I’ve been wanting one of the Tarte round shadow palette for more than a year. The round shape really appeals to me. Every time Tarte has a sale I look at them, but up till recently I haven’t taken the plunge. The previous round palettes are great, but I already had similar shades.
But when I saw the limited edition unicorn-inspired Make Believe In Yourself Eye & Cheek palette, I was smitten.
The shades are so pretty. The palettes are a mix of shades that I don’t already own – well, maybe I have a couple of shades that are similar. But as a whole, this is different…for me. For one thing, all but one shade are shimmers. I have never knowingly purchased an almost all shimmer palette. Plus, it also comes with a highlighter in the center of the palette.
I had heard mixed reviews on this palette, but between the beautiful spring-like shimmer shades and the 30% off sale on Tarte’s website, I took the plunge.
Now that I own it, I do love the round palette shape just because it’s different. I like the collage of cheerful colors in the design on the top of the palette. But it’s not really a travel friendly palette IMHO because it’s rather big and bulky. It’s not a stand alone palette – unless you always wear shimmers.
I especially adore the look of the palette when you open it up. It has a big magnifying mirror that is terrific. To the best of my knowledge, I’ve never owned a palette that came with a magnifying mirror. Cool.
The shadow shades look so pretty in the palette, I almost hated to disturb them. As I said above, they look like spring. There are 9 shimmers, 1 matte and a white highlighter.
The names alone are enchanting. Here are Tarte’s color descriptions:
- Pixie: golden pink
- Myth: matte nude
- Magic: bronze
- Wings: copper
- Marvel: metallic sage
- Trance: taupe slate
- Fairy: metallic lavender
- Mystic: blue pearl
- Dream: turquoise
- Crystal: iridescent champagne
- Believe (highlighter): pearl highlight.
These are my descriptions below. I don’t always agree with Tarte, I’m afraid, on what the shades look like!
- Pixie: rose gold shimmer – though a lovely shade, it is unfortunately not pigmented enough for use alone as a shadow because on its own it’s very hard to see. However, on top of a matte shadow, it gives a beautiful sheen. It’s also a nice highlighter or blush topper.
- Myth: pinky/brown matte – a versatile shade for me for my crease or V or to tone down the shimmer of some of the other shades
- Magic: copper/brown shimmer
- Wings: a coppery but also deep rose pink shimmer (in the photo, this looks brownish but it isn’t)
- Marvel: green/gold shimmer that reads bronze IMO
- Trance: taupe shimmer
- Fairy: deep purple shimmer
- Mystic: grey/green shimmer
- Dream: aqua shimmer
- Crystal: pale mauve/gold shimmer that looks mostly gold
Believe, the white highlighter is good for the inner corner, under the brow or to lighten any of the deeper shades.
I ran out of arm real estate for all the shades, but here they are:
I swatched the shades over Urban Decay Anti-aging Primer. I always use eye primer, but I believe you must apply these shadows over primer to get them to show up (though pixie and crystal still don’t show up that well). Even over primer, I have to pack the shadow on the brush. For most of the swatches, you can see the shades pretty well, but I had to go over the swatch at least two or three times to get good pigmentation. There’s no fallout that I experienced, and they’re easy to blend. Over primer, the shades once I packed them on stay on for hours and hours till I remove them.
Today, two of my friends from the neighborhood took me out for a fabulous and deluxe belated birthday lunch (we had lobster rolls!), so I put on some makeup. I applied Crystal over primer, and it look too gold and shimmery for the casual restaurant we were going to. Plus my friends don’t usually wear makeup so I didn’t want to be a walking bling fest. So I applied the matte Myth over Crystal, and I liked the more subtle way it looked. In fact, I have used Myth either under or over several of the shimmer shades.
Although Tarte Make Believe In Yourself Eye & Cheek Palette isn’t a “must have” palette and it’s not perfect, I’m still glad I bought it. The regular price is $40, 1.1 g / 0.038 Oz. x 10 eyeshadows, 3 g / 0.105 Oz. highlight. Cruelty-free.
Did you pick up this palette or pass on it? What do you think of these shades?
I love the look that you did! Really makes your eyes shine. I think the palette as a whole is a little too shimmery for me. I know I would use one or two of the shades….. and the rest would just sit there. I also like these round palettes. I bought a fall one a couple of years ago. I love the substantial feel of them.
I definitely understand how you feel about this one, Dawn. If it hadn’t been for the 30% off sale and the fact that I don’t own a round palette, I would have passed on it, too. But I’m surprised that so far, I’ve used all the shades except for Dream (aqua), but most times I use them for a pop of shimmer in the center of my lid along with mattes. Yesterday I didn’t want a too colorful and shimmery look so I used Crystal across my entire lid but toned it down with Myth, the matte shade, and I really like how it looked – bright, light and spring-like. Thank you for taking the time to weigh in on this one!
I have been looking at these round Tarte palettes too……but just not sure the shades would work for me. I feel at my age they are too dark.
That’s an interesting POV, Sandy. From the swatches, I can see how you would think they look dark. I took the photos of most of the swatches during the later afternoon in natural light (I forgot the other two and did them at night under a lamp), but it was gloomy and some of the shades do indeed look dark. But the vast majority of them are light or mid-range shades. The way I use them most of the time is for a pop of shimmer and/or color in the middle of my lid along with matte shades in the crease and V to make them more age-appropriate for me. I don’t think I’ll be using Dream, the aqua shade too much but who knows – I have a lot of aqua summer clothes and maybe I can make it work. This is definitely a polarizing palette aimed at young women. I just couldn’t resist with the sale!
Thanks Allison. May have to run up to Ulta and take a look at this Palette!
