Tarte Cosmetics Rainforest of the Sea Eyeshadow Palette Review

***Update 1/2018: I am selling this barely used/like new palette to make room in my makeup collection. Please contact me for details at completenaturalclarity@gmail.com***

Today I’d like to review one of Tarte’s newest releases: the Rainforest of the Sea Eyeshadow Palette! This palette contains 8 pressed eyeshadows in a new formula never released by Tarte Cosmetics before. This new formula is more of a cream to powder finish and applies similarly to the Colour Pop Eyeshadow pigments in my opinion. They apply sheerly with a brush, unless it’s a densely packed eyeshadow brush and they apply the most pigmented by using your fingers to apply the shade.

To read in more detail what my stance is on Tarte’s Cruelty-Free status, please see my previous Tarte blog post on their Double Duty Eye and Cheek Palettes here.

The Rainforest of the Sea Eyeshadow palette contains a variety of shades from light, medium, to deep hues in shades that vary from neutral to cool to warm. This palette does consist of a lot of brown shades, though, with five different shades of brown. I do feel they could have added a bit more variety here, however, since this is a summer-themed palette, the warm brown/bronze tones can be worn in a lot of summer-themed looks.

You can definitely use this palette for daytime, office appropriate looks, as well as amp up the boldness of the shades for nightime wear.

There are two satin-matte shades and 6 sheen shades that do not contain any overt shimmer particles, but give off more of an overall subdued sheen when applied.

Packaging

Inside of the Palette

The inside of the palette contains a full sized mirror.

The top of the palette does fold all the way back, which is nice and convenient.

Swatches!

The lightest shades in the palette, swatched from left to right:

Sand, Mermaid, Seashell, Wave, Cove

Finger Swatches from left to right:

Sand, Mermaid, Seashell, Wave

Darker Shades from bottom to top:

Cove, Starfish, Reef, Abyss

Finger Swatches from left to right:

Cove, Starfish, Reef, Abyss

Arm Swatches from bottom to top with Descriptions:

Sand, Mermaid, Seashell, Wave, Cove, Starfish, Reef, Abyss

Sand: Neutral Ivory Satin-Matte. Great as an all over lid shade to neutralize discoloration or to set eye primer. Also works well as a brow bone highlight and inner corner highlight. This shade does get a film over it, due to the creamy consistency. I’m not sure how this will affect the shadow performance over time, depending on if the film begins to harden over time or not.

Mermaid: A light-ish antique gold sheen shade with a light brown undertone that would be a nice one color wash.

Seashell: A light pink shade with silver sheen that is a beautiful eye-brightening shade that can be used all over the lid, as a brow bone high light, face highlight, on the center of the lid, or in the inner corner of the eye.

Wave: A light-medium dusty mauve with grey undertones and a pearlescent sheen. This is a nice crease shade with a bit of sheen and pairs beautifully with Seashell as an easy two shadow combo for daytime wear. This is also a beautiful one color wash. It’s cool-toned, but neutral enough that any eye color or skin color should be able to wear it.

Cove: A mid-tone satin-matte warm brown crease shade.

Starfish: This is a deeper version of Mermaid, as it is a deeper and slightly warmer antique bronze shade with a gold sheen.

Reef: The warmest of all the shades. This is a deep bronze/copper shade with red undertones over a brown base that deepens the shade. This makes a great outer V shade and Liner shade, when applied wet.

Abyss: This is the darkest of the shades in the pan, however, it’s not the most pigmented. I had to swatch it several times to get the true color to show up. When I tried to apply it as a liner shade, I had to apply several layers and ended up mixing in Reef to get a deep enough shade. Abyss is a warm brown satin shade with some slight plum undertones. Due to the overall sheerness of the shade, this can be used as a crease shade, outer V shade, Liner shade, etc. if used with a densely packed brush.

Arm Swatches from bottom to top:

Sand, Mermaid, Seashell, Wave, Cove, Starfish, Reef, Abyss

Arm Swatches from left to right:

Sand, Mermaid, Seashell, Wave, Cove, Starfish, Reef, Abyss

As you can see from the swatches, none of these shades are overtly shimmery and have more of an overall sheen, which is my preference for daily looks.

Overall, this new formula applies smoothly and the majority of the shades are pigmented. I do feel that in order to get the true impact of each shade, they need to be applied with your fingertips, which may not be everyone’s preference. Using one’s fingertips is fine for using a shade as an all over the lid color or to add a pop of color to the center of the lid, but becomes more tricky when trying to blend multiple shades. You can still use a densely packed eyeshadow brush to apply these shades as you would with normal eyeshadows, however, you may not achieve the most vibrant effect.

I love the packaging of the palette, as I tend to love Tarte’s round palettes, in general. This palette is smaller than their traditional round palettes, since it doesn’t contain a blush, highlighter, or bronzer. I do feel that they could have used the center of the palette to add another color or maybe a blush to this palette, but it is nice that they added the names of each shade!

Each shade creates zero product kick-up when applying and digging into each shade with your brush, which is amazing and very much appreciated!

If you like the colors in this palette based on these swatches, I’d recommend giving it a try. The palette retails for $34 and can be found on tartecosmetics.com and sephora.com. This is a limited-edition palette, so if you’ve been eyeing it, you may want to get it sooner, rather than later!

Ingredients: (taken from the Tarte website)

1.5 g / 0.05 fl Oz x 8

all shades: Mica, octyldodecyl stearoyl stearate, talc, kaolin, dimethicone, zinc stearate, cetyl dimethicone, bis-diglyceryl polyacyladipate-2, pentylene glycol, caprylyl glycol, dimethicone/vinyl dimethicone crosspolymer, sorbitan sesquiisostearate, sodium dehydroacetate, algae extract, cocos nucifera (coconut) oil, gardenia tahitensis flower extract, tocopherol. (+/-): Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), ultramarines (CI 77007), iron oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499).

Made in Italy.

formulated without parabens, formulated without mineral oil, formulated without  phthalates, formulated without sodium lauryl sulfates, formulated without gluten

Thank you so much for stopping by! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below!

Have a beautiful day!

xoxo,

Julie

Follow me on Instagram: @completenaturalclarity

Follow me on Pinterest: @NaturalClarity

For Business inquiries, please contact me at: completenaturalclarity@gmail.com

If it is your first time purchasing from Vitacost.com, you can get $10 off your first order by using my referral link: Vitacost.com

***I am a Wellness Advocate for Doterra, so if you have any questions about becoming a member or learning more about essential oils in general, please don’t hesitate to email me: completenaturalclarity@gmail.com***

***All products mentioned in this post were purchased by me with my own money. All opinions are my own.***