Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush - Exposed

OMG, I never thought I could get this excited about a blush. Blush to me has always been a workhorse, but this color and how it settles on the skin is phenomenal - even my husband noticed. The pigmentation is very natural looking and it gets integrated in the skin and not sit on top, which is often what makes blush look ghoulish. It's like the kind of look you might get from a gel blush, but from the versatility of a powder. Love love love, my favorite product from Tarte so far.

Part of the Exposed line. I do like the color, as it is very pale and allows me to blend my already red cheeks into something that looks natural. I have not been a fan of the Amazonian Clay blushes as they seem "flat" to me and look powdery on my dry skin. I buffed this one in well, and it blended nicely. I mostly am a fan of the color, as for me it looks more natural.

I love this blush. Perfect shade for everyday use and it also goes with pretty much every makeup look in the book. I would defiantly repurchase, however this product lasts a while due to the pigmentation so i won't be needing another one anytime soon. Totally worth the splurge in my opinion!

So, probably the only reason I even tried a Tarte blush is the birthday present at Sephora included a mini of a nudish shade called paaarty. I'd been curious before, but the testers seemed dry and hard and they didn't swatch well. The makeup board said they went on better on your face, so I was excited to get the mini and try it out. Well, the mini went well, and during the recent Ulta 21 days sale, I decided to pick up ONE full size one.

Since a lot of the shades look pretty similar in the pan, I showed up with foundation and no blush on, to actually try out on my face. I'd decided to test Dazzled and Seduce. They both looked very nice on; but then I compared Exposed and thought, Why not? (It is Tarte's best seller.) Wow! I'm fair, neutral leaning cool, and this is just the perfect pop of natural color for when I'm dressing down my face, as opposed to a full glam look.

Now, I have a LOT of makeup, including blush. I usually focus on cream blush, then perhaps a bit of powder blush for longevity. I suppose due to age, I've found that many powder blushes look, well, powdery, and not flattering. Plus, a lot of powder blushes are SO pigmented and they grab when applied, making it tricky to achieve a natural look.

This Tarte blush is a soft nude pinkish/mauvish tone. Since it isn't bright or highly pigmented, I prefer to apply this with a smaller, dense brush. It goes on smoothly and stays on well, maybe not for 12 hours but as well as any other blushes I have. I find that a mauvish lip looks nice with this, for me in particular Maybelline Made It Mauve.

ADDITION 5/23/17: I've found I can change the overall color of this by using a bit of cream blush under it; yesterday I used a bit (just a bit!) of a candy pink cream blush (Cherry Blossom), and it really "pinked it up." Tomorrow I'm going to try it with Lotus....

I had such high hopes for this blush. It promised long wear, good pigment and an oil-free formula.

In my view, this one failed to miss the mark.

Whilst it looked pretty in the packaging, the colour pay off is quite poor and patchy. For someone that is used to applying bright blush, it took me quite a bit of work (with my Zoeva blush brush) to get this to look even and natural.

In the end, I had to cut through it with some setting spray and I felt awful for the rest of the day.

It's such an average product for the price you pay.

I have used many brands and would definitely recommend Nars, MAC, Benefit and Laura Mercier blushes over this one. They go on so much smoother.

Don't waste your money like I did! Give this one a miss.

I don't like this colour at allllll. I can't get on with this blush. It just looks dirty and like a dirty bronzer muddy colour on me. I tried so hard to make it work and I just can't. I'm nw20 in Mac. I have light skin with neutra/cool undertone. I just hate the colour on me. I tried convincing myself I could like it since everyone raves about it so much but I need to be honest with myself. I just don't like it, I like my blush to give liveliness and colour to the cheeks. I ended up decluttering this one last night

Absolutley hate this blush. It's so compact that you either get too much or not enough. If that's not enough mine got dirty and the pan is loose. Just for referance I got the shade blissful and I would much rather use my ambiant lighting blush instead.

For $30, this blush is not worth it. It's just way too expensive. The only reason I purchased it is because I needed a matte, non-shimmer blush. It's nice I guess, everything you'd expect of a blush. Unfortunately, because of the price tag, I expect above average performance. That's not what I'm getting, the blush is on the harder side, powdery and you have to layer it up to get visible pigmentation. The blush claims to be 12 hours, that is so untrue. Once the blush hits the 6-hour mark, it begins to fade. Don't waste your money on this, I've bought better blushes from the dollar store.

This blush did not work for me. I cannot get it to show up on my skin, and I am fairly pale: GA LSF #40. Its like swiping almost nothing on my cheeks, no pigment. What a waste of cash.

I have mixed feeling about this blush, but overall I enjoy it. I heard about this blush being a perfect nude color for almost any makeup look, and I was particularly intrigued when a youtuber mentioned that this is a perfect blush to pair with a red lip. While I agree with that, and do like this blush a lot in terms of formula and longevity, I feel the color is a bit different than what I expected. The swatches online all look pinkish nude, but on me it looks like a light terra-cotta with slightly red undertone. On my NC20-25 Asian skin tone, it doesn't look pink toned whatsoever, I don't know if it oxidized on my skin but I don't have oily skin at all. It does look a little ruddy muddy on my face as well, but I like it for not taking away attention from my eye or lip makeup. It pairs well with my favorite MAC lipstick in Taupe, or any of my red lipsticks (I don't really buy blue toned red often). I've since purchased Burberry's cameo, which has more of that pink toned nude effect that I've been looking for, and I've got MAC's blushbaby, Nars Douceur, Hourglass Mood Exposure too which are all very similar to be completely honest. (Blushbaby has more rosiness than Exposed; Mood Exposure is more luminous but look 95% the same as Exposed, Exposed has more beige undertone whereas Mood Exposure a mauve undertone; Douceur is the most cool toned, being a standard pink brown). Tarte exposed is more pigmented than Blushbaby and Douceur for me, and does last longer on my face too.
It's funny how I find this blush pigmented nowadays. When I first got this, it was very difficult to pick up any color. The texture is dry, and the pan is hard pressed, not to mention that it swatches horribly. I've played a lot with it at home, swatching hard and using different brushes, and I finally found a good use for my rather scratchy MAC 129 blush brush. Swirling quite a bit in the pan, the brush actually picks up a lot of powder, and ever since the tarte logo has disappeared a lot on the pan, it's significantly easier to pick up color with any brush now. It's easy to blend, with the MAC 129 (one of the merits of scratchier goat haired brushes, they are so capable of blending!). I actually have come to appreciate more these dryer and buildable blushes, so I quite like Tarte's exposed in terms of usage. The fact that it Is not powdery at all is also a plus. However, had I never tried to use a scratchy natural haired brush and didn't swatch and swatch until the logo came off, I would have never discovered what everyone else was talking about.