Tarte Cosmetics

Like other reviewers, I received a sample of this liquid lipstick from Sephora as a birthday gift. PROS: unlike most other matte lipsticks, this is not drying and actually feels comfortable on my lips; it is also very long-lasting and leaves a stain hours after I applied it, even after drinking several cups of coffee. CONS: the color is not very flattering. It's kind of a medium nude with grey undertones and that, combined with the fact that it's matte, makes me think of a corpse. I have added a shiny pink lip gloss on top (Laura Mercier's Babydoll) and that helps somewhat, but it's still not a look I'm crazy about.

I have tried so many primers. None of them did it for me. They usually made the situation worse. My skin is now dry but my pores are still huge. Every time I look in the mirror I see craters on my nose and my forehead in between my eyes. My skin was very oily when I was younger and it was a real problem. Older skin loses elasticity due to lack of collagen production. It seems like over night these guys doubled in size. I started on my primer search. I’ve tried every primer that was recommended to me at Ulta, plus drug store and online brands. Between a rock and a hard place, I was! I went into Ulta today and another primer was suggested. I reluctantly tried it and Wow. I could barely see the pores! This Tarte product is the big guns! It’s a heavy duty, thick product that gets the job done. It’s not for little piddley pores. There are plenty of products for that. I plopped down my $40.00 and out the door I went. For me, this primer is a godsend. Now I can become obsessed by other things, other than my pores!! Found the Mack Daddy!!

I was looking for a concealer that could be used for under eye and blemishes, and decided to try this since it’s been so raves about. Sad to say, I’m completely disappointed.

I couldn’t get this to blend right, it looked patchy and clung to areas of skin, looked horribly around my nose, so I kept trying it out with different primers, foundations and brushes/fingers. Finally, I got a decent result with a Real Techniques sponge. I thought that was the end of it, but no.

Then I realized it looked awful at the end of the day. This product just does not wear nicely or naturally at all. It fades but doesn’t even have the decency to fade away completely, instead it breaks down in patches and leaves behind an awful texture. I do have very oily skin so I don’t expect my makeup to look immaculate all day, but normally it wears away naturally and this just looks terrible. Also, it creases on me very quickly.

I’ll continue to experiment to see if I can find the right combination for this concealer but I’m not hopeful.

I think this pallet is good for the value. The colors are really buttery and blend really well. I use these with and without primer and still come out with a beautiful daytime look. I like these for the mornings when I do not have much time to do my makeup. I would definitely recommend for traveling and if you on the go and do not have much time to do your make up in the AM.

It looked good on my lashes for almost exactly a month, but then it suddenly dried out. I got a nice, not clumpy but full-lashes look with two coats. It stayed on the whole day, didn't flake or smudge... but was unusable in only a month. For such an expensive product, I expected to be able to use it up - not having the half that was left in the tube to dry out. And I'm not a person who keeps the wand out for a long time or "pumps" their mascara tube (I turn the wand when I want more product out). I'm disappointed in this and wouldn't get it again