Review - Tarte Royal Collection

My lovely boyfriend took the hint I gave him for Christmas (I would just LOVE either a Sephora or Ulta giftcard) so I had an opportunity to pretty much pick out anything I wanted at Ulta.  The selection was endless and almost dizzying, but my eye fell on the beautiful Tarte Royal Collection in its oppulent ruffled box.  After going between this and the Lorac Holiday collection for a bit, I finally decided I couldn't live without the Tarte collection. 

       It includes:

• Sixteen full-sized eye shadows
• Deluxe clean slate natural face primer
• Deluxe lights, camera, lashes!
• Deluxe multipleEYE, a lash-enhancing primer
• Deluxe vitamin-infused lip gloss

So, what's the story?

I got this baby home and was so excited to try it out.  8 of the shades are matte, 8 are shimmery, and all are gorgeous.  Shades range from pale baby pink, bright shimmery purple, deep navy blue, and matte taupe to bright silver and beautiful gold.  What drew me to this palette was a the wide array of colors that can take anyone from demure daytime looks to sultry nightime ones in minutes.  I also love the sample items, as I've never tried those particular Tarte products but wanted to.  As an added bonus, the small drawer on the bottom pulls out and is perfect to store the sample items plus whatever else you want - I keep my eyeshadow brushes and eyebrow powder in it, so I have everything in one place.

This was my first experience with Tarte eyeshadows and I have to admit at first I was rather dissapointed.  For some reason the shades looked blotchy on me and wouldn't blend.  I usually use mineral eyeshadow or Urban Decay which blend beautifully, so perhaps I've been a bit spoiled.  I was tempted to return this on the 3rd day even though I loved the colors so much but I just had to give it more time.  I realized that A. my makeup remover might have left residue on my eye that caused the shadows to stick a bit, and B. since I usually use mineral shadows I probably wasn't using the right brush.  Today is my 7th day using it and I seem to have figured out some trick to it, as I can now get them to blend and they go on silky smooth - they almost remind me of a cross between a cream and powder shadow and blend into the eyelid itself wonderfully. I wouldn't recommend using more than 2-3 colors at a time or they can get muddy.  Also, the darks are very dark - the dark navy and deep brown shimmer shades make great liners and look gorgeous in the box but show up almost black on the eye.  The shadows do crease a bit towards the end of the day, so I would recommend a primer with them if you have oily lids. 


I really like all the shades in this collection and they would look phenomenal on any eye color.  My favorites are the light and dark matte purple, the top pink shimmer and the bronze shimmer next to it, and the deep brown as a liner with matte taupe or pink.  I have been having a lot of fun trying out a new eye look every day and being creative with it.  I think Tarte put together a great selection of shades to compliment any eye and skin color that also can be used easily for natural or dramatic eye looks.  I keep it on my counter and have used it every day since I bought it, so that's a good sign!


Overall Grade: B+
Pros: Versatile colors, great mix of matte and shimmer shades, useful extras, easy day-to-evening collection
Cons: Slightly hard to blend, creases towards end of day, dark shades show almost black on eye