday use. You can create tons and tons of look using just these 2 palettes.

• Eyeliner – (tie) Eve Pearl Black Pearl Liquid liner ($29) & MAC Teddy Eye Kohl ($15) I use these separately but also together to get the perfect liner. The EP liquid really gets to the bottom of the lash line to create a really thin line. Teddy is just an overall great everyday liner.

• Mascara – MAC False Lashes ($20) doesn’t clump or flake. It lasts all day and makes my lashes longer and fuller than any other formula I have tried.

• Lip liner – No. 7 Lip liner in Nude ($7.99) best basic lip liner, almost exactly like Sublime Culture from MAC. I use this everyday.

• Lipstick – Burberry Lip Cover in Nude Rose ($30) Great neutral color, I have been using a lot this fall in winter as my go to lipstick for everyday.

• Lipgloss – (tie) Illamasqua Sheer Lipgloss in Intimacy ($22) & Chanel Sweet Beige Glossimer ($29.50) both of these shades look great on their own or over lipstick. Love both formulas.

 

Well there you have it, my favs of 2012. Hope everyone had a safe New Year Holiday and I can’t wait to see what new goodies 2013 will bring! See you next time…

Tarte Maracuja Creaseless Concealer

As you all may know, I am always on the hunt for the next amazing concealer, whether it be for under my eyes or to cover blemishes.  I am constantly trying new ones, some are winners and some are major losers.  One of the winners that I currently love is the Maracuja Creaseless Concealer ($24) from Tarte Cosmetics.  Tarte describes this product as an “A full-coverage concealer that won’t crease, flake, or leave you needing more.”  This concealer contains Maracuja Oil which is supposed to help improve the skin’s texture, tone and moisture content.  How does it do that? Well Maracuja Oil provides essential fatty acids known to rebuild and repair skin, and a high dose of pure Vitamin C, which gives the appearance of brighter skin; promotes active skin recovery and rejuvenation and maximum hydration.

I was really excited to try this concealer, which comes in five shades. I choose the shade, Light, which works well with my skin tone. This shade leans a little to the pinker side which is perfect for concealing under eye circles.  It comes in a tube which allows you to dispense whatever amount of product you need, but honestly you don’t need much.  A little goes a long way, it’s nice and pigmented, and it stays put while giving perfect coverage.  This concealer is quite dense but yet when it’s applied it feels so lightweight.  It’s very creamy, goes on easily and blends nicely. I get natural coverage with this concealer and it has never looked too cakey.  So if you are in the market for a new concealer, especially for you’re under eyes, go check out this one. Available now at Sephora.com.