Tarte Tartelette Toasted Eyeshadow Palette Review

Hello ladies,

Super excited to share another eyeshadow palette review with you. Life was so much easier when I wasn’t into eyeshadows. Temptation was restricted to lipsticks and costs were relatively down 😛 And then my world erupted with eyeshadows and though I absolutely love playing with colours, I really do wish I didn’t have to jump every time a new one landed on the scene! I have been wanting to try the Tarte Tartelette palettes for some time. I have a feeling that it is more for the packaging than the shadows themselves! Ok! Go ahead and judge me…if YOU haven’t ever fawned over the pretty packaging of a product before! Tarte, by the way, has a few different formulas and packaging in their kitty, which they use for different eyeshadow ranges within their line. So, apart from Tartelette, there is also the Pro formula (I reviewed the Pro to go eyeshadow palette earlier) and there is also the Rainforest of the Sea formula, which generally comes packaged in a circular compact. Apart from this, Tarte also keeps throwing almost random, limited edition palettes into the market from time to time. So, Tarte launched a new Tartelette palette recently. There was an existing Tartelette with all matte shades and the more popular Tartelette in Bloom palette. The trinity is completed with this new Tartelette Toasted palette. So, let us find out more about this newly-launched product.

Product Description:
A party-in-a-palette with 12, all-new, warm and cozy shades. 

What it does: 
This palette lets you mix and match 12 warm, rich eyeshadows. The seven wearable mattes and five lustrous shimmer shades are arranged in separate rows to make three easy-to-DIY looks. The super blendable Amazonian clay-infused powder formula glides on like a cream, providing long-wearing, intense payoff that’s never chalky or patchy. 

- Amazonian clay helps balance eyelids for longer wear—no primer necessary 
- Warm shades were developed and selected in response to fan demand 
- Creates unlimited, ultra-wearable looks 

Use your favorite shadow brush to create your own custom looks suited for any occasion. This palette includes a mix of liner, lid, and crease shades, plus a step-by-step tartelette guide for creating smoldering, versatile looks perfect for any celebration—big or small. 

This set contains: 
- 12 x 0.053 oz/ 1.5 g Eyeshadows in S’more (pinky beige), Sunrise (golden beige), Sunset (bronze), Crackle (brown with gold flecks), Cashmere (pale peach), Warmth (terracotta), Flame (metallic rust), Cozy (brick), Candle (champagne), Latte (tan), Simmer (copper), Fireside (deep plum) 

What it is formulated WITHOUT: 
- Parabens 
- Phthalates 

What else you need to know: 
This palette is ophthalmologist- and dermatologist-tested. It’s also safe for contact lens wearers.

How To Use:
Suggested Usage: 
-Use your favorite shadow brush to create your own custom-blended, bold or more subtle looks suited to any occasion. 
-This palette includes a mix of liner, lid, and crease shadow shades and a step-by-step tartelette guide for creating smoldering, versatile looks perfect for any celebration—big or small.
Price:
USD 46

Packaging:
The packaging of the palette is no short of stunning!! A chunk of the $46 is going towards this, I am sure! I bought this product kind of online. However, I am sure a lot of the palettes would have flown off the shelf just because people stopped by the Tarte counter and picked this up to see and then couldn’t resist buying it. And I guess that is the whole purpose of the packaging here. The sad bit is that sometimes companies get so carried away with the packaging that bulk of the money goes into it, rather than the quality of the product itself.

The product consists of a metallic gold case. It has good weight to it and feels luxurious. It would make a great gift item for the Holiday season – by the look of it. The palette has a full size (full size of the palette) mirror and 12 eyeshadows. Each eyeshadow has the brand name embossed in it. There is no brush/applicator. The palette has shade names of the individual shadows mentioned underneath the shadow itself. It comes with a coordinated cardboard exterior box which has the ingredients listed on it in detail.

My Experience with Tarte Tartelette Toasted Eyeshadow Palette:

The palette was released sometime last month. It is a warm neutral palette which seem to be doing rounds nowadays (think Viseart Warm Mattes Palette, Urban Decay Naked Heat Palette, the Too Faced Peaches and Cream Eyeshadow palette and the Dose of Colors Colours Sassy Sienna Palette. While Viseart, Dose of Colours and the Too Faced palettes are fully matte, Urban Decay and this Tarte one have a variety of finishes to allow you to do a complete look. So, these palettes basically provide you with a warmer option to the regular safe, neutral palettes.

The Tartelette Toasted palette consists of 12 eyeshadows arranged in 3 rows. The way the palette is supposed to work is that you can create a whole look with any one full row. Tarte has shared a single sheet look guide to enable someone who is new to it, to be able to create a cohesive look. I generally do not follow such guides and prefer to just dive in.

