Tarte "Gifted" & Benefit "They're Real" Mascara Reviews

Hi everyone!  So, I’ve been using my two new mascaras alternately for the past week and I figured I have enough…data…experience…something…to give my opinion on them.

To start out, here’s a picture of my eyelashes with nothing on them.  As you can see they are sort of light and fairly short.

I tried the “Gifted” Tarte Amazonian Clay Smart Mascara first.  This is the one I saw on QVC and thought at first the model was wearing falsies.  Then, when they put it on the 2^nd model, I saw that it wasn’t fake eyelashes, it actually was the mascara.  After using this I honestly believe this actually works.  It lengthened, thickened and lasted the 12 hours Tarte claims it will without flaking.

A few days later I tried the Benefit “They’re Real” mascara.  This one works like expected as well.  It also lengthened, thickened and lasted all day.  It seems to work just as well, if not slightly better, than the Tarte “Gifted”, and I do like it a lot as well.

Over all, they are both great mascaras and would be perfect for anyone who wants something to  make their lashes look long and thick.  By volume, the they are about the same price, the Tarte is $19.00 for .24 oz and the Benefit is $22.00 for .3 oz.  I will more than likely only repurchase the Tarte “Gifted” however.  I have fairly small eyes and the brush on the Benefit mascara is actually too big for me and I can’t get it into my inner lashes without getting it all over my eyelids.  I have included pictures below of the wands so you can see the size of the applicators.

The applicator brush on the Tarte is average size

As you can see, even though the wand is short, the applicator brush on the Benefit is quite a bit larger than on the Tarte.

Additionally, the Tarte mascara is made of natural ingredients with no mineral oil, parabens, phthalates, sodium lauryl sulfate or synthetic fragrances, which for me is nice since my eyes can be quite sensitive.  However, since both mascaras work very much the same I would recommend either one to anybody looking who asked.

Also, just for reference, I have included a picture of my lashes with my other favorite mascara, MAC’s Mascara X, which has very similar results as the above mascaras.  However, it appears that Mascara X may have been discontinued as it is no longer on MAC’s website, though it would have been nice had I been told this the last time I bought a new tube L.  I guess it’s a good thing the Tarte “Gifted” lived up to my expectations, lol.

I hope this review helped anyone who was on the fence about either of these mascaras.  I really liked the way both worked and am very pleased with all the results.  If you have any questions or anything, let me know in the comments and I’ll get back to everyone!

That’s it for this evening, have a great night!  I’ll talk to everyone soon! J

Weekly Wrap-Up

And finally, the last post of this evening, lol.  Like I said, it’s been a hectic kind of weekend.  Friday night Scarlett and I went ice skating since she needed to practice some of her moves.  Then yesterday I was out all day and by the time I got home it was time to get ready for family night.  So now that I’m all caught up, it’s time for the weekly wrap-up!

Starting with weight loss this week I’ve maintained since last week so that’s good.  I’ve been pretty good about eating healthy and working out at least 3 times a week.  I hope everyone is enjoying the “Healthy Meal of the Week” posts and are getting some use out of them.  I’d also like to say again that I am so proud of my team at work.  Everyone has been so dedicated, supportive and just plain out awesome!!

Moving on to beauty purchases, I have quite a few.  I did say that this week would make up for last week’s zero purchases, lol.  I’m just going to recap what I had in my haul video so if you’ve seen it this is nothing new.  For those who didn’t watch the video, enjoy!

At MAC I picked up a new lipglass in “Pink Lemonade” which is a really pretty salmon/coral type color.  Like many lipglasses it is quite pigmented and so far what I’ve tried of it looks really nice.

At Sephora I got a second Stila “Love at First Blush” blush palette.  I got one at Ulta around Valentine’s Day and wanted another since it is limited edition.  However, Ulta never got any more it so I was excited to find one yesterday. 

I also got a small trial/travel size of Benefit’s “They’re Real” mascara.  I’ve been wanting to try this for a while but didn’t want to spend the $22 on the full size.  The travel size was $10 so I figured what the hay and grabbed it.  I’ll let everyone know how it works. 

The next thing I got was my birthday “gift” sample since I’m a member of the Sephora Beauty Insider club and it’s my birthday month.  This year’s sample is a Fresh “Sugar Kisses” mini lip duo.  I’ve never tried anything by Fresh so we’ll see how these work. 

And finally at Sephora since I hit my 100 points on my Beauty Insider card I went ahead and redeemed my points for a Sephora brand lipgloss sample in “Pin-Up Pink Shiny”.  It’s a bright pink but it is a bit on the transparent side so it ends up not as bright on.

My next stop yesterday was Ulta where I picked up a few minor necessities like some more cotton rounds, cotton swabs  and new Beauty Smoothie 3-in-1 in Pomegranate Passion (I only use this as body wash, not as shampoo like can be done).

I also picked up 2 Tarte items.  One is an Amazonian Clay 12 hour blush in “Dollface” which is a nice medium pink.   The other was a tube of Gifted Amazonian Clay smart mascara in “Black”.  I’m most excited about this mascara.  I saw it on QVC about a year or so ago and it looked like it was amazing.  I honestly thought the model had on false eyelashes they were so long and thick compared to the “before” pictures.  That was until I actually watched it being applied to the 2^nd model.  It made her lashes look sooo awesome!  I’ll be sure to let everyone know if it works as promised.

I also grabbed a new Loreal 8 hour Infallible le gloss in “Pink Topaz”, a bright hot pink.  These glosses are quite pigmented, more like a lipstick.  I really like the formula and they do last quite a while after being applied.

Next I got some new eye shadow.  Two were just some of the Ulta brand singles, one in “Bayou”, a silvery purple-blue, and the other in “Iceland”, a frosty white, since they were Buy One, Get One.  I also got the “In the Garden” Stila palette which has some really pretty spring colors in it.  I’ll be sure to get some swatch pictures up tomorrow of this.  Now to just work on some pretty looks from this.

Finishing up at Ulta I picked up a fingernail polish from Butter London in “Trout Pout” which is a nice salmon colored cream shade.  I don’t usually buy Butter London polishes, even though they have really pretty colors, because they are a bit pricey for nail polish.  I had some extra money though so I went ahead and decided to try it. I haven’t used it yet but will soon.

The last place I stopped was Target.  I only picked up some more Biore Blemish Fighting Ice Cleanser, which I LOVE, and some contact solution.  Kinda boring compared to everything else.

I did get a few fashion items I’ve kept separate from the above items.  At Target I grabbed a new plain white tank top and a new pair of Levi’s “Denzien” capris in dark denim.  And lastly I got a new top at Rue21.  It’s a bright pink with some blues in a leopard/giraffe type print.  It’s just really cute.

That’s it for purchases this week.  I’m really excited about everything I got and can’t wait to try it all out.

I’ll end tonight with this week’s manicure.  This one is “Barbados Blue” from essie.  It’s a really pretty light blue pearl.  It’s the one I purchased 2 weeks ago and I’m very happy with the color

Well, that’s all for this week!  Hope everyone has a great week ahead and I’ll talk to y’all later! J