Showcase: Tarte for True Blood Palette

I will go ahead & start off by saying that I am not a fan of the True Blood series. I simply never took interest in the show & can honestly tell you, I've never even seen an episode. I don't watch much TV to begin with & the whole vampire craze never suited me. But that didn't stop me from totally drooling over the new Tarte for True Blood Palette. I read about this palette online & was actually pretty happy to see it at my local Sephora. So I picked it up yesterday, and today, put it to use.

While I'm not really into the vampire trend, I definitely LOVE the look of the palette. It's edgy & dark in terms of the overall theme. The shadows, too, are primarily dark, vampy shades. 

The palette comes with 17 True Blood inspired shadows (I'm not familiar enough with Tarte to know if these are repromotes or not) as well as a full sized eyeliner, mini mascara & primer. There is also a mirror on the top of the inside flip-top lid. This palette retails for $52 at TarteCosmetics.com, Sephora.com & Ulta.com as well as in Sephora & Ulta stores.

Pull out drawer under palette that holds the primer, liner & mascara

Lights, Camera, Lashes! mascara in black.

Lifted primer.

EmphasEYES liner in black.

Also included is this eye chart guide with some recommended looks.

Onto the shadows! I really thought the quality of these were great, considering the $52 price tag for this palette. A lot of companies tend to lessen the quality of the products placed in palettes such as this as a means to compensate for possible lost revenue. What I mean by that is, a company that mass produces palettes with lots of shadows, such as this, tend to lose money. The individual cost of the good quality eyeshadows would be far too much for any consumer to spend, which is why they list the estimate value. This palette has a value of $331, because that would be how much you would spend on the individual items. Sorry for going off on a tangent, but my overall point is that Tarte kept good quality eyeshadows in this palette instead of using crap-ingredient shadows to save money.

 Anyways! :D

All swatches were swiped over NYX Milk eye pencil using a flat brush.

Some of the shadows do have a bit of a sparkly fall out, even with the usage of primer & a base. I still really think they're worth it. Tarte kept the quality of these shadows up to par & there isn't a single shade that applied chalky or inconsistent. Even Nocturnal, which is a deep, blackened blue with blue sparkle, held true to the colour in the pan when applied. There is a nice difference in shadow finishes, with some matte, frost & sparkly shades.

So, even if you're not a fan of True Blood, I think this palette is a total steal. While the colours tend to run dark, it is still a really nice range with a LOT of possibilities.