Today I bring you a closer look at a holiday gift set that I showed fairly quickly in my Current Favorites video on YouTube.
It was also my very first purchase from QVC. Back when my aunt was alive she was obsessed with QVC and I could never really understand why, until now.
I purchased the Tarte Sweet Indulgence 3 in 1 Holiday Collection that was originally a Today's Special Value back in the beginning of November. I bought mine on Black Friday for a featured price. The original price of this set was $71.50, on the one day it was the TSV it was $59, then it was at a featured price of $65.94 and it was on Easy Pay.
Easy pay is when you can pay for a product on QVC monthly instead of footing the whole bill at once. I believe that QVC does it to products that can have monthly payments of three months or longer.
It didn't take long for my gift set to get here, I ordered it Black Friday and it was here that following Tuesday! So thanks QVC for having amazingly fast shipping.
Sadly I hate to say this now at this time this set is no longer available on QVC. Cue the sad faces I know, BUT, there is hope, you will have to wait until May 2015 to get it. Tarte will be releasing a spring version of this gift set then! So if you missed out this time around you can get the Spring Version! You can even see what its going to look like on the QVC Website, you just have to scroll down the page to a tab called "Second Shipment' and it shows you what will be coming in May!
Okay so enough rambling lets look at what came in this set!
The blushes are called Pampered and Savored. Papered is a bright light pink blush. The texture is smooth and its highly pigmented. I didn't see any visible shimmer in when I applied it to my cheeks, but you definitely cannot have a heavy hand with this blush, otherwise you will come out looking like a doll. Savored is a mauve-rose pink blush that also has a smooth texture but you can see it has a ton of shimmer too it. Savored unlike pampered is not a pigmented. When I swatched it I had to go back a few time to the blush to get the color you see in the photo but on the cheek you still get great color payoff, you also still have to have a light hand so you don't get so much shimmer on your face. Its like the color knows when its on your cheek versus your arm.
I like that all of these are bright pink colors, its very different for a holiday set, I'm still getting used to wearing bright lip colors. I have only just mastered wearing red. Each lip product has a minty scent so if your not into that they you may not like these. I have tried the lip pencils and I love the staying power of these, even when they wear off I can still see a stain of color on my lips!
Next in the purple box you get two 8 pan eye shadow palettes. I heard that this was a big hit this year since it didn't happen last year in the holiday collection. If you saw my Current Favorites video on my YouTube Channel then you saw I briefly mentioned this set and how much I loved the eye shadows and how wearable they are. They do stay in the neutral family so it suitable for anyone really.
You get a great mix of matte and shimmery shade with these two palettes and lately I have been using matte shades to create eye looks. One of my favorite shades in this palette is the gold shade in the purple palette. Its called Dare to Be Gold. At first I thought that it was just a shadow with a glitter overlay but the glittery goodness goes all the way through! I have a feeling it will be in my look that I wear on Christmas eve at work next week!
Lets take a look at swatches!
These first two swatch photos are of the shadows in the purple palette. I forgot to add the names of each shadow in the photo so I will list them here. We have; Pinky Promise, Taupe of the World, You Look Mauveless, Just Malt Away, Pampered Pink, Dare To Be Gold, Show Plum Love and Wind Down Brown.
These are the shadows in the Teal Palette; Vanilla Candles, (which is my skin tone shade and can't see), Coming Up Roses, Hazelnut Bon Bons, Champagne Bubble Bath, Bronze Cuff, Feeling Grey-t
Espresso Yourself, and Cinnamon Latte.
All of these shades are super buttery and very pigmented, especially all of the dark shades. I found using a cleanse off oil was the best way to get them off without leaving any residue behind.
And finally in the last box, the gold box you get two full sized Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes, 4 in1 Mascara. That's right TWO! Plus you get three eye pencils.
I'm not a huge fan of the eyeliners, but look at what other bloggers were saying is that they were not fans either. These eye pencils sad to say are not long wearing and not water proof and smudge easily. I wore one as a liner on my upper lash line one day and when I accidentally rubbed my eye without thinking, boom, there went my eyeliner.
However the mascara makes up for the bad eyeliners, hell everything else makes up for the bad eye liners. Can I say how much I freaking love this mascara! I think I might have found my holy grail mascara here, Lights, Camera, Lashes gives me the longest, most full, and curled without a lash curler lashes I have ever seen!
I'm still getting used to the formula on it though. Its much more wet than in any other mascara I have used before. But I can say that it has been a standout in testing. I haven't seen any smudging or flaking at all when I wear this. It holds up way longer than a normal 8 hour shift and I am just so impressed with that. The only downside I have about this mascara is that it makes your lashes very crunch and hard and can be a bit stubborn to get off. But I think that's the price you have to pay for all the pros you get.
Overall I think this was a great investment piece for myself. I think its a great beginners set too, if someone you know loves makeup and doesn't really have a collection going or needs one then this might work. Like I said above and in my Current Favorites video this particular set isn't available any more but by the looks of the QVC Website they are getting a whole new set in May! So if you are looking to get this you will have to wait, but I think it will be worth it!
I hope you guys enjoyed this post! I will talk to you all next week!
<3 Nicole
