This week I am thrilled to bring you my review of tarte cosmetics. This new playful line comes from Troy Surratt, makeup artist and assistant to well-known makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin, and entrepreneur Maureen Kelly, and features a nice mix of soft neutrals and wearable vibrants. The blush and eye shadows are packaged in flat compacts covered in faux lavender leather with magnetic closures, and all the other products have the lavender influence, like lavender metal lipstick and lipgloss tubes. A few of my favorites include flush cheek stain, saturday lip sheer, double ended eyeliner, and pouty lipstick. Read on for details!

FYI - As you are reading this review, I encourage you to take a peek at the colors. You can find them at beauty.com.

24.7 Lip Sheer ($16)
If you want more punch than lipbalm but like simple, no fuss color, these lip sheers are for you. Don't let the lipbalm style packaging fool you - these are great, long wearing colors. Each shade is named for the day of the week, and all are neutral and very wearable. My favorites are Friday and Saturday.

Cheek Stain ($23)
This is the tarte product everybody is talking about. This gel cheek color is packaged in a push-up tube for easy, straight-to-skin application. No mess, no streaks, no brushes. Just swipe on and blend out the edges with your finger. Lasts all day and comes in three knockout shades: tickled peach, flush and sunkissed, all of which are flattering on any skintone.

Double Ended Eyeliner ($18)
Take the smoothest, most blendable black eyeliner you can find, pair it with the smoothest, most blendable brown eyeliner you can find, and this is what you get. Why don't more companies think of this? This liner glides effortlessly, smudges to a soft smokey look, and lasts well all day. Perfect!

Lipgloss ($19)
I inevitably end up with 5 or 6 lip colors in my purse because I love to change them with my moods. This lipgloss comes in handy because it has two colors in one package, one on each end. The color combinations and their names are clever - Romeo & Juliet, Tarzan & Jane, Adam & Eve, and Rhett & Scarlett. The glosses are smooth with just the right amount of shine.

Lipstick ($16)
For a more polished look than the glosses or sheers, tarte has a great selection of creamy but also long-lasting lipsticks. There were several times that I put a shade on, went about my business of the day, ate, drank, then looked in the mirror, sure that the lipstick would be gone, but it wasn't. A few of my favorite shades are pouty, whisper, lusty and foreplay (cool pinks and berries); other nice colors include hush, smirk and kissy lips (warm neutrals) and shock, hot pants, lolita and tantrum (more vibrant, stand-out shades).

Pressed Blush ($19)
If cheek stain isn't your thing (you might want to rethink that!), tarte's powder blushes are soft and long lasting, and come in shades to complement fair, medium and darker skin tones. Charm and charisma are pretty pinks for fair skin with cool undertones, verve is a light peachy tan (nice on fair to medium skin with warm undertones), and moxy, hottie, pizzazz, ra and dazzle are all richer and/or more vibrant shades good for either major impact on lighter skin or just the right oompf for darker skin tones. Charisma is my personal favorite.

Pressed Eyeshadow ($16)
Much like the blushes, there are some impressive shades here for medium and darker skin tones (which can also be blended out for lighter skin). If you like color, there are some high impact ones here, like juicy, shenanigans, rhapsody, hussy, tomfoolery, sultry. Subtler shades include lust, glisten, flirt, girlie, sissy and strip tease. All are easily blendable, not too sheer, and fairly crease resistant.

Makeup Brushes ($14 to $50)
I want to like these brushes, but every time I use one I end up with bristles all over my face. The Squirrel Powder Brush ($50), Squirrel Flat Top Blender ($45) and Goat-Pony Blend Classic Blush Brush ($30) are the most prone to shedding, and not only is it completely annoying, it's unnecessary and simply shouldn't happen with good quality brushes. The eyeshadow brushes are much better, especially the Squirrel Blending Brush ($16), Easy Crease Squirrel Eyeshadow Brush ($24), and Basic Sable Eyeshadow Brush ($24) (my favorite). Other notables are the retractable lip brush (designed like a pen) and double-ended spoolie (like a mascara wand) and metal eyelash comb (neither is on the beauty.com site yet). If I had to choose, I'd pick the Basic Sable Eyeshadow Brush and retractable lip brush from this collection.