Tarte Tarteist Contour Palette Review

Price: SGD 69 / US$ 45 from Sephora

I was so excited to get the palette when I saw it on social media. The palette looked beautiful! Love the shiny gold packaging, with 6 shades in circular layout, gorgeous!

It has 2 setting powders, 2 contour shades, 1 blush & 1 highlight shade. Seems perfect!





Here's a breakdown:

• The first 2 shades are setting powders (well, to me at least). They are matte & are what Tarte calls a Highlight shade - light skintone, & Correct - yellow or banana shade.  They are too sheer to hightlight or correct. I use them on each side of my face and i cannot see any difference.  They are fine as setting powders for light to medium skintones.
  
• Shade 3 & 4 are contour shades. They are completely matte & neutral toned, not too warm nor too cool. They will work for most skintones. I'm NC25 and I only use the lighter contour shade. The darker contour shade can be mixed with the the lighter shade to customize whats right for you. Between the two, they can cater to a very wide range of skintones. I really like the contour shade because it looks very natural.
•  Shade 5 is a matte dusty pink blush for light to medium skintones.
• Shade 6 is a very sheer white powder with extremely fine shimmers. It is a subtle highlight for light to light medium skintone. It will work as a beautiful but subtle eyeshadow as well. Because its very sheer, you will need to pack it on to be more visible. And because its white with silver shimmers, it can look angelic and very beautiful. Many people has commented they do not like this shade and I know where they are coming from. Its nothing like the popular highlight shades ie. Becca where you can achieve a noticeable glow. This is very subtle in comparison.

PRO

• Large mirror that opens 180 degrees, so useful. I really don't like compacts that opens just 90 degrees. I hate having to angle it so that i can see the mirror instead of the way I'm used to
• Love the round layout, its so beautiful
• Contour shades are matte, neutral toned and can work for most skintones
• Smells lightly chocolatey

CON

• There isn't a noticeable difference between shade 1 & 2, they could do away with one of them
• The blush shade is fine but I wish its much nicer. How about a shade similar to expose and another brighter shade like blissful
• I wish it includes an actual highlight shade like Stila Kitten
• The powders don't feel buttery and soft, but they are finey milled and not too bad
• This palette will not work for dark skintones so i'm not sure why they include shade 4, the darker contourshade. Its so dark, it would look pretty unnatural for light to medium skintones. A little can ony be used to mix with the lighter contour shade to beef it up.
• I wish the front of the compact is a shiny metalic like the back and sides. I don't like how it looks.
• The surface of the pans get scratched extremely easily. You can see from the pictures, those are not powder marks. I tried cleaning them but they are actually tiny scratches and can't be removed.

There you go. It may not be a fantastic palette but its pretty comprehensive. I have powder, contour and blush in one.