When my bestie told me in December that was dying to try out Tarte’s Shape Tape, I had no clue what she was talking about.
If you haven’t heard of Shape Tape, well you must not be a beauty buff since it’s the most talked-about concealer out there. It’s so popular that Tarte limits customers to two per order and restricts the use of promo codes on it. So what is it exactly?
Well, it’s a concealer and a highlighter. They call it a two-in-one because for one, it’s a full-coverage concealer, but it also brightens and can act as a highlighter if you get it in a lighter shade or a contour if you go a few shades darker. Like other Tarte products, it contains Amazonian clay and conditioning mango seed and shea butters, so it’s super moisturizing for your skin and promotes skin elasticity and illumination with each application.
Available in 14 different shades from light to dark, this long-wearing formula delivers a natural coverage while still giving your skin that extra oomph which looks oh so natural. It’s so high coverage that you can use it to cover acne, dark circles, and redness.
Since it has MAJOR hype, I was so excited to try it. I got the colours Fair and Fair Beige, which are both quite fair in tone. The first thing I noticed about this product was the massive wand. This is probably two times the size of a normal concealer wand. To show how large this thing actually is, I put it up against a bottle of OPI nail polish as it takes up more than half the length of the bottle.
The consistency of Shape Tape is quite thin, but a little definitely goes a long way since it blends out really nicely. I’ve used both a brush and a sponge to blend out this product and both work equally as good. If you are using it to highlight, it definitely does do a great job of adding light to the face, so keep that in mind when choosing a shade, as it didn’t really oxidize that much to my skin tone to match. I’ve been using Fair Beige for the majority of applications and found that this concealer is a little lighter than my skin tone, but I’m down with that since it adds light to the face.
As for wear, it does last a long time with no creasing. I don’t know if anyone else has experienced this (if you have, please leave me a comment!), but when I apply it it has this cooling sensation to it. It’s very cold on my skin until I blend it out. Who knows, it could just be the shea butter or something, but I did find that odd. I also tried this out as a highlighter and I have to agree with Tarte that it does a really good job of adding light to the face. In the photo below I used it right under the hollows of my cheekbones to create some light there and it complemented my contour beautifully, adding some dimension to my whole look.
So it is worth the hype? It’s a pretty good concealer. I like how it’s quite thin in texture but it packs a serious punch when it comes to concealing since it’s so high coverage. Unfortunately it is not sold at Sephora stores (I feel like I’ve seen it in my local one though.. maybe it’s not available online?). You can order it directly from Tarte’s website, but unfortunately it’s so popular (they say that one is sold every 26 seconds!), that Tarte doesn’t offer promo codes eligible on it.
If you’ve tried Shape Tape I would love to hear your thoughts! Leave me a comment below with your experience with it.
Please note, product provided by PR. All opinions are my own.
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If there’s one makeup item you can never have too many of, it’s brushes (okay, I feel like I say this about every makeup item, but brushes especially). I have a lot of brushes, but they are one of the most important tools you can have in your arsenal. You can have the most amazing foundation and eyeshadows, but if you don’t have good brushes to apply them, then even the most amazing makeup item can be mediocre if it’s not applied properly. Long story short, brushes are uber important.
I have lots of brushes from a bunch of different brands, Quo, Make Up For Ever, Kat Von D, and Sephora Collection. I always look forward to Sephora’s brush collections since they often are a pretty good value for the quality of product you get. For spring 2017 they have released a whole new brush line that features a number of double-ended brushes.
There are obviously pros and cons with a double-ended brush. The only con I can think of offhand would be the fact that these are hard to store. You can’t really put them in a makeup holder as the brush at the bottom would get all mis-shapen. On the plus side though, you pay one price for two brushes, ones that are complementary, meaning that if you’re looking for face brushes, they have one that features a foundation brush on one end and concealer on the other.
Sephora was totally bomb and sent me all of their new Sephora Collection double-ended brushes. For the face, there’s Powder & Blush #201, Multitasker & Concealer #202, Foundation & Concealer #203, Shape & Highlight #204, Shadow & Crease #205, Shadow & Precision #206, Angled Liner & Smudger #207, and Filler & Spoolie #208.
These brushes are incredibly soft and I believe have synthetic fibres to them. They blend the product out perfectly. Depending on the brush, they retail from C$18 to $38.
I wanted to put these to the test, so I grabbed my Kat Von D Shade & Light Eye Palette, which I got during the holidays but for some reason have not used yet (crazy, I know), and came up with this brown smoky look. Since there’s literally a product for everything here, I used these brushes and a few other new Sephora Collection goodies to apply all makeup, including the Sephora Collection The Pointer Blending Sponge.
When I first laid eyes on the small container housing these two sponges, I just thought it was another take on the Beauty Blender, just in a more stranger shape. Turns out you actually fit these sponges over your finger so you can deliver efficient control when blending in your foundation, concealer, highlight, or contour. You wet these guys first like any other sponge then slip it on your finger and use it to blend out your makeup.
1. Starting with the brows, with the Filler and Spoolie #208 brush first brush out your brows then fill them in using the Sephora Collection Eyebrow Editor Brow Kit (shown here is Dark Brown).
2. Lay down an eyeshadow primer (I used the Kat Von D Lock-It Color Correcting Eyeshadow Primer in Light), then with the crease end of the Shadow & Crease #205 brush, apply Succubus to the crease.
3. With the eyeshadow end of the #205 brush, apply Sytry all over the lids.
4. With the precision end of the #206 Shadow & Precision brush, apply Liberatus to the brow bone to highlight.
5. To add a little bit of shine, I applied the Make Up For Ever Star Lit Powder in #15 to the lids overtop of Sytry, the matte brown. To finish the eyes, curl your lashes, apply mascara and then some falsies for drama.
