By
Jill Oliver-Fox
Monday, November 02, 2015
2015,
amazonian butter lipstick,
holiday,
holiday set,
lip butters,
review,
sephora,
set,
swatch,
taste
It seems ever year I fall victim to purchasing at waste one holiday set from Tarte. Which I cannot say is a bad thing since I've honestly loved each one of the sets that I've gotten over those years. This year I picked up the
Deluxe Amazonian Butter Lipstick Set which is a mini lip set that is frankly really nice.
You get 4 of Tarte's Amazonian lip butters in a mini format for only $25 Canadian. A full sized is 0.1 oz and cost $20 while this set has 4 minis that are 0.035 oz, making it decent value, but certainly not anything spectacular. It does get you 4 lipsticks to try, so that's a good thing. They also all have adorable drink names, which is kind of cute.
First of these are sheer and supposedly hydrating, hence the lip butters and not lipstick claim. I don't find them super hydrating, or even as hydrating as many other lip butters, but I think they pack a pretty good hydration for you lips punch, certainly better than most glosses or lipsticks they are on the sheer side.
The packaging is made of paper, which is honestly kind of neat. They are also pretty tiny in the inside, so you might need to be careful you don't break them when using them .Yep they are a mini for sure.
As you can see by the swatches on my arm, 3 of the colours are very similar, which sangria popping out with a deeper and more red colour. On my lips most of those difference go away, punk, mimosa and bellini are almost identical on my lips. Sangria still stands out which is definitely nice.
Overall I like this set, it is giving me a good change to try out some of Tarte's butter lipsticks without shelling out all the cash. I do think for the size and price difference you might be better off just getting one that you really like since there isn't too much colour nations in this kit. That being said, I like mini's and just trying out new brands, and a set like this works well for me.
If you're interested in this set, I recommend checking out Sephora some time soon, before it sells out.
By
Jill Oliver-Fox
Thursday, November 20, 2014
2014,
away oui go,
eyshadow,
lipgloss,
neutral,
review,
swatch,
taste,
travel
I picked up this Ulta Exclusive palette during my recent cross border haul.
It has 3 glosses, a mini mascara, 16 eyeshadows and 4 blushes. It comes in an interesting travel case that lets you pop out a quarter out of the box so you can take it with you.
Essentially it has 4 shadows and blush per quarter. Some are quite shimmery and some quite matte. They can work together quite well within our outside its quarter.
There are three Lipsurgence lip glosses that have names of french cities. I was actually quite impressed with how opaque they were compared to the Maraca glosses I got a few years back in the
Carried Away Set.
 |
| Left to right: Paris, Cannes, Nice. |
On to the meat of the set, the shadow and blushes.
 |
left to right:
Private Chateau, cafe for creme brule, tea for two, marvel at the Mona Lisa,
macarons for you, champagne and chocolat, kisses under the Arc, art in Montmartre and envisioned. |
 |
Left to right:
snow angels in the parc, navigating the Metro, might night stroll, liaison at the Louvre, intrigue,
Champs-Elysées shopping, stargazing on the Seine, Eiffel Tower engagement, secret soiree and limitless |
Ok, so other than the mini mascara that is the whole set. Below is a quarter in the travel case.
Pros:
- Nice, nice set
- Cute French names
- Great pay off on the colours
- opaque lip glosses
- great for travel
- great selection of mattes too
- cute quilted case
Cons:
- only at Ulta in the USA (feeling the French names are lost on having it in the USA only, just watch one youtube video of people saying nice instead of Nice or Oui all strange)
- The box it is housed in is large
- impossible to pop the quilted case out using the ribbon, you have to pop it out of the plastic which damages it
- No bright shades, pretty much all neutral
Overall:
I really like the shadows and glosses! Really! I wish this was available in Canada, I really do. I love the range of textures and shades in this neutral set. I do not like the bulky packaging, where am I going to keep this? I guess the box looks nice on someones dresser but the gold detail is already wearing off the bottom. As well the caring case just won't pop out using the ribbon, nor the lip glosses leading me to question how long it will last and where I will house them.
But once again I really like this set.
