Tarte Bon Voyage Collector's Set - Holiday 2014 - Pictures, Swatches, and Initial Review

**All products mentioned were purchased by me. I'm not affiliated with any companies mentioned.**

The second set that I picked up in my Holiday 2014 makeup haul is the Tarte Bon Voyage Collector's set. This set is only available at Sephora.

It comes with:

1. A great limited edition travel makeup bag. 
2. A palette of 20 Amazonian clay eyeshadows. There are 12 mattes and 8 shimmers. More details on colors below. 
3. A LipSurgence lipgloss in Visionary - an apricot peach shade.
4. A LipSurgence lip tint in Romantic - a peachy nude.
5. A mini cheek stain in Muse - a soft nude. 
6. A mini Lights Camera Lashes mascara
7. A mini bottle of maracuja oil
8. A mini smooth operator Amazonian clay finishing powder.

The set retails for $59 and has a value of over $400. I've been playing with this set for a week and I really like it. The travel makeup bag has gorgeous gold, lavender, and mint colors. There is a slot at the top side for storage of palettes and a wide open bottom portion where you could put your foundation, blush, lippies,etc. I think this a great bag for travel and pretty generously sized.

The cheek stain is a great neutral soft nude color. I think it's in the same vein as Exposed blush - maybe slightly warmer. I applied it using a small ELF studio stippling brush and buffed it in to get a nice subtle flush on the cheeks.

I'm really happy with the gloss/tint combo. These two shades are nearly identical but in different formats. They layer nicely. The lip tint has that usual mint scent that is customary for them. The gloss has somewhat of a vanilla scent. Paired together you get a vanilla mint scent. Not overpowering at all.

Left to Right - Lip Tint in Romantic, Lip Gloss in Visionary

Now let's get on to the most important part, the eye shadow palette. 

This is a really nice palette. There is a nice array of matte and shimmers. All the shades have cute Parisian names. The consistency of the shadows is the usual for the Amazonian clay eye shadow formula. While it's not as buttery and plushy as brands like Too Faced and Urban Decay, I feel the payoff is still really good with these. This really is a great palette if you like neutral or smoky eye looks. You are not getting any daring or bright colors here. I feel like I can get a ton of wear out of all of them and that made the set well worth the price for me. 

Below are swatches from top to bottom. 

Top row of plummy matte shades

Second row of bronze brown shades

Third row from top - Champagne shades with an interesting mint shimmer all the way on the right

Bottom row - Silvers and great smokey matte shades

All in all - I think this is a great kit. You get a lot for your money. If you are a neutral lover, this kit has your name all over it. I would have liked if there were maybe 1 or 2 different options for lid shades in this palette. You are totally covered for brow bone, crease, transitional and smokey colors though with this palette. I was happy that the lippies and blush were in the peachy nude family which I think lends nicely to the smokier eye looks that you can do with this palette. I don't really have any cons. Maybe it would have been nice to have something else in lieu of the maracuja oil and translucent powder? I just know that I won't really use those a lot. Would have been nice to have a second blush shade or maybe even a bronzer in place of those.

Have you purchased any of Tarte's holiday kits? Let me know what you've picked up and what your thoughts are in the comments below.

Too Faced - Sugar and Spice Holiday 2014 Set - Pictures, Swatches, and Review

**All products mentioned were purchased by me. I'm not affiliated with any companies mentioned.**

First off, hi! It's been a while. I know I've said that before. Life has been happening and my blog has fallen off the priority list. I'm an all or nothing type of person. If I can't devote the time or effort needed to take decent pics and get them loaded, then I tend not to blog. Add to that the fact that this blog is mainly about makeup/tea and I also have not been buying much makeup lately. I've just come to the realization that I have more than enough eye shadow and my money is better spent elsewhere. So less buying equals less pics of swatches to be taken. My blog needs a new direction basically which I'm working on.

I've also taken to Instagram recently (user ID is @ShadowsNLeaves) - Instagram makes it easy and fun to just snap a photo and share some quick thoughts. So feel free to follow me if you are on there and interested in what I have to share/say. If you are already following me on Instagram, then you'll have seen that I recently did make some makeup purchases. Holiday time is the best time to shop for new palettes and get a lot for your money. I picked up three items: Too Faced Sugar and Spice (Ulta), Tarte Bon Voyage (Sephora), and Urban Decay Vice 3 (Ulta). I plan on doing a swatch/review post for each of these while I continue to rethink the future direction of the blog.

Anyways on to the goods. Starting with Too Faced Sugar and Spice set.

This set caught my eye when I was browsing the new holiday sets. I love Too Faced eyeshadows and loved the Few of My Favorite Things set that they did for Sephora last year. They have a similar palette this year at Sephora, but a couple of the shadows are repeats and for some reason it just didn't call to me. When checking out Ulta however, I noticed this set. 

This set is exclusive to Ulta. It contains a palette of 12 eyeshadows and comes with a mini Better than Sex Mascara. The palette and mascara come in a gold glittery makeup bag.

I don't have much to say on the Better than Sex mascara other than I really like it. It does add both volume and length when used. Only con would be that it can look a bit clumpy but as long as you pay attention when applying it, this shouldn't really be an issue.

The 12 shadows included in the palette come in a range of mattes and shimmers. There are 5 matte shades and 7 shimmers. None of the shades have chunky glitter which is a relief. I detest glitter shadows as they are prone to fall out and you know how glitter sticks to EVERYTHING. Ughh!

Shadows are as follows, left to right, M=Matte, S= Shimmer
Top Row = Coconut Cream(M), Nutmeg(S), Biscotti(S), Sugared Violet(S)
Middle Row = Champagne Truffle(S), Pink Frosting(S), Cinnamon Sugar(S), Chocolate Cake(M)
Bottom Row = Meringue(M), Clove(M), Bon Bon(S), Black Licorice(M)

Top Row

Middle Row

Bottom Row

Pros - There are a good mix of mattes and shimmers. Two of the mattes (Coconut Cream and Meringue) make excellent brow bone highlights while Chocolate Cake and Black Licorice work great to help deepen and create smokier looks. All the shimmers are great and apply nicely. The mattes that are included have great pigmentation also. There are no crazy weird shades here (I guess this could be either a pro or con depending on your preference). All the shades in this palette will get heavy use by me which increases the value of it. Speaking of value, the price is $39. I actually used a 20% off coupon on it which made it a steal. The palette is a good size, thin and travel friendly. It would fit into a medium makeup bag easily.

Cons - Not really loving the scratchiness of the glitter exterior. I'd prefer the palette and the makeup bag to be smooth similar to the patterned bag in last years sets. I do wish there were two matte crease transitional shades instead of one in the palette. I do think Clove makes a great transition for cooler looks with the palette, but it's too greyish/purple to be used in warmer looks. So if I was traveling with the palette, I would definitely include a medium tan or brown matte in addition to this palette.

Overall I really like this palette. It almost seems as if the Boudoir palette and the Natural Eyes palette were somewhat combined here. I see myself getting a lot of use out of all the colors. Have you purchased any of the Too Faced holiday sets? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.