Tag Archives: Tarte

Tartelette Tease Palette- A Review

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“Why do we have this desire to tease the innocent? Is it envy?”- Graham Greene

Tarte tease palette

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Tarte Tartelette palette on dark skin NW45 swatch

From L-R, top to bottom: “whisper”, “crush”, “heartbreaker”, “wink”, “first kiss”, “BFF”

“Tease me tease me tease me tease me baby, till I lose control….” Aside from reminding me of this iconic Chaka Demus and Pliers tune from the halcyon days of my youth, Tarte have another winner on their hands with their Tartelette Tease palette.

The Tartelette Tease is a mini version of their Tartelette In Bloom palette, with just 6 shades in a palette about the size of a credit card. This is my second Tarte palette, after the original Tartelette palette, and I find the quality and performance of these shadows to be pretty consistent across all three “Tartelette” palettes.

The palette consists of 4 matte shades and 2 shimmers, and the layout is such that each row gives you a complete eye look. The mattes are buttery and pigmented but I find that they definitely need a primer underneath them. The staying power on my oily lids was disappointing without a primer but perfectly fine with my Urban Decay primer.

Of the two shimmery shades, one is of notably higher quality than the other. “Crush” can be a sparkly mess if not applied extremely carefully and I found that it worked best with a glitter glue. “First Kiss” is much less sparkly and thus didn’t give me any problem on application.

“Whisper” and “wink,” the two lightest shades, appear a tad chalky in swatches but they can be easily sheered out for a good brow bone highlight on the eye. The best-performing shades were the two darkest shades- “heartbreaker” and “BFF.” These made great crease colours and I see them performing equally well in a smoky eye.

The price for what you get in the palette is a very affordable $21 (but bear in mind that each pan contains less product than the pans in the regular Tartelette palettes) and I think this is a great palette to take on the go.

If you are new to Tarte products, the brand claims to be natural, cruelty-free, and vegan-friendly. If these things are important to you and you’re looking for a portable makeup palette, I highly recommend giving the Tarlette Tease palette a look!

You can find the palette at Sephora, Ulta, Macy’s, and on the Tarte website. The palette is apparently limited edition so hurry if you want it!

Nana Adomah

 

My Top 5 Brow Products

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“You must never underestimate the power of the eyebrow”- Jack Black

Brow products for brunettes

Brows continue to be king in the beauty world and I love nothing better than a well-groomed brow. I have naturally thicker brows than can veer into the unruly, due to the curlier nature of my brow hairs, so I like to keep on top of things. I have a few brow products I use depending on the look I want each day and the following are my favourites:

1. Make Up For Ever Aqua Brow (#30 & #40)- $22

Make Up For Ever Aqua Brow 30

Make Up For Ever Aqua Brow #30

I’d tried a few brow products before this but this has become my absolute favourite. It’s the most long-wearing brow product I own and it lasts for ages and ages. I’ve been using the tube pictured above for over a year and there’s still a good third left. The best part of all is that the tube design ensures that it won’t dry out. #30 is a perfect chocolate-brown shade for dark hair but I dabbled in #40 in the Winter when I wanted really dark brows. Check out how it looked on me here.

2. Tarte Amazonian Clay Volumizing Brow & Hair powder (Rich Brown)- $25

Tarte amazonian clay volumizing brow powder rich sand

Tarte Amazonian Clay Volumizing Brow & Hair Powder in “Rich Sand”

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I’d never been a fan of brow powders as they often didn’t give me the definition I wanted but I fell head over heels for this product late last year. This Tarte powder can easily be applied as lightly or as heavy as I like and I love the naturally defined look it gives my brows. It has very good staying power for a powder and it’s multi-purpose as it can also be used on the hair. I use this several times a week and I’m nowhere near hitting pan on it.

3. Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz (Dark Brown/ Brunette)- $21

Anastasia Brow Wiz brunette dark brown

Anastasia Brow Wiz in “Dark Brown”/ “Brunette”

The cult favourite from OG brow guru Anastasia lives up to the hype for sure for me. This is hands down my favourite brow pencil as it’s super skinny. This allows me to shape my brow exactly as I want and it pairs well with all my other brow products. The product itself is non-waxy and it’s more like a powder in pencil form, The addition of a spoolie on the other end is also a plus. HOWEVER, as much as I love my Brow Wiz, it’s terrible value for money. It often unexpectedly runs out on me if I use it daily for a month or so and $21 for 0.003 oz of product is pretty shocking. However, I love this pencil so much that I don’t feel comfortable unless I have one in my stash.

4. Hourglass Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil (Dark Brunette)- $32 

Although I balked at the price of this initially, it works out to be a much better value that most other higher end brow products as you get 0.014 oz of product. The pencil has the perfect firmness and the triangular shape of the pencil allows you to choose whether you want a full-on brow, or a more natural looking brow. This also has an attached spoolie so you have everything you need in one product.

5. Anastasia Beverley Hills Dipbrow Pomade (Chocolate)- $18

Anastasia Dipbrow chocolate ABH

Anastasia Beverley Hills Dipbrow in “chocolate”

This is a solid gel/ mousse brow product that comes in an impressive range of shades to suit almost everybody. It took me a bit of time when I first got this to get the hang of it but the trick is to use the tiniest amount on your brush and it becomes much easier to control application. It also lasts a very long time (but not as long as the MUFE Aqua Brow) and it has yet to dry out on me. It’s easy to get the “Scouse brow” look with this product as you can easily use too much but practice makes perfect.

Honourable mentions:

NYX automatic eyebrow pencil ($4.99)- This was just nudged out of the top 5 but I love how hard this pencil is. It is the perfect firmness needed in an eyebrow pencil but it suffers from the “runs out far too quickly” syndrome for me.

MAC Fluidline in “Dipdown” ($16)- technically an eyeliner but most often used as a brow gel. Gives a great “power brow” but didn’t make the top 5 because it has a tendency to dry out very easily.

NYX eyebrow cake powder kit ($5.99)

Sleek eyebrow stylist ($8.99)- almost identical to the Hourglass pencil in packaging but this pencil is far waxier. Still an excellent product for the price if you don’t mind a waxier pencil.

What do you like to use on your brows? Are you a powder, pencil, or gel girl? Or do you like to mix it up like me? Let me know in the comments!

Nana Adomah

Face Of The Day: Shades Of Orange

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“I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the astonishing light of your own being” – Hafiz of Shiraz
NARS persia fotd dark skin woc nw45 NARS persia on dark skin nw45 fotd swatch NARS Taj mahal Persia on dark skin woc nw45

I often used NARS Persia eyeshadow as a transition shade but I’ve never made it the focus of an eye look before. This Memorial Day weekend is blessing us with glorious weather and I decided to do a quick orange eye just because. I even wore lashes! This was a super simple look and it wore perfectly for the whole afternoon. Click below for a list of products used. Continue reading →