Definitely fun to look at if you’re at Ulta! Not a traditionally well balanced palette, but a fun addition for those of us like me who tend to go matte most of the time.
Happy belated birthday Allison! I hope you had a wonderful birthday. Thanks for the in depth review of the Tarte palette. I personally won’t purchase as there are too many colors I won’t use but do enjoy your reviews!
Thank you, Sandra! We had a lovely lunch yesterday. My actual birthday was on Easter Sunday and Passover so it too second place on the actual day 🙂 I knew that the Tarte palette was not for everyone – not sure it’s even for me! But with the discount and wearing it most often for a pop of color and shimmer in the mid lid along with mattes, I hope I’ll use it enough to justify the purchase
Allison you look MARVELOUS! Tarte is one of my favorite brands. I love and use their eyebrow gel. Also I love their Maracuja Oil. It was on the map way before face oils were popular. I have it in travel size rollerballs containers. So nice. I think this eyeshadow palette is so nice. I don’t do “shimmer” though. I give my granddaughters a “make-up” goodie bag for Christmas each year. New make-up and new make-up bags. They love it and look forward to it every year. So fun to see what new things they will get. Tarte and iT are their favorites. I just bought Two Face Natural Mattes palette. Enjoy your day……🙋🏻🌻🌷❤️
Thank you so much, DiEtta! I agree with you about Tarte. Lovely brand and products! Too Faced Natural Mattes palette is a wonderful palette. In fact, I need to dig mine out, and keep it handy to use along with the Tarte shimmer palette to tone it down. I hope you enjoy the TF palette xoxo
This palette needs a couple more matte shades and then it would have been a really well balanced palette. I love your eye makeup, Allison, so fresh and Spring like!
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Thank you! Definitely not a well-balanced palette as you said, Shireen. It was unicorn inspired and meant to be just about all pretty bling. I’m grateful they put n the one matte so I don’t have to always go digging, but it is a good complement to my Tarte Mattelicious Palette.
Those eyeshadows are all gorgeous! Usually, the Tarte eye palettes come out with 50 shades of brown. Good to see some variety in this one.
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I got this palette when it first came out, and I’m utterly in love with it, though I do think one more matte, a cool-toned one, would have done wonders for making this palette more useful on it’s own. I don’t mind bringing in one of my Tartelette palettes, or the Urban Decay Naked Ultimate Basics, to help it out when necessary.
I have the first Rainforest of the Sea palette, too, and I use it all the time. This from someone who’s not a huge neutrals fan. I think it’s my favorite neutral palette of all time next to the MUFE Artist Palette Vol. I, and I didn’t think I’d ever say anything could come close to MUFE.
I agree with you, Rachel. Another matte would have made it perfect to use on its own. I’ve been bringing in the Tarte Mattelicious palette and Viseart Neutral palette, though I must admit out of laziness, I often make do with Myth and some ColourPop neutral mattes that I usually keep on my vanity. I looked at Rainforest of the Sea and I thought it was wonderful, but it was a little to close to shades I own whereas this one is totally different for me. I’m a big fan of MUFE but I am admitting I have never tried their shadows. I will look at the MUFE Artist Palettes next trip to Ulta or Sephora. Thanks for this tip. Hope you’re doing OK
MUFE’s are the best shadows I’ve ever used, but they’re spendy, so the Artist Palettes are a great deal.
I’m doing OK. I’ve updated my FB the last couple of days. Stuff going on at home, plus I’ve been ill this week, but things are starting to look up again. Thank you for your well wishes. <3
Fingers crossed that you’ll be on the upswing xo
I need this palette!! I love all the colors!!
You do!! It’s so pretty!
I find Tarte to be so hit or miss. I loved the first Rainforest round palette so I quickly bought the second when it came out and it’s such a disappointment. I’ve been eyeing this one but I know I don’t need it.
This palette was a true departure from the type of palettes I usually buy, but I’ve been dying to buy one of the Tarte round palettes and tho’ the others were beautiful, they seemed to close to shades I already owned. I don’t have anything like this unicorn-inspired, spring-y palette. That said, it is isn’t for everyone. I’m enjoying wearing now because the shades are shimmery pastels essentially. It would be good if it had an additional matte shade in the palette, but I often use Myth, the one matte there is, or in conjunction with neutral matte ColourPop shadows that I always have laying around. On sale, it was worth it for me.
I bought this over a month ago and haven’t touched it. Now that I have it in IRL I don’t think I’ll only use a few shades so it wasn’t a great buy for me.
Return it, Cindy! I think you’ve got 60 days. Don’t keep something you won’t use. BTW what is “IRL”??
Belated birthday greeting! It’s a pretty palette, too bad some shades aren’t pigmented enpugh.
Thanks, Kathryne! Yes, it is too bad that a couple of the shades are not as pigmented. I’m thinking maybe they meant those to be the cheek highlighters?
happy belated birthday! I really like the color range in here!
Thank you, Miranda!
I was dying over this palette – it’s so gorgeous! But when I was Ulta with my 20% off coupon I just couldn’t pull the trigger. I actually carried it around the store for awhile before putting it back. I ended up going for a Makeup Revolution palette that had similar shades instead, so I could feel less guilty about playing with colorful shadows (and potentially hating them and never using the palette again)! The Tarte palette still gets me every time I see it though… so beautiful, right down to the packaging!
This palette is so pretty! I love all the shimmery shades!
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Me too, Babi! Glad I figured out how I can wear them
Happy belated birthday, Allison! This is a gorgeous palette, and I love the look that you created!
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Thank you and thank you, Helen xo
I saw this at the Sephora inside JCPenny and its so pretty and I would use this myself! 🙂
Ursula
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I hope it will come your way, Ursula!