Tarte - Treasure Chest Palette

Products included:
16 Frost Eyeshadows
16 Matte Eyeshadows
16 Lipglosses
1 Bronzer
1 Luminizer
4 Blushes

This palette was the first time I tried any Tarte products. The eyeshadows are gorgeous, but honestly after trying them a few times, this palette ended up in the back of my cupboard and rarely gets pulled out.


The main reason for this is the packaging. It's cute, and I guess it would appeal to younger girls, but for me I just find it to be a pain. The top layer of frost shadows opens outwards in such a way that it's awkward to get to the outside layer of the top rows of matte shadows underneath. The lip glosses slide out in a drawer form underneath the matte eyeshadows, and the layer with bronzer, blushes and luminizer slide out in turn from inside the gloss drawer. This means that to get to the bottom layer you have to slide out double layers. I've got very limited counterspace in the bathroom, so getting to the drawers or opening out the top to get to the matte shadows is awkward and risks knocking over the entire thing.

Also the top has a flap that folds down around the front where the drawers slide out of, but the magnet that holds it in place isn't very strong and nothing holds the sliding top layer in place. It's really easy to lose your grip on it and have the side sections pull out or the drawers slide forward, sometimes at the same time, making accidents inevitable. Which is precisely what happened to the bronzer in mine - the drawers slid out suddenly, causing me to lose my grip on the entire thing, and not only that, but the bottom drawer then fell out of the palette completely and the bronzer smashed on the floor. That wasn't fun to clean up! Because of the beads stitched onto the top it's also impossible to stack properly for storage purposes.

All of this combined overshadows (no pun intended) the products for me and I just got so frustrated that I shoved it into the back of the cupboard rarely to be touched. If you have enough counterspace to store this one on a countertop and open it fully to use it, these issues probably won't be an issue - just be careful with the drawers and pull-out sides when you're moving it!

I do like that the palette has both frost and matte finish eyeshadows in equal quantities, whereas a lot of palettes only have one or the other. The matte shadows are very smooth to apply and blend well. Some of the frost shadows are a bit too glittery for my taste and harder to work with, but it also has a fair number that are highly pigmented, rich colours. Overall if you have suitable storage options, it's a great deal.

Ratings:
Packaging: 2/5
Product quality: 4/5
Worth the price? Yes.
Would I purchase again? No.