6. For foundation, use the multitasker end of the #202 Multitasker and Concealer brush to buff foundation into the skin. I used Marc Jacobs re(Marc)able foundation.
7. Lay down the same eyeshadow primer to the lower lash line and then with the smudger end of the #207 Angled Liner and Smudger, work Succubus along your lower lash line.
8. To highlight the inner eye corner, use that same smudger brush and apply Make Up For Ever Star Lit Powder in 2 Frozen Gold. Apply mascara to your lower lashes.
9. For the concealer, I used Tarte Shape Tape in Fair Beige and one of the Sephora Collection The Pointer Blending Sponge to blend that out.
10. To set everything I used the Sephora Collection Cloud Cover large powder puff and the Make Up For Ever HD Powder.
11. For the contour, I used the shape end of the Shape and Highlight #204 brush and the Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit.
12. For blush, I used the blush end of the #201 Powder & Brush brush and Marc Jacobs Air Blush Soft Glow Duo in Lines & Last Night.
13. To finish up the face, apply a highlight to your cheekbones. I used Becca Skin Perfector in Rose Quartz and the highlight end of the #204 brush.
If you don’t have any brushes in your collection, or are looking for an upgrade for the ones you currently have, I definitely recommend these since the price is great for what you get (two brushes!).
As for which brushes to get and which to miss, as much as I want to recommend the #205 Shadow & Crease brush, for some reason I find that Sephora often makes their crease brushes long and flimsy, making it kinda tough to blend the colour out nicely on the lids. I prefer a stiffer, shorter crease brush, like a MAC 217, so as a result I would highly recommend the #202 Multitasker and Concealer. The Multitasker is a great brush to have in your collection anyways since it’s such a versatile brush. I actually have a mini of it in my travel makeup bag and use it for foundation, contour, blush, concealer, really anything face-related. The concealer end also can double as a crease brush since it’s more dense, so you can really get in there and blend out the product. Other brushes I recommend are the #201 Powder & Blush and #208 Filler & Spoolie.
As for housing the brushes, since they are double-ended and hard to stack horizontally, try storing them in a makeup bag. I’ve always been a huge fan of Sephora’s makeup bags since they always come out with on-trend designs every season. I’ve been digging the Frosted Light The Voyageur pouch (C$35) for spring. This pouch is vegan and features a holographic texture with a metallic tassel and perforated exterior.
Like you actually need an excuse to go to Sephora, but I would definitely stop in stop or online to check out (and feel!) their new brushes, as well as their newest accessories.
Have you tried Sephora Collection’s brushes?
Please note, I was sent these products from PR. All opinions are my own.
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Always on the hunt for longer lashes, I got eyelash extensions for the second time last summer. I went for regular fills for months after and for some reason in the fall, my eyes started developing an allergic reaction right after the fill. My eyelid would get all puffy and the skin would feel very dry and flaky.
Since I couldn’t believe that it was my precious lash extensions making my lids feel like that, I kept getting them but it still kept happening. So I gave up my lashes and went back to mascara. But now I was stuck with my medium-length lashes, which although are nice, I wanted longer, fuller ones, the kind I was used to have with my beloved lash extensions.
I’ve always been curious about eyelash enhancing serums. Do they work? Are they worth the money? Will they really make my lashes grow?It turned out to be perfect timing with the allergic reaction since I ended up receiving RapidLash in December. Since I was going to Asia in January, I held off on trying it for a couple months as you have to use this product every night for four to six weeks.
RapidLash is an eyelash and eyebrow-enhancing serum that features an award-winning formula that is supposed to grow your lashes in four to six months. The product has a tiny little wand that you swipe on the base of your lashes every night (or twice a day for the brows).
The product is fragrance free, paraben free, and not tested on animals. It contains an innovative Hexatein 1 Complex, which consists of six highly effective ingredients, including polypeptides, biotin, panthenol, amino acids, soybean oil, and pumpkin seed extract. The special formula is designed to condition, moisturize, and fortify to enhance overall appearance of more beautiful lashes and brows.
I used RapidLash mostly every night for six weeks, from the end of January to early March. In fact, I’m still using it, but did take the after photos this week as Monday was my six-week mark. Are my lashes longer? I think so, yes. However, they aren’t as long as I would have liked them to be.
I’ve always wanted to try Latisse, but that product is sold through clinics since it’s a pharmaceutical product, and is pretty pricey. I think RapidLash is a good alternative. You aren’t going to get super long lashes, ones you would get with extensions, but my lashes do look longer.
As for side effects, thankfully there were none. It takes literally seconds to apply, so the serum was easily added as a last step to my nighttime skin routine. They also have a brows and lashes formula too, which I gave my friend since she has very sparse brows (we took some before photos as well).
Do I recommend RapidLash? Well, it didn’t really make my lashes grow much longer. There are a few different lash serums already on the market that you can purchase at drugstores (I still get tons of views on my Rimmel London Lash Accelerator Serum that I did six years ago). For C$65 this product is quite an investment, but I would say it’s worth a shot to try out if you have short lashes and are desperate for longer lashes.
If you’re looking for a quick fix, try a good mascara (I’ve been loving Tarte’s Lights, Camera, Lashes mascara, but Too Faced Better Than Sex is another favourite) and a good eyelash curler. On another note, this product seemed to work wonders for Ziggy… KIDDING :P.
Have you tried RapidLash? How about another eyelash enhancing serum? What were your results?
Please note, items sent by PR. All opinions are my own.
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