Tarte Overexposed Highlighter Set Review And Giveaway - CLOSED

Think back what we you doing around Boxing Day in 2017, well I'd been hit by the dreaded lurgy and I was trying to do a little bit of online sales shopping to make myself feel better. It didn't really work and I spent the next week and bit in bed but when I was I did manage to pull myself together I was able to open a parcel of sale goodies from across the pond.

Now for a long time Tarte Cosmetics was one those brands that the majority of us Brits could only lust after from a distance, and whilst I'm still devastated that I missed out on their almost Louis Vuitton like patent floral palette, I'm really pleased that we can now access the brand more easily in the UK. It's still yet to make in appearance in bricks and mortar stores, but you can now get quite a few products, and some exclusives from QVC UK, and we can also order directly from Tarte Cosmetics

Since my head was a bit fuzzy, when I placed the order, when I opened it I realised that I'd made a bit of a mess of my order and ordered more than one of several items - whoops a daisy! Anyways I managed to pass a few bits on, and I've got a few things left that I'm going to be giving away on the blog over the next month or so.

Two of the items that I ordered contained highlighters I do love a highlighter, and Tarte's are apparently some of the best, I'd already tried and loved both their blushers (read my review of the Tarte Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Blush in Flush here) and their Rainforest Of The Sea Skin Twinkle Lighting Palette (Read my review here), but there were plenty more cheek products still to try.

One of the kits that I got the Tarte Overexposed Highlighter Set, gave me the opportunity to try two of their best selling formulations, the Tarteist Pro Glow Liquid Highlighter and the Amazon Clay 12 Hour Highlighter, in a handy travel size.

Now Tarte do a lot of highlighter shades but these two products come in probably their most popular shade, Exposed, which is described as a "Nude Highlight" shade. It's definitely one of their paler shades but in my experience it looks slightly darker in real life than it does on the Tarte website and it definitely has more of a golden glow to it.

Tarte Tarteists Pro Glow Liquid Highlighter - Exposed - 8.5g

Whilst you may already be familiar with Tarte's clay and mineral based powder products, you may be less familiar with some of the liquid and cream based products, which is shame because they do some fabulous lips products, foundation, and concealers, and they range also includes a couple of liquid and cream highlighters.

From their popular Tarteist line, this is a oil free, light reflecting liquid highlighter, that contains pearl and mineral pigments, as well as hydrating skin ingredients such as rosewater and squalane. Suitable for all skin tones it is designed to give the skin a fresh, and healthy glow.

The highlighter has a quite a thick, and creamy appearance but it actually feels quite lightweight, it seems to dry quite quickly and it doesn't feel oily or sticky. You don't need a lot so this is quite an economical product. Pop a couple of dots on to your cheek bones, or you brown bone, and blend it into the skin to create a bit of a glow or build it up and apply a few layers for more of a full on highlighter finish. I've applied it quite thickly in the swatches but if you blend it out a bit more, it blends down to an almost translucent, light filled sparkly sheen.

I've taken this picture with the flash so you can see the hopefully see the sheen that this product gives. It's a little bit more subtle in daylight but as I say you can build it up or even use it with the powder. As per usual I was wearing a bit of translucent powder and it wasn't too bad at blending into a powder layer, it didn't really cake or clump, and it wore well.

As I say this is just a small travel sized tube but you need such a small amount I can see this lasting a while. I've used this quite a few times in the year and a bit I've had it, and I still have plenty left. QVC UK don't have this product in the full size in it's inventory but if you are in the UK, you can buy the full 15.9g size for £25 from the Tarte website.

Amazon Clay 12 Hour Highlighter - Exposed - 1.5g

If you were to name an ingredient that Tarte was famous for, I can pretty much guarantee that anyone in the know would say Amazonian Clay. Sourced from the Amazon river, the clay that Tarte use in their products have both skin care and make up benefits.

Containing micro pearlescent flakes, this powder is designed to brighten, and awaken the skin and  like their Amazon Clay Blushers also features the 12 hour claim, which means it's long wearing, and it won't flake, fade or cling to dry patches.

