Review -- Tarte Rainforest After Dark Palette

I was pretty bummed a few months back when Tarte's Rainforest After Dark Palette sold out.

I had talked myself out of it for a long time, but I watched a few too many tutorials with it on YouTube that convinced I just had to have it in my life -- and I had a gift card to either Ulta or Sephora, which both were carrying it at the time, but when I went to buy it, it was out of stock.

And it was out of stock everywhere, so I figured I'd missed my chance to pick it up.

So I was seriously excited when I saw that Ulta (and Tarte's website actually) was carrying it again -- especially because I had a 20% off coupon that could be used on most higher end brands (you usually can't use coupons on those brands at Ulta). 

Which means I couldn't resist and treated myself to a little spring present.

The Tarte Rainforest After Dark Palette comes in a circular compact -- Tarte has actually done a few palettes like this, most notably the Aqualillies Palette and the Showstopper Palette, which is currently out (and I may have also picked up... I've been a bad girl recently.) that's made of plastic designed to look like faux dark wood. There's a gold metallic snake design (Fun fact about me: I am terrified of snakes... so much so that I don't particularly like looking at the lid of this palette) on the lid and a decent size mirror on the inside.

Tarte Rainforest After Dark Palette

Tarte Rainforest After Dark Palette (back)

The palette contains champagne, a shimmery pale gold highlighter; park avenue princess, Tarte's famous bronze (matte version); and the Amazonian Clay Blush in unleased, a matte mid-tone neutral pink.

It also features six eye shadows: bare to explore, a matte pinky beige; make a mauve, a shimmery purple-y mauve; plum away with me, a shimmery reddish plum; up to no gold, a metallic yellow gold; tan-gled up in you, a matte mid-tone brown; and don't turn a-brown, a matte chocolate brown.

Tarte Rainforest After Dark Palette (with plastic overlay)

Tarte Rainforest After Dark Palette

From l. to r.: champagne, park avenue princess, unleashed

From l. to r.: bare to explore, make a mauve, plum away with me, up to no gold, tan-gled up in you, don't turn a-brown

As far as the face products go, they're all very nice. I'm a big fan of the Amazonian Clay Blushes, and unleashed is a perfect neutral pink to go with virtually any eye shadows, including all of those in the palette.

Typically, I prefer cool toned highlighters, and champagne is a warm, pale gold but it's actually very nice when applied sheerly. I'm not the biggest fan of the park avenue princess bronzer, because it's a little too orange-y for my tastes, but I can wear a little if I apply it very, very lightly. 

When it comes to the shadows, I'm kind of in love with all of them, though the first three, bare to explore, make a mauve, and plum away with me, are my definite faves. up to no gold is a gorgeous, rich shade too, and tan-gled up in you and don't turn a-brown are good basic matte shades. 

The formula of all of the shadow is one of Tarte's best -- they're pigmented, smooth, and easy to work with.

The one issue I have with the palette is that there's no highlight shade for someone with skin as fair as mine -- bare to explore is too dark for that. champagne works with the last three shadows, but I don't feel like it really goes with first three.

The palette is $38, which I feel is a really good deal for a palette with all the color products you'd need to your whole face. It's ideal for travel, obviously, because it's a full palette and not too bulky to store. 

I definitely recommend it if you're in the market for a full-service palette (or are just looking for some pretty pink/purple-y shadows ... the first three are so lovely!).

You can find it at Ulta or Tarte.

Have you tried the Tarte Rainforest After Dark Palette? What's your favorite palette these days?