One Week, One Palette: Tarte Tartelette in Bloom

For the fifteenth week of my one week, one palette project, I decided to use the Tarte Tartelette in Bloom palette. For the longest time (and maybe even now) this was the palette I recommended to people when they asked for "one palette to rule them all." While others gave recommendations of the Naked palette or the Chocolate Bar or even Modern Renaissance now (which I definitely do not think is a great palette for the casual makeup wearer), I've said Tartelette in Bloom. 

I think in a lot of ways this palette is perfectly curated. I love that it is primarily matte shades and the three shimmers it does have (unlike Modern Renaissance) are perfect shimmers. There's a classic champagne, taupe, and copper shimmer. They're perfect. I love that there's a cool row, a neutral row, and a warm/rosy row. While certainly far from perfect in terms of being wearable for all skin tones, I think different parts of the palette can be worn by most skin tones. There will never be a neutral palette that just looks amazing on all skin tones, but I think Tartelette in Bloom comes close for a basic palette. 

Top, from left: Charmer, Jetsetter, Rocker, and Smokeshow

Middle: Flower Child, Smarty Pants, Firecracker, and Activist

Bottom: Funny Girl, Sweetheart, Rebel, and Leader

I used every shadow in the palette and only occasionally brought in Make Up For Ever Pearl. 

Below are five looks I did last week. 

Look 1:

Firecracker on the lid, Sweetheart and Rebel blended into the crease, Leader padded onto the outer corner, Funny Girl on the inner corner, and Charmer on the brow bone. Leader on the lower lash line. 

Look 2:

Funny Girl on the lid, Sweetheart blended into the crease, Rebel padded onto the outer corner, Make Up For Ever Pearl on the inner corner, and Charmer on the brow bone. Rebel on the lower lash line. 

Look 3:

Rocker on the lid, Jetsetter blended into the crease, Flower Child blended above the crease, Smokeshow padded onto the outer corner, and Charmer on the brow bone. Jetsetter on the lower lash line. 

Look 4:

Firecracker on the lid, Smarty Pants blended into the crease, Flower Child blended above the crease, Activist padded onto the outer corner, Funny Girl on the inner corner, and Charmer on the brow bone. Rebel and Leader on the lower lash line. 

Look 5:

Rocker on the lid, Sweetheart and Rebel blended into the crease, Leader padded onto the outer corner, Make Up For Ever Pearl on the inner corner, and Charmer on the brow bone. Leader on the lower lash line. 

It might be considered pathetic, but this is probably the palette in my collection that shows the most use. When I first bought it, I actually ignored everything else in my collection for a solid chunk of time. And even then, I only really did one look, which was the one on day 1. Firecracker is one of my favorite shades of all time, and I really contribute falling for rose tones in the crease to my use on this palette. 

With that said, I now have other rosy shades that I prefer for the crease, and I found myself wanting to grab for those throughout the week instead of using the tones in this palette. Furthermore, on camera, the rose shades don't even look rose. They look like a warm brown, which is a little disappointing. 

I  had a fine time using this palette all week. I enjoyed the looks starring Firecracker more than any others, but that's to be expected since it's one of my favorite shades. I also felt like my makeup was very work-appropriate all week, which was nice considering that I used the palette to its full potential. I didn't do six looks this week like I've done in the past simply because I felt like the looks were already more of the same, and I wanted to have a "free" day in my week to wear whatever eyeshadow I wanted. 

Since I had never really used the palette outside of the copper/rosy combination, I decided it could be fun to do a look each day that used the colors the way Tarte/the palette suggests. Meaning, I put the shimmer color on the lid and then created a look using all the shadows in its row. The top row was look 3; the middle row was look 4; and the bottom row was look 2. It's probably not a surprise that my favorite look when using this method was look 2, since it incorporated the rosy tones. For the other two looks, I felt they were fine and nothing was wrong with them, but they were a little boring for my taste. It's probably also not surprising that I really enjoyed look 5 as well, combining the cool-toned taupe shade with the warm-toned rosy shades. 

I'll be honest in that I seriously considered decluttering this palette last week, and though I ultimately decided to keep the palette, it would not surprise me if I decided to declutter it at a later date. The biggest reason I had for decluttering it was that the majority of shadows in the palette are not unique whatsoever. They are incredibly basic, and there is not a ton of difference between a few of the shades. Rows one and two felt essentially interchangeable to me, and I don't find that to be valuable. 

The reason I decided to keep it, however, is that the palette is really a great neutral workhorse. I didn't have to think about creating a look on three of the five days, and while I felt the looks were a little simple, they were pretty and appropriate for work. That's a valuable trait for many people. I also kept it because Firecracker is one of my favorite shadows and I can't buy it as a single. I also love the rosy shades, and even though I have ones I like better in my collection, I will still use the ones in this palette. And finally, it makes an incredible travel palette. I don't have one designated travel palette, but I most often use my Ciate London Pretty palette with In Bloom as a close second. 

Overall, I do think this is a workhorse palette, and I mainly stand by my recommendation as an easy go-to palette for makeup novices or people who only want one solid neutral palette. If you are like me and have an obscene number of palettes, however, I would say this one is probably easy to skip. I love having the powerhouse neutrals all in one place, but that is just a convenience more than anything. I'm also growing increasingly unimpressed (to say the least) with Tarte's marketing tactics, so I hesitate to fully recommend the brand. With that said, of Tarte's eyeshadow palette offerings, this is my favorite.