Tarte: Tarteist Contour Palette

So this guy right here is the Tarte Tarteist Contour Palette. It just released a few days ago and it's gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. The packaging is just so luxurious. This is $45 at Sephora and it's available to VIB Rouge and VIB members only right now, so it shouldn't be much longer before it's available for everyone. The price is higher than the Anastasia Beverly Hills palette ($40) and a dollar less than Kat Von D, it's far less than the Kevyn Aucoin contour kit, it's about the same or exactly the same as the Smashbox step by step, Cover FX cream contour kit, and Smash Box contour sticks.

On first swatch and glance it's insane. The powders are very light weight and silky. It's not like a butter/creamy texture where there's oil in the product to make it almost cream and thicker application, it's definitely powder. That being said, it's not chalky it's very pigmented. One swipe and it was incredibly pigmented. So I really like that aspect of it. Sometimes when they're super pigmented but butter like texture they can get patchy on the skin, this does a very good job at blending. The only shade that didn't do much for me was the center shimmer highlight shade (Glow). It's nearly solid white and it just doesn't show up on my skin, not even as a sheen to the skin. I will say it reminds me a lot of MAC Emphasize which is a pro highlight shade with subtle sheen to it. This is very similar in tone if not exact same color, it just has a bit more shimmer. It swatched alright, so I was surprised that it didn't at least give a soft glow but I believe it's just too light and subtle to even do that. The blush shade is a medium toned matte rosey pink. I actually thought it was going to be darker but it's just a good solid rosey shade that anyone can wear. I can see why they chose that. The yellow shade, which is the "correct" (2) shade, is a little bit darker yellow than say ABH Banana highlight. I say that because once I used it to set my under eye area it seemed to get a little darker, I think it oxidized just a touch. It's still very nice, I mixed it with the 1st shade (highlight) and it still worked well just not as bright as what I normally do. I actually prefer the the 1st shade by itself to set the under eye area. The contour shades 3 and 4 are both very nice. I actually liked 3 a lot. It's very golden, it worked great at contouring but also mimicking a tan as well, 4 worked great for a more dramatic contour. They both blended beautifully. So definitely loved the contour shades the most.

This is the swatches. It's just one swipe. From top to bottom:

Glow (subtle shimmer highlight)
Highlight (matte ivory)
Correct (matte yellow correcting powder)
Contour Soft shade 3 (for light to medium skin tones)
Contour Deep shade 4 (for medium to dark skin tones)
​Accentuate (Rosey Blush)

I used the palette on my entire face on this look above. I used every color. The deepest contour shade is at the top of the ear and about an inch down over top of the 1st contour shade that I used to contour like normal. I used the lighter contour also on top of the forehead. I used the blush as well. I will say I didn't use these like they were numbered. If that was supposed to be numbered for steps to go by then I totally did not do that. I used both highlights to set the under eye, then I used the shimmer highlight first thinking it would be a bit more pigmented, then I used the blush, and followed it with Contour Soft and Contour Deep. Tomorrow I will probably use the shimmer highlight last to see if it makes any difference but I don't think it's going to. None the less this is a good palette, I think it's easier to work with than the ABH and honestly Kat Von D. Kat Von D Contour kit is still my favorite because it's the best color selection and pay off. This is great for beginners though, since it has a blush, only 2 contour shades and a very very subtle shimmer highlight as well as just two matte highlights. So if you're intimidated by contour palettes check this out. You can return it if you don't like it, Sephora is very good about that. There is also a double sided brush available to buy separately for this palette. I don't think it's necessary, but their brushes are supposed to be very good so if you don't have brushes for highlight and contouring I might would look into that as well.