Despite the fact that is contains a lot of sparkle it feels very smooth to the touch, and again you only need a small amount to produce a fabulous glow. As I say it looks a touch darker and richer in real life than it does on the Tarte website, and it looks a lot warmer and more golden when it's swatched. It blends easily into the skin, and despite a vanilla based scent it doesn't cause any irritation, and as expected the wear time is superb. Again I've took these pictures with the flash so you can really see the sparkle.

Obviously you can apply it like you would any highlighter on the cheekbones, but you can also dab it on the cupid bow, or the brow bone, and you can also do what I've done here and use it as an all over eye colour, all be it with a little bit of fallout! (Pictures taken in natural light)

Like all of Tarte's products this is vegan, cruelty free, dermatologically tested, and free from parabens, mineral oil, gluten, phthalates, and SLS. Obviously it's a really versatile product in it own right, and it gives the skin a lovely but you can also use it in combination with the liquid for a full own, healthy shimmery, glow! This particular product is available in the 5.6g full size from QVC UK for £24.95 including postage and packaging, and it's also available for £25 directly from Tarte.

If you like shimmer, and you like glow this is definitely the kit for you, and these are two products that you need to add to highlighting repertoire. They are both very versatile and you can use them both together and separately in several different ways. The sizes in this kit may be small but both of these products are really economical so size in some cases really doesn't matter. I was a Tarte fan before I tried this kit and to be honest it just made me love the brand even more, and I may now have an obsession with their blushers and their highlighters

Alas this kit is long gone, but the full size products are still available, and who knows what kits Tarte Cosmetics have planned for the future. If you've fallen in love with this particular set though don't despair, because I ha new and unopened kits to give away.

This giveaway is open worldwide, It will close on the 3rd March 2019. You must be a follower and you must fulfil all of the entry conditions - I will be checking! If you are under 18 please ask your parent or guardians permission before entering and please read both my and Rafflecopter's privacy policies, regarding giveaway entries, and I will need your address details if you win. So get filling in the form and get entering x Good Luck

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Vegas Treats From My Bestie - Tarte, Kat Von D, and Wet N Wild

Although I don't consider myself the most popular person on the planet I'm very lucky to have some amazing friends. It's not easy being friends with someone with chronic illness but one of my friends in particular seems to excel at it, and for that I'm truly thankful.

As well as being grateful to her for being there through thick and thin, I'm also pretty pleased that this year she chose to spend her main holiday in Las Vegas - what does that mean? Well for her it meant a fabulous holiday but for me it meant the opportunity to get my hands on some US goodies. She doesn't share my obsession with beauty and make up so I gave her a little list just in case she had a little bit of time to do some shopping.

The result was a Sephora bag filled with pretties, as well as a drugstore item and some Birthday Cake M&M's :). Although none of the make up items are available in the UK, you can probably get your hands on them via the Sephora website or via ebay, so I thought it was worth showing you just in case you fancy placing an online order or if you're lucky enough to be jetting across the Atlantic this holiday season.

Although we can get Tarte in the UK from QVC, I'm lead to believe that this palette - the Tarte Light Of The Party Collectors Make Up Case is a limited edition, Sephora exclusive. From the moment I clasped eyes on it though, I knew I needed it, no matter what the inconvenience or cost.

Open the beautiful metallic, chevron printed gift box and your greeted with a hard, palette come clutch bag. In a plain textured gold on one side, this bag / palette has a zip fastening, and one side is covered and I mean covered in an almost Aztec design picked out in hundreds of sequins.

If that isn't amazing enough, unzip it and you're subjected to neutral eyeshadow and make up heaven. The palette contains 24 of Tarte's famous Amazon Clay eye shadows, in every neutral shade from a creamy highlight colour, to a shimmering taupe, coppers, golds, nudes and rich chocolate browns.

The palette contains a nice combination of shimmers, satins and mattes and all of the shades are soft, and smooth and the pigmentation is excellent.

