This Figgin’ Thing!

I bought this eyeliner a few weeks ago and have been alternately loving and hating it ever since.

The product in question is Tarte SmolderEYES (Get it? Do you get it?) Amazonian Clay Waterproof Liner. What’s the deal with Amazonian Clay, you ask? It seems like Tarte is putting it in everything these days. Here is what they are telling us about it: “a nutrient-rich, multitasking and total-skin-balancing clay that reduces dryness and flakiness, improves skin clarity, elasticity, firmness, and texture while removing oil from the skin's surface for smooth application and wear.” That all sounds pretty good, I guess. Might as well! The other “skinvigorating” ingredients are beeswax and mineral pigments. The mineral pigments are represented on the packaging by a picture of A DIAMOND. It’s cruelty free, paraben free, mineral oil free, petrolatum free, phthalate free, etc, etc free free. That’s one of the great things about Tarte products.

Tarte smolderEYES is the fat kind of eye pencil, and it has the word “emphasEYES” printed on it, because I guess they couldn’t resist. It has a nice soft blending tip on one end, and the pencil on the other end. It came with it’s own sharpener, so you don’t have to try to find one the right size. It’s waterproof, but I haven’t tested that out. However, I’m wearing it right now, and I slept for approximately two hours last night, so there is a pretty good chance I will cry over nothing at some point today. Feel free to take bets on what it will be!

The product is really soft, so it’s goes on kind of heavy. But you can smudge it! But if you smudge it too fast it vanishes. But if you smudge it to slow, it doesn’t smudge at all, it’s just stuck there. Waterproof. So it’s kind of tricky. And that’s what was driving me crazy. Plus, it’s so soft that it gets dull really fast. I used it only three times before I felt like I had to sharpen it. I had the idea to use a smudge brush to apply and smudge the product instead, but I kept trying to use it as it intended because IT SHOULD WORK. Sometimes it turned out okay, but the best results I’ve had were when I finally caved in and used a Sonia Kashuk smudge brush from Target.

Why would I go through that much effort to get this product to work properly? It seems like the kind of thing I would return, which I considered many, many times. But here is the thing: The color is kind of amazing. I’m not really into purple, but purples tends to be really flattering for my coloring, so I have to be open to purple. But it has to be an “acceptable” one.  This one is beyond acceptable, it’s great.

The color I got is called Fig, and that is an accurate description. It’s not as purple-y as the shade they call Plum, which is more of a Crayola purple, and for me is NO. I would say this is a little warmer? A tiny bit browner? It’s pretty much fig colored, but like, a slightly shimmery magic fig. (Which are the best ones.) And this magic fig does great things for brown eyes. It makes them look… well… browner. But in a really good way! It doesn’t scream purple, it’s pretty subdued and practically a neutral. I’ve been using it when I want a softer look than my usual black or gray. This would also be an easy swap for brown liner if you are someone who only ever wears brown liner, but wants to try something new. (But not TOO new.)

The smallest amount smudged into the lashline with a brush gives a nice natural look, and you can increase the intensity from there. You can actually use this as an eye shadow if you want, but you’ll need to smudge like the wind! They say you can also create a crisp look, but I’ve found that even the freshly sharpened pencil created too thick of a line to leave un-smudged.

So, yeah! Somehow this won me over, even though I need to use a brush to apply a pencil that came with a smudger. I’m a sucker for a good color.