My mom tried to give me a poster for my dorm with a man holding up his kilt to the beautiful Scottish Highlands and a wee heiland coo in the background, with EXPOSE YOURSELF TO SCOTLAND at the bottom, but I didn't take the bait. Yet. I might put it up in our bathroom.

If you haven't gotten to the tarte Exposed color collection yet... maybe you can find it on ebay??? I found mine a few months ago at Ulta after it had sold out online.

I don't have the lip gloss because I gave it to my mom, who a) wears lip gloss a lot more than me and b) loves loves loves this type of color. I'm beginning to understand it- I liked it on lips and now I see the appeal on cheeks, too. It's incredibly flattering, making you look alive but without obvious color. For me, it just brings forth the natural color of my skintone, not the color I naturally blush, even, but just an enhanced color of my skin. 

The mini blush is kind of sheer, which I adore, especially for this kind of color. I can't tell if the cheek stain has a tiny bit of shimmer running through it, if it collected some shimmer from my face the first time I applied it, or if it just looks shimmery because it's a little shiny when first applied. Either way, gorgeous. These look especially good layered, and stay on foreeeeever. The cheek stain also smells lemony fresh, which I LOVE because when I put it on it makes my skin look so fresh and flushed! And lemony! I dunno, man, cheek stain sticks sound kind of gross in theory but somehow the lemony freshness helps to quiet the part of my brain yelling about that when I swipe this one.

The Power Pigment pencil is awesome. Really awesome. But I have an issue with it.
It's smaller than a mini LipSurgence. I checked. What the hell, tarte. It's really nice, though, but can you imagine spending $24 on something smaller than a mini?

It's pretty matte, because it's super pigmented (they don't call it a power pigment pencil for nothing) so there's texture galore. However, props to tarte because it doesn't feel matte at all, it feels incredibly smooth and creamy. And of course it has a pretty strong peppermint scent which I love. I guess to remedy this one should pair it with the lip gloss, which has a pretty strong cupcake scent to it. Mint cupcakes. Yum.

LipSurgence mini, 1.75 g. Full-size Power Pigment, 1 g. What???
I guess since the Power Pigment is more pigmented, the theory is you need less to achieve the same level of pigmentation. But seriously, what the hell is this. I can get 10.5 grams in six LipSurgences in the Kiss and Belle set (and two mini lip glosses) for $34, whereas $34 worth of Power Pigment would be 1.42 grams. WHAT???

TIP: tarte makes really awesome blink-and-you'll-miss-it sets, and this is definitely one of them. 3 full-size products for barely over the price of one of them? Hell yes. And these colors are so popular for a reason, which I've just discovered, but they may not work for everyone. Find your own pink-brown nude!

Something special, coming soon...

YES! Another mega-value set from tarte. I'm a little disappointed because it seems like they usually do sets with fewer products but make them full-sized, but I can't complain because these are actually awesome and their pocket-size makes them super easy to carry along everywhere. Plus, lots of finishes to try!

About the finishes: some of these are matte. Right. But Alluring is listed on the packaging, as you can see above, as matte, and it is not matte at all, so that's weird. Okay, tarte. More of your weirdness. I'll put up with it, though, because these two kits have given me a fantastic introduction to your product line.

Aw yeaaaah, lots of finishes. I love playing with different finishes. But let's get everything straight.

Eternal- listed as matte, is matte
Dreamy- not listed as matte, is matte
Kiss- lip gloss, glitterbomb
Alluring- listed as matte, is not matte
Innocent- not listed as matte, is not matte
Belle- lip gloss, super pigmented
Dainty- not listed as matte, is not matte
Fancy- is listed as matte, is matte

The matte colors are, for the most part, lovely. I found Eternal tugged at the lips a lot, but other than that they were all smooth and wonderful, very lightweight. The other lip tints look fairly similar but show up on the lips much brighter, somehow. And the lip glosses are lovely, of course, but oh my god does Kiss leave glitter everywhere. It's the first one I swatched and you can probably see the bits of glitter in all the other swatches because of it.

