Tarte Love, Trust & Fairy Dust Eye & Cheek Palette Review & Swatches
Tarte Love, Trust & Fairy Dust Eye & Cheek Palette ($39) is a new eyeshadow and highlighter palette inspired by fairies and flowers. The palette is in the vein of Tarte’s most recent Make Believe in Yourself and Be a Mermaid & Make Waves Eyeshadow Palette but the eyeshadow formula is Tarte’s more traditional formula and not the creamier metallics we seen in those past two palettes.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a few metallics here but the mattes actually dominate. None the less, I purchased it anyway because the shimmery pinks and cranberries were quite appealing not to mention it appeared like a unique and different shade selection from Tarte and not the same old nude, neutral palettes they tend to favor.
Props to Tarte for interesting but slightly childish packaging. The palette is a circular compact a little smaller than CD which contains 10 eyeshadows (0.035 oz each) and 1 highlighter (0.070 oz each). It’s bright metallic pink in color with a sparkly star studded compact. It’s something my 4th grade self would have adored and has a very Lisa Frank feel. Something I’d have picked up at some mall in the early 90’s when I was all about unicorns, fairies, stars, and sparkle.
As you know I was really disappointed with the Tarte Aspyn Ovard Eye & Cheek Palette because it was such a grossly misleading launch in promotional images. I think we can all agree that palette looked like a pink and dusky rose selection of shades so it was shocking to actually get it and realize, “Hey, wait, there’s a bunch of browns and golds in here! Where’s all the pink!?”
I think the same holds true for the Love, Trust & Fairy Dust Eye & Cheek Palette. I swear this palette is like some sort of weird illusion. Online it looks mostly pink and cranberry and in person, you get that same vibe. I think it might because of the pink metallic compact. it sort of makes the shades all look sparkly and pink but in reality, there aren’t that many pink shades here at all. In fact, there are only two shades that are truly unique in this palette and the rest can easily, very easily be duped across the board from other Tarte Eyeshadow Palettes. However, the two shades I’m talking about, Mystical and Flitter, actually create looks I can easily recreate using the Etude House Play Color Eyes Wine Party I already own or Urban Decay’s Backtalk Eye & Face Palette.
A few years ago, Tarte was very fond of purples and mauve shades. It’s sort of their signature color and pops up in a lot of their palettes. This palette contains quite a few mauves that aren’t exact dupes of past shades but can be easily duplicated if you already own palettes like Rainforest After Dark Eye & Cheek Palette, Energy Noir Clay Palette, Amazonian Clay Matte Eyeshadow Palette just to name a few.
Of course, there’s also a standard round-up of nudes in this palette that Tarte includes in many of their palettes across the board as well such as Gossamer a creamy base or highbrow highlighter, Frolic which is a light tan brown, and Wonder a plum brown.
The two unique shades I mentioned are Mystical which has an interesting shimmering duochrome effect. They call it a magenta but to me it seems like a cranberry that has an orange-y shift. The second shade is Flitter which is a lighter metallic pink. Flitter is really pretty and it pairs up nicely with Mystical (I have the two shades on my eye below) but it does look like a shade I have in a Too Faced palette! Which palette and shade name I’m not sure but it does seem vaguely similar to something I already own from Too Faced.
As I mentioned above the palette has a good deal of mattes compared to metallics/shimmers. There are ten shades total not counting the highlighter and only four shades are metallic and six are mattes. Compared to the Make Believe in Yourself and Be a Mermaid & Make Waves Palette that’s considerably a lot more mattes. The palette also contains two very dark shades which are best used as eyeliners. I always feel like I never make use those darker shades sadly.
As for the mattes, well, I don’t mind mattes. I’d be caught dead saying that a few years ago but nowadays it’s true, I really don’t mind them. But in this palette, well, I expected more sparkle than matte. The mattes do offset the metallics however, I think people heading into this purchase do expect sparkle and this doesn’t have a lot of it. I was also pretty disappointed with the dryness of the mattes. They prove a little firmer than Tarte’s regular soft, silky matte and applied a bit patchier. The best of the shades was Gossamer and Frolic. The other shades I experienced a bit of patchy dryness.
The metallics are quite nice overall though. Pigmented, good blend, not too much of a powdery kick up, and very little fall out. The highlighter is also quite creamy and highly pigmented although a little too glowy for me to use on my face but that’s based on my own personal preference.
The palette is made in the USA and does have a chocolate scent that disappeared once I applied.
Tarte Love, Trust & Fairy Dust Eye & Cheek Palette isn’t as unique or as special as I originally thought it would be. The shade selection isn’t truly unique at all and the promotional images are a bit misleading. But most important the shades are easily duplicated and the formula on some of them is questionable.
Sadly, this one was a bit disappointing.
I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it if you purchased it.
Where to buy
The Tarte Love, Trust & Fairy Dust Eye & Cheek Palette is available now at tartecosmetics.com and sephora.com and Ulta.com.
Tarte Love, Trust & Fairy Dust Eye & Cheek Palette is a $39 palette is a new, limited edition Summer 2018 palette that includes 10 eyeshadows (0.035 oz each) as well as 1 highlighter (0.035 oz) for $39. The palette appears quite pink and metallic in color with plenty of shimmer but in reality, it contains more mattes than metallics with very few unique shades and many rerun colors that you like already own from past eyeshadow palettes the brand has released. The metallics proved quite lovely in texture but the mattes lacked the typical silky formula and some applied a bit drier and patchier. All these things combined resulted in a disappointing experience. The palette is made in the USA.
- Interesting and fun packaging.
- Fairly inexpensive for 10 eyeshadows and a highlighter.
- A few unique shades (but sadly not enough to warrant a purchase).
- Packaging and promotional images give the illusion of pink, sparkle eyeshadow palette but in reality, there are a lot of darker mauves and nudes in this palette.
- Dominated by mattes and not as many metallics as one might think.
- Iffy formula with mattes being drier and patchier during application.
- A lot of rerun shades so the looks you can create can easily be duplicated if you own a lot of Tarte palettes already.
Tarte Love, Trust & Fairy Dust Eye & Cheek Palette is a very, very easy buy for Tarte fans and collectors of these palettes. It’s a fun palette that packaging junkies will adore however, you might need to question whether you need it or not when you realize the colors aren’t as unique as promotional images would have you believe.