Oh man… Tarte Amazonian Clay Blushes… you have stolen my heart over and over again over the years. In my whole collection, Tarte blushes are the ones that are definitely the most numerous – be it in singular format, or in palettes – I’ve got a lot of them!

I really feel like Tarte‘s blushes are the original powerhouse behind the brand. In my mind, they’re the real reason the brand started to get more and more recognition about eight or so years ago. Everyone was picking up these blushes, and with good reason – they are LOVELY!

The Amazonian Clay Blushes have gone through a little bit of repackaging over the years I’ve been  snatching them up. They used to come with a little swirl pattern around the logo (which I preferred), but in more recent years they’ve removed the flower swirl and put only their logo on the front of the compact.

I also love that you can pop out each pan from their compact! And this isn’t a new feature either – the shot above of is of my oldest Tarte blush (Blissful) and I think it’s about 7 years old! This is fantastic for people who like to depot their blushes – you won’t have to deal with breaking up the glue to remove the pan and risk smashing your powder.

My single pan compacts get a lot of love from me. Blissful was the first shade I ever owned (my husband bought it for me for Christmas one year), and I just fell head over heels after that. Exposed is clearly my most used (that’s the one with the pan showing!) – it’s the most boring shade in the pan, but holy smokes does it ever look gorgeous on the cheeks! It absolutely transforms my face! Natural Beauty (the red) is a shade I go back to all the time for that “come in from the cold” look that I’m fond of in the winter (plus it works GREAT for any red lipstick or red eyeshadow look I put together!).

Heavily swatched, the Tarte Blushes are full of pigment and colour, but don’t worry, they blend out easily. One thing worth mentioning is that I do find the product to be a bit stiff in the pan. While they do bush out nicely, you need a solid brush to pick up the colour. I find that most “typical” blush brushes don’t work very well, so I prefer to use a short duo fiber brush like the MAC 130 to work the blush into my cheeks.

I never picked up the Pin Up Girl Palette, but a lovely reader of mine (hi Tanya!) sent this holiday launch to me a few years back when she realized how much I loved Tarte blushes!

What I love about this particular palette is that the breadth of colours was extensive – it pretty much runs the gamut from nude through to mauve. I was incredibly impressed with the variety – this is what I love to see in a blush palettes! I want wildly different colours, not iterations of the same colour over and over again.

I’ve saved the best for last – Tarte‘s Off The Cuff palette from Holiday 2013. This palette is a mainstay in my travel makeup bag – I take it practically everywhere with me because the blush colours are (once again) extremely varied, AND it has a bronzer in it! I wish more blush/face palettes were like this one – give me a bronzer and/or highlighter alongside the blushes please!

Crave is easily my favourite shade in the palette as it’s a bright coral, but I’ve also fallen really hard for Dollface. Dollface is one of those shades, much like Exposed, that everyone used to talk about. For me, it’s not a shade I’m drawn to because it’s a cool-toned baby pink and to me that shade is too “girly” for my liking. Well low and behold it’s hands down one of the most flattering shades I own!

Final Thoughts

I freaking LOVE Tarte‘s blushes! While I don’t find myself snatching up all of the latest colours or palettes in more recent years, it’s because I’ve already got such a huge array of shades in my collection via singles and palettes. Exposed and Blissful are my absolute favourite shades, and thankfully they’re both still available (a few of the shades mentioned in this post have been discontinued over the years). And the fact that I actually hit pan on a blush? Well that speaks volumes I think! (It’s literally the first and ONLY blush I’ve ever hit pan on!)  My only regret? I never got the shade Tipsy while it was available – it will forever be the one that got away!

Tarte Amazonian Clay Blushes can be purchased on sephora.ca for $38 CAD each or on sephora.com for $29 USD each.

The blush "Sensual" was sent to me for consideration, a reader sent me the Pin Up Girl palette and everything else was purchased by me. Post contains affiliate links.

Sometime last year tarte released their Chrome Paint Shadow Pots and I was instantly smitten with the shade Fire Dancer (that deep metallic burgundy-red you see on the left). That shade in particular was so intriguing to me – in the pot it looked more pink than red (which isn’t my style), but in swatches it was this molten fiery lava shade that just set my heart on fire!

So when I received a package of these Chrome Paint Shadow Pots to try out, I was over the moon! And then also… suddenly nervous. While I do use pigments from time to time, they’re not generally my favourite kind of eyeshadow because my god are they ever messy. These Chrome Paints are no exception, but once you see how the colours play out, you may want to dive in headfirst and play around with them too!

Each pot contains 3 grams (0.11 ounces) of product – which is roughly double what you would expect to get in a traditional pressed eyeshadow pan. I’m glad there’s so much product in there, because the price point is a bit up there  ($27 CAD/$22 USD) for a single shadow. That being said, you’re getting a heck of a foiled eyeshadow pigment out of these… just check out the swatches!

These were swatched (as per usual) with a cotton bud, but the brand does indicate these work best with your fingertip in order to melt the product into your skin. I didn’t read that tidbit until after I’d swatched them, but I can confirm that using something to “melt/crush” the product (so to speak) works a lot better than something dry. If you apply them dry, you end up with a few chunks (as you can see above) that need a bit of smoothing out. For all the eye looks you’ll see below, I ended up wetting my brush before applying the shadow to my lids and I found that worked very, very well in order to smooth out the pigment. That being said, these are metallic right out of the gates and don’t necessarily need the extra oomph from a wet brush.

For this look I opted for Park Ave Princess on the lid with Top Yacht on the inner corner. Top Yacht is unbelievably reflective. I could probably also use it as a cheek highlight because the reflection is incredible!

Closed eye shot with the same colours as above so you can see the texture a bit better. It’s quite foiled (and my eyelids are a touch crinkly) but overall it’s quite a smooth application with a wet brush.

The next look involves Martini all over the lid with Steel The Show on the outer corner and through the crease. I thought Steel The Show would be more grey overall, but it’s got a beautiful grey cast to it. Martini is one of those darker golden-olive shades – wonderful as a lid shade.

And my favourite? No surprise here, but it’s Fire Dancer (I even love the name!). This colour is basically all of my makeup hopes and dreams rolled into one fiery shade of wonder. This colour is EVERYTHING to me! It’s the only colour I used all over my lid, crease and lower lash line (I have a glitter on the inner corner) and the end result is breathtaking. If there’s one shade I’d urge you to pick up the most in this collection – it’s this one!

Final Thoughts

The tarte Chrome Paint Shadow Pots are definitely a bit messy, and slightly finicky but oh-so-worth it. (To cause the least amount of mess, I’d scoop my brush into the product and plop it into the lid, wet my brush, then smush the shadow into the lid of the product and apply it directly to my lid.)

Each colour is beautifully pigmented and has a beautiful foiled/metallic finish. While most of the shades are fairly neutral, the ones that stood out to me the most were definitely Fire Dancer and Pot of Gold. I experienced no creasing after 12+ hours of wear on all shades and each of them had solid opacity on the lid and didn’t require constant layering. These are a definite winner!

The tarte Chrome Paint Shadow Pots can be purchased at sephora.ca for $27 CAD each or on sephora.com for $22 USD.

The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.