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Worth it? Tarte Knockout Tingling Treatment

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Tarte Knockout Tingling TreatmentTarte Knockout Tingling Treatment, $39

At the end of August, during the surprise BI sale, I purchased two things:

  1. Restocked Ole Henriksen Truth Serum.
  2. I decided to give the overwhelmingly positively reviewed Tarte Knockout Tingling Treatment (5oz for $39) a shot.

My interest in the latter was piqued when Stef Nicole mentioned it in her 2017 skincare video; she’s a highly skeptical character, went in to try this with an admirable level of skepticism, and came out impressed. So hey – I’ll give it a shot too. Like her, I question the foray of makeup brands into the skincare realm, but her judgment is pretty damn solid.

If it Ain’t Broke

For as long as I can remember at this point, I haven’t tried any new skincare products. This was due to a few things:

  • I’m on a low buy
  • I didn’t want to risk compromising my skin
  • Everything was working

For chemical exfoliation, I was largely relying on my Alpha Skin Gel for an AHA. That said, I can’t seem to get my hands on the Alpha Skin Gel easily – and for the first time in a while I felt adventurous.

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What I Bought at the August Beauty Insider Sale

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In a bizarre turn of events, Sephora threw together an extra (we think) August Beauty Insider Sale. Normally, there’s one in April-ish and then again in November-ish, so to have this August Beauty Insider Sale one fall into our laps is a rare and welcome treat. Fortunately, the stars aligned and I happened to have a gift card – so I didn’t even break my No Buy to shop.

What to Buy, What to Buy?

I’m still riding the post-KonMari wave and don’t feel the need to expand my makeup collection at this time. Sure, are there things I want? Of course. There are cool products released all the damn time that I’d love to try! But the cost to do so is steep; I don’t want to waste money, and I don’t want to reintroduce clutter.

When Urban Decay announced that they were discontinuing their iconic Naked palette (more on that to come), Sephora knocked the price in half. I considered buying a backup and another to give away, but they were sold out before the VIB-tier discount was available.

Setting Limits

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Worth it? Tarte Shape Tape Concealer

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Tarte Shape Tape

Tarte Shape Tape, $25

Holy heavily-promoted-on-YouTube, Batman! I eventually bought Shape Tape to weigh in on it to see if it was ridiculous YouTube sponsored hype or a legitimately good product. This cruelty-free, apparently vegan product is evidently sold once every twenty-six seconds according to Tarte’s site.

Availability

When Tarte Shape Tape came out, it was basically out of stock in all popular shades, including mine, for what seemed like months. I suspect this is due to a bit of manufactured scarcity to pump up demand and hype. Eventually, I got my hands on a tube during a Ulta 20% Platinum Perk sale.

I didn’t realize this at first, but Tarte Shape Tape is only sold on tarte.com and at Ulta. I learned that Tarte seems to offer 20% off promotions more often than Ulta does, but then you lose your point/perk earning potential. Pros and cons, people.

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April 2017 Favorites

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April 2017 Favorites
GVP Compare to Clairol Shimmer Lights, $10 / Sally Hansen Cuticle Massage Cream, $5 /
Tarte Shape Tape, $25 / L’Oreal Sublime Glow, $9 / Febreze One, $6

I made a typo when I was writing out the title of this post – I accidentally wrote, “April 2015 Favorites.” Yeah, right.

I’ve moved on from Blond Brilliance. Priced similarly for way more product, Sally Beauty’s GVP line has what is apparently an excellent dupe of Clairol Shimmer Lights. I wouldn’t know because I haven’t tried Shimmer Lights, but what I do know is that this stuff is glorious for preservation of blonde.

It’s back! My cuticles are a mess since the manicure that blew my no buy. They did a fairly shoddy job, and now my fingers are worse off than before. This is the universe’s way of getting me back, ha. To help protect them, I’ve been slathering the Sally Hansen Cuticle Massage cream into them a couple times a day. I’m almost all fixed up.

I’ve jumped on the bandwagon. Shape Tape is a really great concealer. It isn’t some godly ambrosia perfect for every situation as the masses on YouTube would have you believe, but it is pretty solid.

I’m using Cabana Tan on my legs, but my arms (which take color at a comically rapid rate and do not suffer aggressive exfoliation from shaving) are getting a gradual sunless tanner for now. I’ve used Jergens with success but wanted to try L’Oreal Sublime Glow for fun and bought it over the winter – I like how it smells a bit more than the Jergens, and it seems as effective. Bonus? This has a small bit of fun, non-distracting, non-tacky shimmer – just enough to highlight the skin ever-so-faintly and give it a bit more life. I use medium. Note: This isn’t Sublime BRONZE, which is their more aggressive sunless tanner. This is the gradual one!

I’ll be the first to admit I have a Febreze problem. I have since as long as I can remember. Back in the day, it was Meadows and Rain. Then, Thai Dragonfruit, Allergen Reducer (smells surprisingly nice and I still use it). Next (and also currently), the Tide scented one since that’s my husband’s laundry detergent preference. I’ve tried and liked many more. Then, Febreze came out with their refillable Febreze One product and I immediately purchased it. It’s a fabric refresher and air freshener in one. It’s non-aerosol, and you can buy refill cartridges rather than whole new bottles. The Bamboo scent reminds me of something between Tide and Meadows and Rain – it’s clean, but not nauseatingly so. There’s a distinct, crisp Ozone note that I can’t.get.enough.of (its what I love about Yankee’s Margaritaville Mother Ocean candles!) Anyway, then BzzAgent sent me the other two scents which are quite lovely as well. I love that they’re lower-waste and that it’s a multi-use product. Couch? Curtains? Bathroom? Office? Handled.

Tarte Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Airbrush Foundation

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Tarte Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Airbrush Foundation, $36

Tarte Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Airbrush Foundation…so refreshing to have a product with an absurdly long name! It’s been a while.

I’ve never been a fan of caking on product to hide problems. Even when I was in the throes of ridiculous skin woes, I wouldn’t do it. That doesn’t mean I’d go bare-faced…but troweling on Instagram-ready, drag-worthy makeup does not seem like a healthy choice for problem skin.

The Purchase

Over the holidays, I finally ran out of the powder foundation I was using on lazy (read: most) mornings where blending a cream or liquid product was out of the question. Armed with a 20% off Ulta Platinum voucher, I picked up Tarte Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Airbrush Foundation. I like the idea of mineral powder foundations; even though bareMinerals didn’t blow me away with its lofty claims, it is a decent product that is user friendly. My hope was that I’d find a better shade match and a similar level of user friendliness in this Tarte product.

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