Comparison of the Tarte Palettes

Tarte is one of the brands that I always take a look at when I am on the Sephora website and when I was lucky enough to travel to the US last year it was one of the first brands that sprang to mind when I knew I was going to be able to visit the mothership. The first Sephora I visited was in LA, my mother had given me 5 minutes to get a few products however I completely forgot to check out the Tarte stand. Despite this, in the aisle of doom I saw the Tease Palette and bought it with the intention of testing it. I then used it literally everyday until my next visit to Sephora in Vegas. That is how my obsession with the brand started.

On my holiday we travelled around and didn't have much time for shopping. However one morning in Vegas my mother and I managed to break away from the boys and hit up the Vegas shops where I made my second Sephora haul. After loving the Tease palette so much I treated myself to the Tartelette in Bloom palette which cemented my love for the brand. Tartelette in Bloom is one of the most beautiful palettes I have ever seen, that packaging though. Everything about it calls to me, the shades are all beautiful and they blend together like a dream.

The latest addition to my Tarte palette collection was the subject of a review a few months ago and it is the Pro-To-Go Palette. I saw this on Sephora and put it in my basket straight away. If you go back and read that review then you will see that I prefer the Tease palette and I stand by that conclusion. Today I want to look at the differences between the palettes and what makes me prefer the Tease Palette.

Let me start off by saying, You can not go wrong with any of these palettes. In terms of formula, most of the shadows in each palette have the same consistency. The shimmer shades are always beautifully soft and blend together great and for the most part they do not contain glitter. There are only a few shimmer shades such as Crush from the Tease palette and Funny Girl from the Tartelette in Bloom palette which contain glitter and that is because they are designed to be more of a glitter. As long as you apply these two shades with your finger rather than a brush they are still great shades but if you try to apply them with a brush there can be quite a bit of fall out.

As well as those shades, some of the mattes can be problematic in the way that they are quite stiff and these are usually the darker shades. I'm not sure why but they don't seem to blend as well and you have to work with them quite a lot, especially the end column in the Tartelette in Bloom palette. However this problem occurs in all of the Tarte palettes so the consistency of the formula is the same but as the Tartelette in Bloom is a larger palette the problem is increased due to there being more shadows. The only one which doesn't really have this problem is the Pro-To-Go palette purely because it doesn't have any really dark shades. So if you are looking for the palette with the best shadow formulation, I would have to say the Pro-To-Go would be your winner.

Tease Palette

Pro-To-Go Palette

Tartelette in Bloom Palette

Other than that, if you are trying to decide which one would be best for you, it comes down to personal preference for the shades and also your budget. If I could only have one of these palettes I would go for the Tartelette in Bloom palette. Just because you have a mix of warm and cool tones and you can create lots of different looks with it but it is $46 which not everyone wants to spend on an eye shadow palette. Then it filters down to the mini palettes at $23 each, they are exactly half the cost. If you really liked the shades in the two mini palettes you could go for both of the minis. You would still get 12 shades (the same as the Tartelette in Bloom palette,) a mix of cool and warm tones but just not as large pans. This alternative is great if you do a lot of travelling and don't want to be carrying big palettes around with you. Also it might be better if like me you have a thousand eye shadows that you never get through. These pans are smaller so you might actually finish them. If this doesn't float your boat then the key difference between the Tease palette and the Pro To Go palette is the tone.

Personally in terms of shade range and finish I love the Tease palette, overall I think it is slightly more rounded. The Tease palette is cool toned and Pro To Go is more warm toned so if you know you prefer a more cool toned look go for the Tease palette, it is as simple as that. As I have quite a neutral skin tone I can get away with both but there is something about the Tease palette which makes it very easy to create a look. You've got your two transition shades, two shades which can be used all over the lid and the two crease shades. As a basic palette with 6 shades I don't think that is bad. Whereas with the Pro To Go palette, it can be a little bit more limited. Most people prefer to use matte shades in the crease and a shimmer all over the lid. The Pro-To-Go has 3 shimmers and 3 mattes so it is more difficult to get a cohesive look. If this is the case you are going to get a better look from the Tease palette.

Another problem with the shades in the Pro-To-Go palette is that there isn't a really dark shade to give a smoky affect. The shade Stylin is the deepest in the palette but it doesn't necessarily look good with the other shades and you have to build it up, work and blend quite a bit to get it to be as deep as something like bff in the Tease palette. One bonus of the Pro To Go palette is that the shimmer shades are stunning. Both Boss and Dominate (the two round shades) are some of the most beautiful duo-chrome shadows i've ever used. They have a slight shift of colour when they hit the light and they are slightly different to your normal shimmer shades. The same quality can be found within the shade Firecracker in the Tartelette in Bloom palette. I don't think enough praise is given to the Tarte duo chrome shimmer shades, I really don't.

Overall I probably use the Tease palette the most, it is an easy go to palette with outlined looks which is easy for beginners or someone who does the same look everyday. The packaging is dinky so it can easily be transported, the pigmentation is great and the shadows are soft. Following that would be the Tartelette in Bloom Palette, definitely my favourite packaging and the shade range pretty much covers everything you will ever need. The deeper matte shades in this palette do need a little bit more work but you can create some lovely eye looks with this. Then coming in last would sadly be the Pro To Go palette. I love the warmth of this palette and the shimmer shades but for an amateur like me I really struggle to get an eye look I love with just this palette, I always need other eye shadows which kind of defeats the purpose of it being a travel friendly palette. That's not to say it wouldn't be good for you, the palette is stunning. The formula of each of the shadows in the palettes are great so I do highly recommend trying at least one Tarte palette if you are a beauty junkie.

Related Posts: