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A while back the folks at Tarte Cosmetics were kind enough to offer me a few shades of their Amazonian Clay Blushes as review samples. My blush drawers were already pretty full, but sadly lacking in Tarte so of course when they got here I ripped into that box like it was winter-gift-giving-holiday. You can never have too many shades of pink! I’m going to need another Muji case though.

Packaging

For the most part, I lovelovelove the compacts for these. They’re very slim, which is nice when you need to stuff just one more thing into a travel bag. A lot of Tarte products look very, um.. busy, what with all the frond patterns and faux-snakeskin print, but the blushes are a minimalist’s dream. Just smooth plastic with the brand type logo, nothing else (at least on the visible parts). Each compact is approximately the color of the blush inside so you don’t have to go hunting through all of them before you get the one you want.

Of course, for those who want to go even more minimal, Tarte has made these incredibly easy to de-pot. Super handy for a makeup artist on the go, I’m sure. They’re held in by a strong magnet, and the bottom side of the compact has a tiny hole (under the label) just below the hinge. Stick a pin through that and the blush pan pops right out! Obviously you want to do this over a table or something since I doubt it would survive a fall without the case. If you’re worried about the magnet not holding it in – don’t. I opened the case and tapped it upside-down into my hand trying to make it fall out, and I was not successful. The case closes securely too, so these things are going nowhere. In fact, the clasp of the case is the one thing I’m not crazy about on this packaging. It closes so tightly that it takes a bit of force to open, and the lip doesn’t have enough space under it for me to use my fingertips – I have to use my nails. I’ve been trying not to use my nails as a lever because they break if you look at them wrong, so I wish these were just a smidge easier to open up. Hopefully they’ll get a little bit looser over time.

Colors

I gave three shades a test run – Blissful, Peaceful and Tipsy (left to right in the top swatches). Blissful is a warm medium pink with a matte finish. Peaceful is a brown-based pink, with gold shimmers. Tipsy (such a cute name, and probably my favorite color of the three) is a very bright warm pink with slightly more reddish undertones than Blissful. It also has a matte finish. I like all the colors, but I have to say I’m not crazy about the shimmers in Peaceful. The shimmers are pretty fine, but not as evenly distributed as I’d like them to be.

Naturally I pulled out a few other blushes for comparison purposes:

NARS Deep Throat – Blissful is brighter and less orange-based, and Deep Throat has a shimmer finish.

Tom Ford Love Lust – Peaceful is more plummy, and has much less shimmer than Love Lust (which tbh is just a leetle too frosty for my taste).

Tom Ford Flush – These are actually pretty close. Tipsy is more red and warm, and of course Flush has shimmer and Tipsy is matte.

Application, texture & wear

Blissful

Peaceful

Tipsy

I see Tarte Amazonian Clay blushes recommended constantly on beauty forums, and with good reason. The color payoff is great, and they usually last a good 8 hours on me before they start fading. Not completely – they’re still there after a good 12 hours or so – but not quite as vibrant. Peaceful isn’t 100% flattering on me because the shimmer emphasizes and acne scars a little bit, but they all blend out evenly and easily. The powder is pretty tightly packed, so I’ve been opting for firmer cheek brushes – synthetic or white goat – instead of softer ones like squirrel. One word of advice on these though – try not to touch them with your hands, and don’t go too long without giving your brushes a bath. For whatever reason this particular formula has a tendency to soak up oil – great on the face, not so much in the pan. After a while they build up sort of a hard film on top (ewwww) that makes it basically impossible to pick up any color. I ended up having to scrape off a bit of Tipsy after I did finger swatches. Learn from my mistakes.

In Short: The texture can make application a little finicky but aside from that I’m really happy with them.

Tarte Amazonian Clay blush ($28/each) is available at sephora.com