I received this palette last week and have used it about 4 times since then – creating a few different looks. Before we get into them, Let us find out about the individual shades in the palette. We will take them up row-wise.

Top Row:
S’more: Described by the brand as a Pinky Beige color. This is a light warm beige shade in matte finish. The texture is buttery smooth and very finely milled. It works well as a matte highlight shade or to set the primer with it. It is a bit powdery – but not chalky. It has good pigmentation.
Sunrise: Described by the brand as a Golden Beige color. It is a light, slightly yellow-toned beige with a pearly finish. It too is smooth and creamy. However, it is not as pigmented as I would want it to be. Being the lightest shimmer shade, while it works well for highlighting the brow bone, it doesn’t really make the inner corner of the eye pop unless it is built up.
Sunset: Described by the brand as a bronze color. This is a medium golden copper shade with a metallic sheen. It is smooth and creamy with good pigmentation. Works very well all over the lid with a darker shade in the crease/outer V or both.
Crackle: Described by the brand as a brown with gold flecks. This is a deep, warm toned brown in matte finish with flecks of gold sparkle lightly suspended in it. I was skeptical about using this because I thought the matte base would be stiff and create fallout. I was pleasantly surprised. The matte shade is quite smooth and very pigmented. However, the sparkle is lightly held by the base shade. So, if you want the shadow to show true – deep matte base with sparkles – you will need to pat it on a tacky base. If you use it and start blending it, the sparkles will just fall off and you will be left with just a matte shade.

Middle Row:
Cashmere: Described by the brand as a Pale Peach. My most used shade – so much so that the brand name has disappeared from the shadow altogether. This is a light to medium, soft peach shade with warm undertones and a matte finish. The shade is soft and smooth but incredibly powdery. So, not only is this the most used shade – being perfect for transition – the fact that it is too powdery will make me hit pan on this way sooner than any other shadow in the palette. It has decent pigmentation. It can sheer out easily which is counter-productive if you are using it on the lid – but great if you are using it as a transition shade.
Warmth: Described by the brand as a terracotta. The shade of the hour (if not the year) – a medium, warm-toned, burnt orange shade – but kind of muted, instead of being bright. It had good pigmentation but was again powdery – though not as bad as Cashmere. The texture itself is quite smooth and easy to work with.
Flame: Described by the brand as a metallic rust. This is a medium, warm, bronze shade with a metallic sheen. It has a smooth texture and excellent pigmentation without feeling dense. Quite easy to work with.
Cozy: Described by the brand as a Brick. A medium to dark, red toned brown shade with a matte finish. It has a smooth and creamy texture but is powdery. The pigmentation is good and is easy to build up or blend out.

Bottom Row:
Candle: Described by the brand as a Champagne. This is a light champagne gold with a frosted finish. It feels loosely pressed in the pan – almost like a pressed pigment. Unless used with a tacky base – this tends not to adhere well to the skin and creates fall-out.
Latte: Described by the brand as a Tan. This is a light to medium brown with warm golden undertones and a matte finish. It is quite powdery – like Cashmere. It has good pigmentation. It can sheer out easily which is counter-productive if you are using it on the id – but great if you are using it as a transition shade.
Simmer: Described by the brand as a Copper. This is a medium, warm copper with a metallic sheen. It is smooth and has good pigmentation. The shade is so similar to the shade Sunset – it makes me wonder why there wasn’t a bit more variation between these two – to allow for a more varied eye look.
Fireside: Described by the brand as a Deep Plum. I don’t know how it seems plum to Tarte. The deepest shade in the palette. This is a dark, deep, dirty brown shade with a matte finish. It has good pigmentation and works very well to deepen the eye look or even as an eyeliner.

Texture: I have discussed the texture of each shade individually. All the shades seemed smooth and buttery. The mattes are quite powdery – some more than the others. Also, some shades can sheer out more easily when trying to blend. Having said that, most of the shades are extremely easy to work with. They apply smoothly and blend out easily onto the skin.

The shimmer shades fall into 5 categories – 3 are smooth and easy to work with – Sunset, Flame and Simmer. The shade “Sunrise” has a more pearly finish than metallic. Crackle works more as a matte with flecks of gold than an actual shimmer shade. And lastly, Candle which is a loosely packed shadow (in the pan) – works more as a pressed pigment and will definitely need a glitter glue / tacky base to work well. I did not find the shimmer shades too dense. They were easy to use with a brush (except candle) and did not necessarily NEED to be applied with fingers.

