Baby, It's Bold Outside....

I LOVE Sephora. I mean, really, really love it. I could walk around for hours. All the colors, the textures, smells. I love how the contrast of the white and black background of the actual store. Recently I received their winter campaign, A Beautiful Blizzard. I was spellbound. Such amazing imagery. Really gorgeous pictures of on-trend makeup looks for winter
Along with magazine and because I am considered a beauty insider,  I received a 20% coupon my entire purchase. 

So off to the mall I headed...unfortunately I did not have a lot of time to shop so I had to get right down to business. After picking a few Christmas gifts for family members I was off to pick up something for my growing collection. I have to tell you it was really hard to try and reign myself in. 

But I finally settled on a gift set from a brand that I have not used before. Tarte. I have heard some great things about them from some of my favorite Makeup Gurus on Youtube but have never tested the waters so to speak. 

The gift set I chose is called, Tarte ~ Carried Away Collectors Set. This set is amazing. I was shocked by how much product you are actually getting for the price. It's selling for $54.00, but with a retail value of $512. Yes, that would be $512.00. 

The kit is an all-inclusive set featuring six eye shadow quads, in both shimmering and matte formulas. Along with that there are eight maracuja lip glosses with a mix of neutral and stunning shades, ranging from pale petal pink to deep crimson. The kit also includes an Amazonian clay 12-hour blush and complementary domed brush, a finishing powder to balance skin, and dramatic mascara for voluptuous, attention-getting lashes.  Plus you get an adorable glimmering gold bag to carry all your treasures in.

I have played around with a few of the eye shadow colors and they are gorgeous. Very pigmented with a strong color payoff. The lip glosses are very sheer, with a slight minty smell to them, which I actually like. I tend to go for a more neutral or nude lip but even the crimson was very sheer and silky. The blush was amazing. As with the eye colors the color payoff is strong, so I would suggest using it sparingly and build the color up if you want something more dramatic.  The mascara was fabulous, I have long lashes but not very thick and this mascara gave my skinny  lashes some glorious volume. I would buy the mascara again all on it's own, I liked it that much! I am hoping to get some color swatches up soon, so check back later! 

All in all I am very happy with my first Tarte kit. Can't wait to try some more!!! 
 **A little fun fact that I saw on the website: Each purely pigmented shadow is named after a place on the map where members of the Tarte team have traveled. Love that!