My favorite here is definitely Fancy, it's a great winter color, and Belle is lovely for a more casual winter option since it's kind of the same color. Below you can see the glitter carnage that Kiss leaves behind, and then Fancy topped with Chanel Savage Grace lip gloss. I don't know if I have ever seen two lip products so perfectly paired. Excuse the irritation around my lip lines, I haven't quite figured out how to swatch multiple lip colors, wipe each of them off, and re-swatch different ones without that happening.

TIP: Always wear lip balm under matte colors. These tarte ones don't feel matte but they look matte, and they are unforgiving.

Revlon Colorburst lip gloss in Sunbaked
Chanel Rouge Coco lipstick in Mademoiselle
Make Up For Ever sheer lipstick in N9 (in the Sephora birthday gift!)
Revlon Just Bitten Kissable balm stain in Honey

Comparing some colors similar to My Favorite Lipstick Ever!
The Revlon gloss I bought because of its similarity to NARS Dolce Vita, which I was interested in because of its similarity in color to Mademoiselle. It's a little darker and more brown, but looks great layered over Mademoiselle. The MUFE mini lipstick in this year's birthday gift from Sephora is awesome and super cute, and when I got it, I knew I had seen that color before! It's sheerer and balmier compared to Mademoiselle, but as a result easier to wear and apply without a mirror. 

The Revlon balm stain is actually not as similar as I thought it was going to be, but you can see it's still in the same ballpark. It's a mauve take on the shade, but looks lovely nonetheless. Your results may very because this is a balm stain, so it does have a tendency to show up as one color and then fade to another when the 'balm' part is gone.

TIP: Don't waste money on potential (failed) dupes for Mademoiselle like I did before I finally bought it. Look up swatches of real dupes. Make your own blog posts about dupes for it. Make sure they aren't discontinued. Or just save your money on each dupe you almost-buy, and when you've saved enough money from resisting impulse buys, buy the real thing. The real MVP here I'd say is the MUFE, and if you're a Beauty Insider it's free so that's even better.

My new foundation crush is Hourglass Immaculate liquid-to-powder foundation. It's absolutely incredible and has great coverage and a beautiful texture and finish. It's pricey, though, like all Hourglass products, at $55 for a bottle.

I apply it by pumping a little on my fingertip, smearing it on problem areas and quickly buffing it in with the Real Techniques buffing brush-- no time for putting it on the back of your hand, it dries fast. I haven't tried mixing any luminizers into this but I imagine that would extend the drying time of this, if you need it. It's lightweight and mattifying as all get-out, only needing a tiny bit of powder several hours later to eliminate shine and touch up coverage (if you need it like I do).

Some people have said they can't apply concealer on top of this but I've had no problem blending my L'Oréal trublend crayon concealer over the spots that need more coverage, and both have a skin-like matte finish and neither look cakey when applied and blended properly, so everything works well. Setting this with any of the ambient lighting powders makes this a joy to wear.

SEE HOW AMAZING

After several hours, still lookin good. My spots and hyperpigmentation are peeking through but they do that anyway-- I don't like building up coverage to "unnaturally perfect" because letting a little show helps me a lot with my insecurity when I go without makeup.

It's a little shiny but for 8+ hours that's really good wear time. Mattifying powder cleans it right up, if you need it.

There are only two things I dislike about this foundation and can't seem to fix-- it transfers if I scratch my nose with my sleeve or wipe something off my face with a napkin. Not a huge amount off my face, but it's definitely noticeable on my sleeve. Also it took me s while to figure out how I wanted to apply this. I started out using my fingers, but my skincare products were making everything "pill" like an old sweater, then I tried a traditional foundation brush which left things a little too heavy and it seemed to oxidize a lot, which hadn't happened before (or since). Maybe the realtechniques brush is just specially awesome, but it's really the only way I've found to really seamlessly work with this formula. I also tried the e.l.f. flat-top powder brush and it worked pretty well, but definitely a second place far behind the realtechniques brush.

TIP: Put in the work to make your foundations work. It's so worth it, and often it's not even a lot of work, just a lot of trial and error.