Pigmentation:
Pigmentation for most shades is really good. Two shades, Cashmere and Latet – part from being quite powdery, also sheer out quite easily which becomes a bit painful when being used on the lid, but work well when being used as a transition shade. Having said that, I am not sure that it is a miss from the lab/manufacturing perspective or it is by design. Meaning, are the shades low in pigmentation and easy to sheer out by accident or on purpose. Because the shades which have this concern have more than one use in the palette and the fact that they can sheer out actually works well for the palette. The shades blend well and mesh well with the other eye shadows without getting muddy, but it isn’t as effortless as say, the shadows from Natasha Denona or Viseart.

Staying Power:
I apply eyeshadows with a primer because my lids are way too oily. These shadows lasted a good 8-9 hours with primer. Without primer, my eyelids turn everything to mush. It would be especially bad for these shades coz of the softness of texture of these shadows.

I have shared 3 looks with this palette:

Look 1 – This is the first look that I tried with the palette. Needless to say, it is full on warm shades from the palette – it’s all about the burnt orange and metallic bronze.

Look 2 – This took a lot of effort in refraining to not go too warm. Also, it required a lot of blending. I tried to show the diversity in the palette by going more golden copper than warm rusty.

Look 3 – This is a smokey eye look created using the palette. Do note that I have used a black pencil liner as base for this look – to create depth in colour.

Pros of Tarte Tartelette Toasted Eyeshadow Palette:

• An interesting array of shades – while not earth shattering, but easy to wear.
• A twist on the neutral palettes – a warmer one.
• A cohesive palette with a mix of light to medium to dark shades and some pops of shimmer.
• A variety of textures to create a full look and a variety of looks.
• Most shades have decent to good pigmentation and are easy to build up.
• Smooth, creamy texture.
• Good wear time (with primer).
• Not creasing (over a primer).
• Do not transfer.
• The colours blend easily and mesh very well together – without getting muddy. Though not as easily as say, the shadows from Natasha Denona, but you get the gist.
• Does not irritate eyes.
• Goregous luxe packaging.
• Travel friendly.

Cons of Tarte Tartelette Toasted Eyeshadow Palette:

• Matte shades are fairly powdery.
• Needed a bit of variation in tone with regards to the shimmer shades. Out of the 3 main shimmer shades, two are variations of copper. Could have done with a more rust toned shimmer or a even a slightly plum-my one.
• A couple of shades are low on pigmentation, but like I said, this may be by design because they do serve more than one purpose in the palette.

IMBB Rating:
3.8/5

Overall, I think it is a nice palette and will get a lot of usage – if not anything else because of its packaging which is stunning. Does that statement confuse you? It’s actually quite a natural human behavior. We are visual creatures. If I was likely to use a warm palette for a look, I am quite likely to reach for this over another neutral palette just because it’s pretty to look at and hold! Anyway.

Do you need this palette? If you like neutral looks and have loads of neutral palettes, go ahead and skip this. However, if you use only neutrals and are looking for something more varied – this warm take on a neutral palette may just be your jam. It isn’t a must-have palette, but if you do buy it, you will quite enjoy it.

You have to keep in mind that this is not a universally-usable palette. Women with deeper skin tones may find the shade variation not working for them. I think this is more suitable for light to medium complexions, even tan skin, but anyone deeper, should skip this.

Lastly, if you are sitting on the fence between this palette and the Urban Decay Naked Heat palette… my 2 cents. I of course cannot comment on the formula of the Urban Decay Naked Heat palette since I don’t own it and have only seen it in store (Duty Free). The Naked Heat looks so beautiful with the kind of shades I love. However, the reason why I did not pick up the Naked Heat palette was simply because it has too many medium-toned shades with very little difference in colour. So, while one may look more peachy and the other shade may look a bit more terracotta, once applied to the eye and blended out – the kind of vibe the eye look will give you is going to be incredibly similar. So, in effect, you will end up creating similar looks from the 12 shades of Naked Heat that you could do with 5 shades of Sassy Sienna from Dose of Colours. Know what I mean? Don’t get me wrong, I know the UD Naked Heat is a much-loved palette within the beauty community – this is just my take on it and my reason to not buy it.

Yes, I do recommend Tarte Tartelette Toasted Palette!

Tarte Tartelette Amazonian Clay Matte Palette
Tarte Tartelette in Bloom Amazonian Clay Palette
Tarte tarteist Pro To Go Palette
Tarte Tarteist Pro Amazonian Clay Palette
Black Radiance Toasted Almond Artisan Color Baked Blush
Sugar Cosmetics Blend The Rules Eyeshadow Palette 01 Vogue, 02 FireWork Photos, Swatches
Natasha Denona Sunset Eyeshadow Palette
Kiko Milano Eyeshadow Palette 01 Earth Song
Zoeva Matte Eyeshadow Palette