Tarte The Starlet Makeup Vanity Review, Swatches, Photos
After blogging a few years, Holiday Collections tend to run all together. Seems like brands get more and more repetitive each year with their special sets, palettes, and collections.
Not Tarte.
They had a winning Holiday Season as far as I’m concerned and to add even more joy to their Holiday Collection they released a completely revised version of their traditional “Jewelry” palette.
This year, Tarte’s Starlet Makeup Vanity took an entirely different path and introduced a selection of great shades arranged in such a way that application was a snap and packaging was so beautifully it made us sigh in delight.
Did you purchase this one?
Jump!
Seriously, The Starlet Makeup Vanity is one of the most complete selections you’ll find out there this Holiday Season that offers an incredible line up for cheeks, face, and eyes for such a steal of a price tag ($52 bucks!).
Housed in a reusable mirrored jewelry box with two pull out drawers and a flip top this “vanity” holds a whooping 24 shades of eyeshadow as well as plenty of other goodies to get you excited.
Packaging appeals to me in a major way and this really brings together a certain elegance. Of course, being the practical makeup user I’ll admit it’s not ideal for laying on your bathroom sink and applying and it is pretty big and bulky but I didn’t think it proved too difficult to use and the drawers as well as the top remained open during application so no worries about holding a top open for fear it would snap close while you applied your makeup. The entire vanity box is mirrored so it does collect fingerprints in a major way but it wipes clean easily enough. The nice part is after the makeup is gone you can use it as a jewelry or keepsake box.
I like the way Tarte choose to arrange the shadows this year as well. Each shadow selection is arranged in a palette which contains a liner, contrasting shades of shadow, and a highlighting color to create a specific look like a traditional smoky look, earthy, nude look, a blue smoky eye, a plum smoky eye, or a pretty pink look. It’s nice they took the work out of figuring out which shades go with what. Of course, it’s up to you how you combine the shades but they are arranged in a specific way that you’ll be able to create a total of six looks using the “palettes” inside the kit.
Shades Include:
Traditional Smoky Eye
- Celebrity (deep shimmering gray)
- Superstar (deep shimmering silver)
- Luminary (silver frost)
- Opening night (sparkling black)
Earthy
- Talent (shimmering peach)
- Idol (matte taupe)
- Cameo (matte beige)
- Virtuoso (sparkling forest green)
Plum Smokey Eye
- Stardom (blackened plum)
- Icon (warm lilac)
- Major (shimmering plum)
- Siren (shimmering deep mauve)
Blues
- Fame (shimmering cobalt)
- Big Break (shimmering ice blue)
- V.I.P. (shimmering blue-silver)
- Toast (shimmering toasted beige)
Browns (wearing below)
- Popular (shimmering golden beige)
- Timeless (shimmering cocoa)
- Prestige (matte ochre)
- Trophy (shimmering golden brown)
Pinks (wearing below)
- Ingénue (matte baby pink)
- Prima Donna (shimmering cinnamon)
- Leading Lady (shimmering nude pink)
- Diva (shimmering dusty rose)
Unlike past releases Tarte left out cream cheek stains and lip creams and brought in two new shades of their Amazonian Clay Blush plus a highlighter and bronzer.
Shades Include:
- Mineral Powder Bronzer in Park Avenue Princess (highly pearled golden tan)
- Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush in Glory (shimmering peach) and Starlet (shimmering rose)
- Amazonian Clay Shimmering Powder in Rose (soft petal pink)
And finally one of the drawers includes mini sizes of Tarte multiplEYE Natural Lash Enhancing Primer and Lights, Camera, Lashes!
The blushes stood out for me since I generally love the Clay Blush Formula and I’m really pleased with the shimmering finish on these. The standard line includes matte shades but Tarte’s been injecting a few shimmering ones into kits they’ve released this year and I hope the trend continues into Spring 2012 as these given a glistening glow on cheeks and are truly beautiful.
The shadows are a mix bag here as some have a very good formula with excellent pay off where as others were a tad sheerer. About 75% of the shadows are a solid go as they have a silky, easy to blend formula that worked well. I was particularly partial to the nude, copper-y brown selection and the rosy pink one which is what I used to create my two looks below. I can’t knock anything here though as I thought the palette created some very pretty looks.
Overall, the Starlet Makeup Vanity is an outstanding deal and gets a Muse Approval from me. I really liked this one and felt it was worth a purchase particularly if you’re looking for the perfect gift for a teenager or a true makeup lover in your life. I love Tarte for excluding creams this year as they just bring down the value of a palette due to the mess they create when combined with so many powders. The design, packaging, and overall idea and concept of the set is well thought out and is arranged in a way that even newer makeup users can get the most benefit from it.
This one I liked alot.
Very Muse Approved for purchase.
Anyone buy it?
Thoughts?
Do share!
It’s available exclusively for a limited time at Sephora and Sephora.com