Tarte Carried Away Collector's Set (Sephora Exclusive) - Swatches and Review

I was so excited to see this kit come out for the Holidays. I immediately ran out to my local Sephora who only had 2 left! I have been looking for a nice plum eye palette for a long time and when I saw the shadows in this kit, I swooned. Not to mention that for $54 you get a ridiculous amount of products including 24 full sized shadows, 8 small lip glosses, a small blush, a travel size finish powder, a full sized blush brush, a small mascara, and a carrying case! Seriously, that is an amazing amount of products. To put it in perspective, the 10 pan Tarte eye shadow palettes run $44 each. Beyond pure economics, though, the products including the carrying case are absolutely gorgeous. Let's dive into the swatches!

The Carrying Case
I love the pattern on the carrying case. It has a retro yet sleek vibe with the metallic antique wallpaper motif. The case isn't terribly bulky and is very well organized. It has two side zip-up compartments on either side that can hold a good deal of product once the plastic inserts holding the products are removed. It folds up very evenly and attaches well with a snap in the center. I think the idea of hiding the shadows flat behind the mirror is ingenious!

The Face Products
The Carried Away Collector's Set comes with a face brush that works equally as well as a blush brush. The brush itself is soft yet durable. The handle is long and comfortable making for easy work. I didn't notice any shedding with the brush which was a plus. I am a huge fan of Tarte blushes and was so excited to get Adventurous as it only comes with this kit. The blush is .05 oz and is a shimmering rose color. This looks rather dark in the pan, but comes out quite bright on the cheeks. It is wearable for all different skin tones and the shimmer isn't terribly pronounced - no glitter here. The kit also comes with a .07 oz Amazonian Clay Finishing Powder. This is supposed to be a translucent powder, but it was a bit white, even on my skin. It felt nice going on (though the size of the jar made it a bit hard to use), but I think that if you have darker skin it could make you look a bit ashen.

The Lip Glosses
I have never tried Tarte's glosses and frankly as many of you know, I'm not a gloss fan. The big appeal of the kit for me was the blush and shadows. That being said, I think gloss fans will not be disappointed. The kit comes with 8 .059oz glosses (half sizes of the regular glosses). There is a wide variety of shades and finishes. Overall, I thought the glosses wore well. They were fairly moisturizing and weren't too sticky. They left a nice wash of color as they wore, but they didn't stay as shiny and glossy as other brands. I was particularly impressed by the shimmer glosses which weren't too glittery or gritty at all.

Top Row (L-R): Jena (Rose Pink); Mer (Bright Pink Gold Shimmer); Ali (Pink Fuschia Multi Shimmer); Nuria (Hot Pink)
Bottom Row (L-R): Heath (Rose Gold Shimmer); Casey (Mauve Nude); Anna (Bright Bubblegum Pink); Mel (Soft Bubblegum Pink)

Left to Right: Jena, Mer, Ali, Nuria, Heath, Casey, Anna, Mel

The Eye Shadows

Finally, my favorite part of this kit - the shadows! I love these color combinations! You get a nice smattering of nudes, plums, blues, and greens as well as a variety of finishes. I like that they are combined into quads for color suggestions, but all the colors complement each other well. These applied nicely, especially over primer (over which they are swatched), with minimal fall out. They were pretty velvety (though not as smooth as my UD shadows). These all have names which are marked on a plastic insert, but I will just show you the swatches instead. 

L-R: Top Right Quad, Bottom Right Quad, Top Center Quad

L-R: Bottom Center Quad, Top Left Quad, Bottom Left Quad

Whew that's a lot of products. The quality on all of these are impeccable. This would make a lovely gift for anyone who is a makeup fan. Alternatively, this might be nice for someone who would like to get into make up more as you get excellent products at a perfect price. Will this be on your Christmas list?

Stay beautiful!