Holiday Gift Guide - Tarte Carried Away Collector's Set

Well Tarte has done it again!!  They have put out another gorgeous holiday gift set which is part of the their "Baby It's Bold Outside" holiday collection.  I had originally resisted buying this set only because I have so many eye shadows and a lot of glosses but this set had so many awesome items and at $54, I couldn't resist!  This gift set has a little bit of everything it in - something for the eyes, cheeks, lips, face....and all packaged in a cute and usable gold and purple travel bag.

This set has six eye shadow quads (for a total of 24 shadows) with a good mix of bold and neutral shades as well as shimmer and matte finishes.  Unfortunately, like most palettes, there are only a few mattes (4 in this set) and 20 shimmery shades.  I wish that Tarte had included more matte shadows to use for blending but we'll take what we can get.  And as always, the shadows are richly pigmented with great color payoff and they are easy to apply and blend out.  I love that the quads have "like" shades and can be used independently or you can mix and match within the quads.  And how cute that the Tarte team named each shadow after a place on the map that they have traveled...lending to this "adventurer's carried away" makeup set.

Also included in this set is one of my favorite blushes - the Amazonian Clay 12-hour blush in the shade Adventurous, which is a shimmering rose color.  I find that the shimmer is subtle and not too over-the-top sparkly.  I like to apply this blush on the apples of my cheeks making sure that I blend it upwards and out towards my temples using my Sigma F40 (angled contour brush), the Tarte Bamboo Airblush Maracuja brush (which came from a QVC set), or the brush that is included in this set. I really love all of the Tarte Amazonian Clay blushes!

You also get 8 travel-friendly sized Maracuja lip glosses in gorgeous shades ranging from pale petal pink to deep crimson and everything in between.  These glosses are also richly pigmented and slightly sticky but not too sticky on the lips, and they have a light minty scent to them - perfect for this time of the season.  Plus these glosses have pure Maracuja oil in it which is known to brighten dull skin, improve skin texture, hydrate skin, increases the rate of skin rebuilding and repair, and it has anti-aging and anti-inflammatory properties thanks to it's high content of Vitamin C and Essential Fatty Acids.   A gloss that gives your lips color and nourishes it at the same time - gotta love them!

This collection also comes with a mini size of one of my favorite mascaras - Lights, Camera, Lashes! mascara, as well as the Amazonian Clay Finishing powder (which is similar to the MUFE HD powder) and a domed face brush.  The brush is nice and soft and perfect for applying your blush as well as setting powder.  

I absolutely love the packaging on this set.  The e/s palette hides behind the mirror which is super cute.  The pouches on either side can hold plenty of other makeup items for traveling.  To be honest, all you need to do is add a foundation, concealer, eyeliner and a few extra brushes and this set will have everything you need for traveling.   I wanted to add swatches of the eye shadows and lip glosses into this post but my swatches just weren't looking good and doing the colors any justice.  But check out MakeupGeek's website and see her blog post and swatches on this set.  And if you haven't checked out her YouTube channel you should definitely do that - her tutorials and reviews are outstanding. 

This is a beautifully packaged gift set that any makeup lover would love to receive.  Do note that this set is limited edition and exclusive to Sephora and retails for $54.  I know that this may seem a tad on the pricey side but for what you get, this is a great value and it's gorgeously packaged.  This is a gift set definitely worth giving and receiving!  Happy shopping and gift giving.  Enjoy...