tarte Rising Star palette: Shimmering Sage

When I take pictures of my makeup every day, I can’t always guarantee the best lighting when I travel. The pictures were taken inside and outside of a busy Starbucks, and since I was making a bit of a spectacle of myself with my little solo photo shoot, I couldn’t play around with different lighting options if I wanted to keep my dignity intact!

I used one of the new holiday kits from tarte Cosmetics, called Rising Star. It’s a cute little palette that comes with 12 eyeshadows, 2 blushes, a contour color, and a highlighter. When I received it in a Sephora.com haul, I was surprised at how small it was – but for me, that was actually a bonus. I like small palettes that make use of their space wisely (an example of something that annoys me is Urban Decay’s Book of Shadows – it’s so big with so much wasted space!).

The palette only comes with three matte shades (a nude, a light pink, and a dark brown), and I would have liked to have seen at least one more matte shade, maybe in a medium brown or grey). Today I used four of the colors – Shimmering Citrine (which is more glitter than shimmer), Shimmering Sage (a very nice olive with the perfect amount of shimmer for my taste), Shimmering Sienna, and Shimmering Steel Blue (on the lower waterline). My experience with tarte palettes has been mixed. I have an ongoing love affair with so many of their products (mascara, gel liners, cream shadows), but their eyeshadows are always a mixed bag when it comes to quality.

On the eyes:

• Cameo Pink Primer Shadow
• tarte Shimmering Citrine on inner corner
• tarte Shimmering Sage on outer 3/4 of lid, and under lower lashes
• tarte Shimmering Sienna in the crease
• tarte Shimmering Steel Blue patted on lower waterline
• tarte Lights Camera Lashes mascara

  

On the lips:

• Bare Escentuals Marvelous Moxie lipgloss in Dare Devil
• NYX lipgloss in Beige (although it’s a pink gloss)

On the face:

• Boscia bb cream
• Laura Geller Balance n Brighten in Fair
• tarte Ethereal blush
• tarte Champagne highlighter
• MUFE hd microfinish powder
• Bare Escentuals brow powder in Auburn