When beauty YouTuber Tati Westbrook announced the launch of her own makeup line, Tati Beauty, and its first product, the Textured Neutrals Vol 1 eyeshadow palette, I happily jumped on the bandwagon to purchase it the day it launched. Apparently so did everybody else, because it sold out in less than 24 hours. Tati is the very first YouTuber I ever watched, and she remains, in my opinion, Queen Bee of the format. After years of testing thousands of products from other brands, the expectations for her first launch are pretty high. Let’s just say I could barely wait to dig in to this palette.
Price: $48
Find it HERE
Tested November 2019
For starters, the set up of Tati’s palette is incredibly interesting. Most palettes consist of a bunch of different shades that tell a particular color story, but Tati’s is made up of six colors, named Memory, Ritual, Story, Soothe, Aura and Poet, in four distinct finishes, Matte, Sequin, Metallic and Glitter. Let’s journey into each of these four finishes and I’ll share my thoughts.
Matte– The matte shades are staples that I would use in any look. The two darkest shades, inky black Memory and chocolatey Ritual, are great as liners, and Soothe may be the perfect transition shade. These are all incredibly pigmented…incredibly. A tiny touch on the pan goes a long way. They blend out super easily, and I had very little problem with fallout as long as I remembered to tap off the excess from my brush. Impressive.
Sequin– Hearing about the sequin formula was pretty much the clincher in my decision to purchase this palette. A glitter finish with a matte base (!!), these shadows are incredibly pretty up close and in person. Honestly, the swatch photos don’t do them justice. It took me a minute to understand how best to use them because my first instinct was to go in with a brush, lightly tap off the excess and apply to the eye. Wrong. When I did this, I lost all the glitter and basically ended up with the matte shade I already have in the palette. These apply best tapped onto the lid with your finger because it preserves the sparkle. This makes them slightly less versatile (detail work can be much harder using your finger instead of a brush), but I think they’re my favorite shades in the palette because they are so unique. They actually add something totally new to my (somewhat extensive) eyeshadow collection.
Metallic– Lovely and shimmery, I think these come across as the most muted shadows in the palette. Aura makes a really killer inner corner highlight and all of these shades are pretty wearable.
Glitter– When I first swatched these on my arm, I almost died at how absolutely gorgeous they are. I wish I could say I loved them just as much when applied to my eyes, but…I kind of don’t. Let me explain. The gel-based formula here is soft and densely packed with reflective glitter particles. There is a lot of talk in the makeup world about using cosmetic glitters on the eye, because none of these glitters (calling out lots of brands here, not just Tati’s) are technically deemed safe for use in the immediate eye area. Each of us has to decide if we feel comfortable using them. In general, I’m ok with these kinds of glitters in small amounts and with what I like to think is at least some common sense: not for eyeliner, the lower lash line or the inner corner.
When I went in to use Aura on the center of my eyelid like I would normally do with any glitter shade, I used it really sparingly and yet it overwhelmed the entire look. The shading I did at the outer corner with Matte Ritual and the Metallic Soothe I used on the lid were totally lost and covered in glitter. It was pretty glitter, but it was so dense it kind of ruined what I was going for. It was just a little…much.
It’s important to remember that this is legit glitter and even with a primer, little shiny flecks will end up on your nose or cheeks. I’m not even so mad at that, because the fallout wasn’t any worse than I expected, and a lot less than some glittery shades I’ve used before. And it really lasted on the lid for hours. After wearing the glitter for an entire day, however, I did start to worry about getting some in my eye. I actually took off my eye makeup earlier than usual once I got home that night and knew I wasn’t going out again. Might be more worry than it’s worth.
Getting down to it, this is a beautiful, richly pigmented and well thought out palette. It’s also way too glittery (half of the shadows here have glitter in them). While I can definitely get some pretty day-to-day looks with these shades, I think it’s more of a glam look palette. I will reach for this when I want drama and sparkle, but probably not when I’m running out the door and need a quick, easy eyeshadow. It is special enough for me to keep an eye on Tati’s upcoming launches. I heard there might be something new as early as Black Friday…
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