Tarte Miracles from the Amazon Collection Review and Swatches

I purchased the new Tarte Miracles from the Amazon set a few weeks ago from QVC when it was the "Today's Special Value" and it includes the new Maracuja Miracle Foundcealer, which I believe you can only get with this set at the moment.  I paid $59.96 for it that day, and now it's back to it's regular price of $72.50- still amazing considering it has a value of over $175! Let's take a look...

This set comes with a large tweed makeup clutch, foundation brush, Maracuja Miracle Foundcealer, Be Your Own Tartiest palette, Gifted mascara, and Lipsurgence Liquid Lipshine in Exquisite.

First, I want to talk about the Foundcealer, which claims to combine the benefits of both a foundation and concealer.  I'm starting to notice a trend here, since I recently saw Clinique and a few other companies coming out with similar foundation-concealers-in-one.
It comes with a buffing brush that is absolutely amazing...it has a wooden handle and super densely packed bristles that are so soft, they feel like velvet against your skin.  The brush is also angled and goes up on a slant to help you get into places like your undereye area.


The Foundcealer itself comes in a glass bottle with a dropper top.  At first, I thought the packaging was cute and different, but after a while, I just started wishing they made this with a pump.  You're supposed to press the button on top to draw the foundation into the dropper, then press it again to dispense.  The most I could get it to draw into the dropper was a couple of drops, so I had to keep dipping it back in and just getting a few drops at a time.

I purchased the shade Light-medium which is the third lightest shade.  It's a little dark for me, but we're (finally) heading into Spring and Summer so I don't mind the added warmth for my skin.  The ladies presenting on QVC claimed that you only need about 3 drops to cover your whole face, but this was not the case with me.  I have extremely dry skin and this foundation is the type that's very lightweight and sinks right in.  So my skin just drinks it up before I have the chance to spread it around.  By the time I covered my face, I was really disappointed because it looked cakey and like I had a mask on. I started to wonder if I had used too much, but with my skin, there was no way around that. However, a little while later, I looked in the mirror and it had softened and melted into my skin and I looked flawless...it covered just about everything and had this beautiful satiny finish. I was totally shocked by how great my skin looked and was really surprised at the transformation especially since I really disliked it at first application.
My main gripe with this Foundcealer other than the pump is the smell...to me it smells chemical, sort of like WD-40. Not really something I want to smell as I'm rubbing it into my face, but it disappears in about 10 seconds, so it's not that big of a deal.

Next is the Be Your Own Tartiest palette.  I'm really loving my Tartelette palette (see review here), so I was excited to see what these eyeshadows were like.  The palette has a really pretty purple mosaic look on the front and is a shiny gold on the back.

Inside, there are 6 shadows, with one side having pinky plum shades and the other taupey browns. Then there's a really pretty coral-pink blush in the center.

I have to say that this palette is super pigmented and soft and I'm loving the colors!

Pink Beyond, Taupe is for the Best, Dreams Plum True

Pink Beyond, Taupe for the Best, Dreams Plum True

Out of this Pearl, Thistle be the Day, Paint the Brown

Out of this Pearl, Thistle be the Day, Paint the Brown

Talented Blush

Talented

The eyeshadow brush is also wonderfully soft and dense with a smooth wooden handle and gold accents.  It has a regular eyeshadow brush on one side and a crease brush on the other.

Eyeshadow

Crease

The Lipsurgence Liquid Lipshine comes in the shade Exquisite which is a pretty berry mauve shade that's just slightly darker than my lips. I did find it a bit sticky, although it made my lips feel super hydrated and was very shiny. It has a vanilla cookie scent.

Exquisite

Exquisite

Gifted Mascara is a newer formula from Tarte that I hadn't gotten around to trying yet.  I absolutely love their Lights, Camera, Lashes mascara so I had high hopes for this one.

Here are my before and afters...Gifted definitely gave me quite a lot of volume and length, but I found the formula to be very heavy, and a little clumpy. The good news is, it didn't smudge under my eyes at all!

Before

After

Finally, I'm going to do something I never do, and that's show my face without makeup.  But I wanted to use every item in the kit to show the overall transformation...the only additional product I added was a brow pencil. I didn't use any concealer, eyeliner, or lip pencil...I used the Foundcealer under my eyes instead of concealer, eyeshadow all over the lid and as an eyeliner, and just a swipe of lipgloss and mascara. I think the Foundcealer did an excellent job at covering almost every freckle and red spot on my face...I was really surprised at how flawless it made my skin look (if it only covered wrinkles, I'd be set)!

Overall, this is an amazing kit for the money. Even though I wasn't crazy about the mascara and I could take or leave the lipgloss, I love the Foundcealer, Be Your Own Tartiest Palette, and the brushes!
If you'd like to purchase this kit, it's available on QVC.com (and if you've never shopped with them before, they offer no-questions-asked returns up to 30 days, even if the product is used, so there's nothing to lose!).