As well as the shadows, the palette also contains a 4ml deluxe sample size of Tarte's best selling Lights, Camera Lashes Mascara and a travel size, double ended shadow brush.

That isn't all though, the large square item on the right isn't just for show it's actually another Tarte palette so this really is a two for.

Simply remove the metallic, cardboard palette and your left with a large mirror in the main palette and a takeaway palette that ideal for your daily make up bag or for holidays or weekends away.

The takeaway palette contains another 6 neutral toned eye shadows, instead of just duplicating the colours though, you're getting 6 new shades that don't appear in the main palette.

It's not just about shadows though, you're also getting the Amazonian Clay Pink Champagne Highlighter, and a full size Amazonian Clay Bronzer in Social Butterfly and a blusher in Amazed. Again the shades are soft and pigmented and I can see the blusher and the highlighter especially becoming firm favourites in my make up collection.

I think that this is a lovely palette and I think it would make a great gift for anyone who loves make up, sparkle, or neutral eye shadows or someone who prefers their make up to be cruelty free. Everything is wearable, there are no dodgy colours and the quality is superb. The Tarte Light Of The Party Collector's Make Up Case retails at $59 from Sephora, and it has supposedly has a value of $394. I always take price comparisons like this with a pinch of salt but seeing as the same size blush and bronzer retail at $28 each, it's probably about right.

Like most of you I love nude eyeshadow palettes and personally, in my opinion, you can never have enough so I was super excited to take this out of my Sephora bag.

Although I'm currently ink less and tattoo less, I know who Kat Von D is, and as well as being a celebrity and a tattoo artist, she also has a highly rated beauty and make up line.

Like a lot of ranges it's unavailable in the UK, and since I've been eyeing up (haha) some of her eyeshadow palettes for a while now I added a couple to my Vegas list and my lovely bestie got me the Shade + Light Eye Contour Palette.

Packaged in a black cardboard this palette contains a full sized mirror and it comes with full instructions on how to create a variety of looks to define, balance and lift the eyes.

It contains 12 matte eye shadows, in 3 separate colour families -  a Neutral Quad, a Cool Quad, and a Warm Quad. Each of the 3 quads, contain a base colour, a contour colour, a shade to define and a shade to highlight.

You know me and mattes, for years I avoided them, but companies now are starting to do them right, and this palette is no exception, the colours are, soft, velvety and the pigmentation is nuts. Although the title of this palette makes you think that it might be something for people who are more experienced with make up, the instructions are really easy to follow and it gives you all in the information that you could need to create around 6 looks. It's also a great palette to experiment with, and it would also work really well with all of the neutrals in your no doubt very large collections. The Kat Von D Light + Shade Eye Contour Palette retails at $46 and it's something that I would really recommend.

How do you tell a true friend? Well it's the one that gets a sample in a shop and passes it on to you rather than keeping it for herself :), hence this little pot of First Aid Beauty Red Clay Deep Cleanser, I haven't tried anything from this brand and this sounds like a really interesting product so I'll let you know what I think when I try it x

Although I think we have an amazing choice in the UK when it comes to drugstore and budget make up,  but there are a few US brands that I wish would make that long journey across the pond, and one of them is Wet N Wild. This was one of the brands that appeared in selected stores for a little while and then disappeared almost overnight. I've picked up a few bits from ebay and from swaps and I've loved most of the pieces that I've managed to get, but I'm a particular fan of their eye shadows.

This gorgeous trio was the final item (bar the M&M's) in my bag and it's fabulous. Yes nudes again, but the Wet N Wild Color Icon Eye Shadow Trio in 380B Walking On Eggshells would be a valuable edition to anyones neutral eyeshadow collection, including mine.

It contains 3 colours and two sponge applicators, and each shade is embossed with whereabouts you should put it on your eyes - you get a shimmery, golden cream for the brow bone, a shimmery bronze, brown for the crease and a gorgeous warm, shimmery rose beige for the eyelid. Apologies for the lack of swatches but for the price this palette is amazing, the shadows are super creamy and the pigmentation is is beyond amazing for the price. These trios retail at around $2.99 from the likes of Walgreens, they are a little bit more expensive on Amazon and on ebay but there definitely worth snapping up.

