Tarte Off The Cuff Amazonian Clay Cheek Palette Review

Eeh I'm so excited to be talking about these palettes I've got lately and holiday launches and the fact that I finally organized my makeup collection so things are for more streamlined than they once were. 

Availability: This palette has been discontinued.

Would I buy this again?: Yes. 

Notes: I'll speak a bit about the packaging before I show you the shades - firstly, I mean this FEELS incredibly holiday, making it a beautiful gift. It comes packaged in pretty holiday packaging. The palette itself is this sparkly metallic golden-silver awesomeness. It's very sleek which makes it perfect for travel or for having in a kit if you're a makeup artist.

Ok let's speak a little bit about the blushes themselves before I get to individual color reviews. This contains 4 blushes and one bronzer. All have the signature Tarte smooth texture with beautiful color payoff. The 12-hr lasting claim I've found to be true with brighter colors but softer ones tend to fade. This contains three permanent shades - Dazzled, Dollface, and Park Ave Princess (the matte version) as well as two exclusive shades - Crave and Darling. Onto the review then:

Crave is described as a pink peach. I'd describe it as a bright matte pink-based coral. 

Dazzled is described as a soft rose. To me it's a matte dusty rosy plum with a gold micro-shimmer.

Darling is described as a nude melon. I'd have to agree with that. This is matte. :P Unfortunately mine broke, but it's still useable.

Dollface is described as a soft rose. I'd describe it as a matte blue-based softened hot pink. It's so much brighter in person and one I've been lemming over for years now but just hadn't given in until this beautiful palette hit the shelves. It's so beautiful and gives such a nice brightness to the face. Worth it. :D

Park Ave Princess is a soft satiny bronze.

Please let me know if you have any comments or questions.

Disclaimer: I paid for this lovely myself.

Sigma Creme De Couture Macaron Inspired Eye Shadow Palette Review

Availability: This has been discontinued.

Would I buy this?: Let's just put it this way - I have similar colors but if I didn't I could justify buying it for myself. 

Notes: First of all, a huge thank you to my beautiful wife for getting me this palette. She... I cannot... Firstly, she didn't have to give me anything because she's so wonderful to begin with, she makes me laugh and feel loved every day. :3 Gah I feel all warm and fuzzy talking about it and then like... I have Tip Of The Iceberg by Owl City playing and gah... I wanna get hot chocolate and go on a date in cozy sweaters and cuddle and I'm going off on a tangent. 

I'll speak a bit about the packaging before I show you the shades - firstly, I love the attention to detail (there will be pictures). It's super cute and looks like a candy... or a very tiny macaron-box. 

Ok let's speak a little bit about the shadows themselves before I get to individual color reviews. Uniqueness is key here - firstly who has a palette of ALL MATTE shades that are colorful and secondly who has a palette of these cool pastel-yet-bright colors. Just to let you know the colors are not as vivid as they appear in the pans - especially most of the darker colors because they're meant to be pastel - like macarons. To get maximum color concentration I suggest applying these shadows over some sort of white base. They all have a smooth buttery texture that glides on easily and unlike some other mattes, these aren't dry at all so they not only glide on but also blend well together - for the most part.

Ok onto the fun part, swatches! :D

Redberry Rose is a very true fuchsia shade. I like that it looks soft on the eyes when worn and will brighten without making the eyes look bloodshot.

Apricot Flower is exactly what it sounds like, a soft apricot with a kiss of sunshine to make it rosy.

Passion Fruit is not the color of a passion fruit but is passionate about being a fruit. I'd describe it as a dusty rose. In fact looking at this, I think the entire top row can be used as blush/highlight colors depending on the skin-tone.

Cherry Blossom is a heavily whitened pink. It's a lot lighter than I initially though HOWEVER that makes it a beautiful highlight shade. It adds a nice brightness without being obviously pink. I was going to complain that this palette had no highlight shades and was I glad to be wrong. To me, highlighting is essential and I dislike the thought of carrying multiple palettes whilst traveling because a palette is somehow "incomplete."

Meyer Lemon is a soft buttery pastel yellow. It looks like very rich, fatty butter.

Ginger Pumpkin is actually one of my favorites in the palette it's a really pretty soft orange. It's not pastel - it has no whiteness to it, which is good because it won't go ashy on a darker skin-tone. Plus it's just plain pretty.

Cafe Au Lait is a soft pretty milk chocolate. A good shade to either ground how bright the other colors are, add some contrast to a blue look, to use for blending/phasing colors out in the crease area, and/or as a liner. So versatile. :)

Blueberry Cream is a beautiful pastel Cinderella blue. I am in love.

Violet Whip is a heavily whitened grayish purple. Another good highlighter for say... a more cool-toned look or, if we think in terms of color-correction, Cherry Blossom will brighten and this will correct more sallow tones - yellowness, jaundiced appearance, might be nice for a more "medium"/tan complexion although... might go ashy. :/

Lavender Honey is a pastel magenta purple kissed with pink.

Cassis is appearing far more blue in these shots than in person. :/ It's a beautiful violet-purple that's soft-yet-bright.

Ederberry is a beautiful deep indigo shade, it's almost a blackened blue but is softer than that. It's so pretty. Didn't I already say that for most of the colors? They're just all so pretty. :') :D

Blue Chocolat is a softer, more pastel version of Blueberry Cream that's just a touch more on the purple/cornflower side of things.

Almond Pear is a soft aqua green-toned teal shade. It reminds me of sea-foam. Mermaid goodness.

Creme de Menthe cake is delicious. The color is a blue-based teal aqua. More mermaid goodness.

Citron Pistachio is a soft grass green. It's cool-toned and warm-toned all at once depending on how you play with it. It's super pretty for brown-eyed gals because it'll bring out red tones and be cool-looking. I also love this shade of green with blue eyes (because its yellow base tone brings out blue). Super purdy!

Please let me know if you have any comments or questions.

Disclaimer: As mentioned previously, my wonderful wife got this for me.

Eyeshadow Review: Urban Decay Zodiac Moondust Eyeshadow

Today I bring you a review for the lovely Urban Decay Moondust Eyeshadow in Zodiac

Availability: This retails at $22 for .05 oz and can be found at sephora.com, macys.com, jcpenney.com and ulta.com as well as their respective store locations. You can also get it on urbandecay.com.

Would I buy this again? Possibly.

Notes: In terms of color this is described as a smoky black with blue-green shift and blue-green 3D sparkle. I honestly don't see the shift in the actual shadow, which is smoky black. But the sparkle is a gorgeous teal interspersed with chartreuse and gold. It's almost like the night sky meets sunlit ocean depths meets peacock. It's beautiful and speaks to me although I don't use it as often as I'd possibly like. Honestly I like shadows like these and think the effect is pretty but this was the only one that really spoke to me enough for me to buy it. It has a really cool texture where it's a shadow interwoven with micro-glitter. What's different about this versus shadows that have bits of glitter in them is that the glitter here is more consistent throughout as you can see in the photo above - no random chunks here or there, so it almost looks like a foil. For best results with such consistencies I suggest using a stickier eyeshadow base or primer (NYX Jumbo Pencils would be a good option) and patting the eyeshadow onto the lid with a fingertip for maximum glitter/color impact. I find that if you use something like this with a brush it goes on rather sheer and a lot of the glitter gets lost. :/

Please let me know if you have any comments or questions.

Disclaimer: I paid for this myself. :3