Tarte Haul & Review

I posted a few weeks ago regarding the new Tarte empty refillable palettes which would in theory help with transporting Tarte shadows (until now, they've done single/duo shadows and very bulky palettes). I ordered 3 pairs: 3 individual palettes and 3 Verve blushes (each are currently $1 and with the 40% FF discount, why not?). Well, they arrived and I've gotten the proper time to play around with them.

The palette is a 2-sided faux brushed purple suede. It's slightly bigger than the palm of my hand so quite a bit smaller than practically any of the other palettes Tarte has put out.

One side for blush...

And one side for eyeshadow...

I'm not quite sure what I was expecting with the price. I guess I wasn't expecting that the edges of the palette which hold the shadows not be glued down or not made so straggly? I think I assumed the $1 pricetag was so low to get the word out, not that the palette itself was only worth $1. I'm a huge Tarte fan, but I would have been happier with something a little more expensive but that looked and performed better. Anyway... onto the blush.

 

It's HUGE! Here it is next to all my Tarte singles in their current home, a Yaby Freestyle Palette (love these) and below 4 full sized Tarte eyeshadows. Yup. It's 4x the size of a shadow. It's a peachy pink mostly matte shade, though there appears to be some very fine gold shimmer throughout. Very very pigmented and creamy and a super deal for $1.

This was taken in natural light!

Ok, so the blush is awesome. It fits well in the palette but it's incredibly hard to get it in without covering your fingers and the brushed suede (which picks up eyeshadow/blush powder so easily, almost too easily in fact) in powder.

And getting the eyeshadows into the palette. Not fun. I mean, let me remind you what we're working with.

Those uncut edges make inserting an eyeshadow a huge hassle. In fact, eventually, I gave up, and starting trimming them myself! The eyeshadow doesn't fit in the hole without some extra force, as I said, unless you want to cover your fingers in powder, you are going to need something flat to push them in. I chose a pair of scissors.

 

Enormous pain.

Here are all 4 of them. Can you tell they aren't even and can you see the nicks around the edges from trying to force the eyeshadows into the palette? And of course once you take them out...

Eyeshadow dust.

As much as I love the idea of carting my Tarte around in these quads, they just don't work. I'll take the sturdy Yaby freestyle palettes (which are significantly more expensive but a lot easier to deal with) anytime over these. I really hope Tarte looks at these again and possibly considers charging more to bring a better product. I might try to salvage them (trim and glue down the edges) only because I do like the idea of carrying around a quad and a blush for travel.