Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush 'Natural Beauty' & 'Exposed'

The Tarte Amazonian Clay Blushes ($25/5.6g) seemed to be all the rage on Youtube and on blogs a few months ago and I’m pretty much a sucker for all things overtly-hyped *guilty* so I placed an order for the two colors which I felt were reasonably unique amongst the range (eight blushes in total) and within my stash. Those two colors turned out to be the now notorious Exposed (matte rosy-nude) and Natural Beauty (muted strawberry red).

Tarte makes two pretty big claims with this one: a) the formula lasts up to 12-hours and b) the magic ingredient in it is the Amazonian Clay which somehow contributes to making these blushes work for all skin types because the clay "helps minimize pores and control oil and hydrates skin naturally". More can be read on Tarte's site.

Personally, I think the Amazonian Clay thing is slightly gimmicky but I will have to agree on the longevity of the formula; it indeed does last more than 10 hours. I applied Natural Beauty early morning last week around 8 AM and by the time I was home around 6:30 PM, it was STILL as vibrant as it was that morning. My skin is normal-combo but even my beloved NARS and Rouge Bunny Rouge blushes don't last all that long. I don't believe it has anything to do with the Amazonian Clay (=_=) but I believe there is something "staining" about the formula which contributes to its longevity. I'm not ingredient-savvy but I'll post the ingredients below for you to look at but I believe that's the "secret" to why the formula is ridiculously long-lasting. And the formula is velvety smooth and not blotchy at all. Very impressive.

Ingredients: Talc, zinc stearate, tricaprylin, polyethylene, caprylic/capric triglyceride, beeswax, PEG-150 distearate, lanolin, laureth-4, tocopherol, polysorbate 20, tetrasodium EDTA, potassium sorbate, chlorphenesin, ascorbyl palmitate, tin oxide, kaolin, mica, carmine. (+/-): Iron Oxides, titanium dioxide, ultramarines, manganese violet, bismuth oxychloride, red 6 and red 7 lake, red 27 lake, yellow 5 lake, yellow 6 lake, blue 1 lake. Made in USA.

Now for a little but on the individual shades!

Natural Beauty is described as simply a "red" by Tarte but personally, it's a bit more descriptive than that. I'd say it's more of a strawberry-red leaning more towards a red-pink. It does contain uber-fine shimmer which are undetectable once swatched or applied. Seriously, they're nonexistent. This is PERFECT for the summer with a little bit of bronzer or with some just-bitten lips to wake up your face.

Exposed is described as a "nude" from Tarte. I would definitely put this under the same category of other nude blushes similar to that of NARS' Madly/Douceur or Sleek Suede but if you look closely, you can detect Exposed being laced with some pink. I personally love working with nude blushes because they can double as bronzers but aren't as opaque like typical bronzers. Nude blushes also work beautifully with bolder makeup and pair AH-mazing with red lips! I'm compiling a post on bronzer-turn-blush-and-vice-versa real soon. But yes, nude blushes are a must-have because they can wake up your face and prevent starkness which is usual with bright lips or dark smokey eyes by adding some depth on the cheek without taking away from the bolder feature. If you're pale looking for a bronzer, Exposed may be PERFECT for that. For all that niftiness, I will admit I have a spot spot for Exposed and I can definitely see why it's a bestseller. It's perfect!

Here is a swatch on NC20-25 skin in natural light:

And if you're a depotter, you'll love that the pans are magnetic and you can easily pop the pan out via the tiny pinhole on the bottom. If I had one to recommend, I would highly recommend having Exposed in your collection, and with the summer months coming up both these blushes will work perfect with their color and wear (these will definitely hold up even in the humidity and heat). In fact, Dustin Hunter recently posted a tutorial using Exposed (and another Amazonian Clay blush in Tipsy which is very similar to Natural Beauty but slightly lighter and peachier so when I replicate the look, I'll be using Natural Beauty with a light hand). Enjoy!