Every year during the holidays tarte releases a blush palette and I've always been tempted but I never pulled the trigger until this year. The Sephora Birthday Gift this year included an absolutely gorgeous tarte blush and I pretty much used nothing else on my cheeks for the last four months of 2017, so it was easy for me to decide to try out the TARTE Blush Bazaar Amazonian Clay Blush Palette when I ended up withe some gift cards I was itching to spend.

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About:

This palette delivers eight blushes and two highlighters in a gorgeous mix of warm and cool tones. The shades range from subtle to bold with matte and micro-shimmer finishes, all powered by tarte’s iconic Amazonian clay for amazing payoff and long wear. The bright, intricate packaging is inspired by Moroccan design, blending the best of color and texture in one space-saving palette. 

The packaging of this palette is absolutely gorgeous. It's a plastic packaging, so it's not super heavy duty or anything like that, but the design and layout is absolutely stunning (though the inner packaging with it's strong metallic is really, really difficult to photograph because of reflection!) The Moroccan-inspired print on the front of the palette gives it a really fun look that doesn't lean too cute. And practically, I think the space in the palette is used well and the latch is secure enough that I wouldn't be too concerned packing this for travel.

Each side of this palette contains 4 blushes and 1 highlight. The top side of the palette contains lighter shades, in my opinion, though the highlighter shade on this side is definitely the deeper and more universal of the two. I do actually find this side of the palette to be a little bit softer and easier to get payoff from though. I think that the lighter shades don't seem to be pressed quite as hard in the pan as the deeper shades. The shade names (clockwise starting from the top left) are Fortunate, Skillfull, Exhilirating, Whimsical and Angelic.

Fortunate is described as a pink melon - which I don't really get at all. In my opinion, this is firmly in the very warm peach family. It's one of the softer textures in the palette and gives really beautiful colour payoff. I think this will look gorgeous on a lot of skin tones and I know I'll be reaching for it a lot in the summer. 

Skillful is described as a pink berry, which I would say is accurate. This is quite a stiff formula and a light application will give you quite a sheer look, but this builds up really nicely for a more intense flush to the cheeks. 

Exhilirating is described as fuscia and I'd say that's accurate - it's pink AF. In the pan it looks fairly unassuming, but swatched and applied it's quite boldly pink. I don't know how much I'll personally reach for this, but fans of a punchy blush of all skin tones will probably enjoy this. 

Whimsical is described as a shimmering gold and I sincerely thought I would never be able to wear it until I tried it out and fell a little bit in love. It does have some fine microshimmers in it, but I haven't found it to look too glittery on the face. It looks deep in the pan, but I actually found that it gives a really pretty, not too yellow look on my cheekbones. 

Finally, Angelic is described as a peachy pink and is probably my personal favorite shade in the palette. I'm a boring blush girl at heart and I think this kind of neutral, light blush works best on my skintone. The formula is quite soft, buildable, and easy to blend out on the skin.

I would say that the blushes on the bottom side of the palette are going to be more universal, with more bold and buildable shades that can be sheered out for lighter skin tones and built up for deeper ones. These shades also seem to be pressed harder into the pan, meaning that you may have to take multiple dips into the pan with your brush in order to build these up. The shade names (clockwise from top left) are Authentic, Endless, Dainty, Extraordinary and Worthy.

Authentic is described as a plummy rose. It's a little bit stiff and the formula is more buildable than full colour initially, which makes it wearable for a lot of different skin tones in my opinion. This is the kind of shade I love to wear in the winter, because it gives me that just in from the cold flush when applied lightly.

Endless is described as a pink raspberry, though I would have described it more as a neutral berry shade. It's definitely a little bit more full colour, so I think my fellow fair girls will want to use a light hand.  

Dainty is described as a melon, which I'd say is accurate. This is the kind of shade that I think will be fairly universally flattering, has really good pigmentation, is just screams summer to me. I actually didn't expect much from this after seeing a bad review of it, but in my palette this is really gorgeous so I wonder if there are some issues with consistency.

Extraordinary is described as a shimmering coral and is the only blush shade in this palette that isn't matte. This one is definitely for fans of those classic shimmery coral shades like NARS Orgasm, in my opinion. It's also the creamiest texture in the palette and will definitely show up on a wide range of skin tones.

Finally, Worthy is described as a soft pink highlight, which I would say is accurate. I think this has a strong white base, which will make it lovely on fair skin but probably quite difficult to wear on olive or deep skin tones. The texture is quite soft and it gives a sheen without any visible shimmers in it.

I have to say that for me, this palette really is a huge winner. Not only is it a phenomenal value for what you're getting, but the blushes are really good quality, generally blend really well on the skin, and have excellent wear time. These are all also limited edition shades that aren't featured in the permanent line up, which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. For me, since I never get through a blush pan I don't mind at all that I won't be able to reup in the future, but I suppose that is something to consider.

As of my posting this, the Tarte Blush Bazaar Amazonian Clay Blush Palette is still available on the Sephora Canada website, though I believe it's sold out both from Sephora in the US and the Tarte website. If you're in Canada and want to get your hands on this, I would recommend you not wait on it because it'll be gone soon.

Thanks for reading!