It kind of irritates me that there are still so many brands that we can't access in the UK grrr! but I'm really, really grateful that my lovely bestie Dawn, managed to take a few moments out of her holiday to pick me up some fabulous goodies, that I'm going to really enjoy using and experimenting with. I hope that some of you have found this post useful, and if you've picked up any US goodies lately too, I love to hear what you got, so leave me a comment and let me know x

Feeling Flush With Tarte - A Review Of The Tarte Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Blush In Flush And The Bamboo Blush / Cheek Brush

When it comes to beauty brands, I think that we're very lucky in the UK. Not only do we have free and easy access to some of the biggest brands in the world but we also have so many amazing budget brands right on our doorstep.

It doesn't stop us wanting though, and unfortunately for us, some brands just aren't that easy to get a hold of. The ability to shop online though has made all the difference, and through the magic of the internet we can now get out hands on brand as varied as Wet and Wild, Lorac and Milani from the USA, Tony Moly and Holika Holkia from Asia, and Annabelle from Canada.

For years and years one of the brands that I lusted after above all others was US brand Tarte. Alas all the sites that sold it didn't ship to the UK, and ebay prices were quite frankly ridiculous. I lusted though, and years ago I even mentioned the brand in a Sephora lust list post from way back in 2010.

Although the beautiful Louis Vuitton Vernis Fleur esq palette is long gone, this year British beauty junkies prayers were answered and Tarte became a little bit easier to access. Sephora started shipping to the UK, stores like Rose's Beauty Store, and Amazon started selling the odd bit all be it at  often slightly inflated prices, and the biggie for me QVC UK became the only official stockist of Tarte in Europe.

The selection isn't huge but it's ever changing, and shows seem to pop up now every couple of months. Whilst I want to try everything from the brand, I started small and Mummy Lou got me probably one of their most famous products for my birthday way back in May.

Mention Tarte nowadays and more often then not now people think blusher!!! There are a few types blusher and cheek colour in the Tarte range but by far the most famous has to be the Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Blush. These blushers are crammed full of real natural clays, harvested from the banks of the Amazon River. The blushers are baked and are full of vitamins and nutrients. The ingredients benefit all skintones and skin types, minimising oil production in oily skins, and providing hydration moisture to dry skins, all of which helps the blusher to stay in place and look better for longer.

The colour selection on Sephora ranges well into double figures, but currently I believe QVC only stock about 5 shades. I'd already made a wishlist and thankfully one of my most wanted was and still is available on the QVC website - Flush.

Describe by the Sephora website Flush as pink, berry, all of the Amazonian Clay blushers come packaged in tonal packaging, similar too but not identical to the colour inside.

The compact contains a mirror and the blusher itself it embossed with the Tarte logo, and an almost, rain forest type design. Although I love the look of embossing on blushes and eyeshadows, it isn't always conducive to pigmentation, not in this case though. Yes you need a couple of swirls with a brush to loosen it up a bit but after that the payoff is amazing, in fact I would even go as far as to say that you need a really light hand, to avoid overdoing it, and creating a Aunt Sally type look.

The pinkish, berry description is probably about right, it a very neutral pink tone, that I think would work well on a lot of people. I've taken a few picture both with and without flash to give you an idea of what it looks like on me. First here are a couple of with the flash,

and a couple without the flash.

These photos aren't the best, and whilst part of that could be down to my not so good photography skill, I'm not sure that's why. I think the reason why it's so hard to pick up on my skin is because it's exactly the shade that I would blush naturally, and it's the colour that my skin goes when I'm feeling a little bit overheated. Despite all the pretty colours that blusher now comes in, the original purpose of blusher or rouge, was to enhance that sort of coy, natural youthful flush, and this product does exactly that on my skin.

Flush really is the perfect colour for me, it's the perfect colour for my skin tone, and used lightly gives that perfect flushed cheek look. This blusher lived completely up to my all be it very high, expectations,  and the pigmentation and wear time on my combination skin was excellent. Just a small swirl with a blusher brush was enough to create a pretty, pinched cheek look. Of course you can use any blush or cheek brush that you have, but the blusher I received came with one of Tarte's bamboo handled brushes.

Unfortunately the blush no longer comes with a brush on QVC, and I can't find this particular one from any other Tarte retailer but I believe it's just their normal, domed cheek brush.

Like the majority of brushes in their range it come with a sustainably, harvested bamboo handle, a gold tone ferrule embossed with the Tarte logo, and the softest, synthetic hairs, you will ever feel.

Again I have to say I'm impressed, it felt super soft on the skin, picked up the product easily and it washed well with minimal, if any shedding.

Tarte products aren't cheap by means, but based on my first two products I've tried. I'm impressed. The philosophy, and ethics behind the company are excellent and the two products that I've tried are great quality and deliver great results. I definitely want to try more Amazonian Clay Blushers and I already have my heart set on Dollface, and Exposed, and I certainly wouldn't be frightened to try their brushes again. QVC is probably the easiest place to buy some of these shades from at the moment especially with their 30 day money back guarantee, but for some of the other shades I may have to pay a little bit more from Rose's Beauty Store, or even consider a Sephora order, and their scary taxes and duty - eek. This experience has only just whetted my Tarte love and I can't wait to try some things from the brand, in fact thanks to Mummy Lou I already have a few more products to try, but more on that next week, with my September haul. Thanks for reading and if you have any Tarte recommendations I'd love to hear them xx

US Nail Polish Haul and a GOSH Holographic Dupe ?

Greetings my loves
You know the drill - I've already mentioned that I was waiting for a few parcels to come from US ebay that I ordered last month well they've all came through now - hurray :)
The contents of every parcel was nail polish :) - First up something I first saw on Nicole's blog - Although I have GOSH Holographic which I love, it has been discontinued now and I know some people are looking for dupes so I thought I'd give this one a go. The polish is Color Club - 850 Worth The Risque

a silver holographic polish it certainly looks the part in the bottle but how does it perform?

Well pretty well, I certainly had no application issues with this at all it applied really smoothly and 2 coats was enough for full coverage - is it the same as GOSH Holographic ? well I don't think it's quite as sparkly but if you can't manage to get your hands on the GOSH without shelling out major funds this is a good option, I paid just £4.58 for the polish and it's safe passage from New York to my home in the UK x

 

Next up another sparkly, shimmery number. I recently watched Fleur De Force's May Favourites Video and in the video she mentioned a nail polish Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in Turquoise Opal, it was love at first sight! so I headed to ebay to have a looksie alas $24 appeared to be the going rate for this beauty so I got one of the cheaper but still beautiful options 08 Amber Ruby

It's a gorgeous bronze / copper colour with shades of yellow, green and red flashing through it.You can't see the flashes to well but you can see how it changes in the light - Before Without Flash

After With Flash

Gorgeous - and yet another product we can't get in the UK :( 

Finally two polishes from a US brand that I really do love Milani - If you've read my blog for while you'll know that I am a real fan of the Milani Holographic polishes so I had a little look on ebay and I thought I'd try a couple of their other polishes from my wishlist - first up a colour from their Bare range  821 Bare in Mind

The colour of this isn't really anything special it's just a good wearable pink / nude with a tiny bit of shimmer shot through. I love colours like these they are really good for everyday wear.

Next up I got a shade from their Nail Flash range - 847 Photo Flash

This is gorgeous a great pink /red with all sorts of shimmer and glitter shot through which alas my camera isn't doing justice :(

2 coats of each swatched on white paper

I hope you have found this little haul useful - there really are some gorgeous colours and polishes in US Drugstore brands that we simply can't get over here - booo - I am going to try and do a few NOTD of all my new polishes so you can have a better look x Any questions please let me know x