Tarte Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Airbrush Foundation Review

Tarte is one of my favorite brands. Tarte is a cruelty-free, vegan friendly brand which I love. And their products for the most part are high quality and Over 40 friendly. So I was super excited to try their Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Airbrush Foundation and see if it just might make it onto the Holy Grail list of Foundations for Over 40. This is the first foundation I’ve tested and reviewed in my Foundation Over 40 Series and I thought that Tarte would be a good place to start.

Ready? Let’s take a look…

The Claim

According to Tarte, “Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Airbrush Foundation is a 12-hour, full coverage weightless powder foundation.”

“Powered by Amazonian clay & light-reflecting gemstones, this hypoallergenic foundation gives you natural radiance & matte coverage in a weightless, flake-free powder. The full coverage formula is all you need to cover redness, unevenness & pores, with Amazonian clay to help control oil & make your makeup last. Precious gemstone tourmaline works to energize skin & diffuse light for natural dimension, & the custom mesh applicator offers buildable & breathable coverage without settling into fine lines.”

Formula & Packaging

Tarte Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Airbrush Foundation is a loose mineral powder. It comes packaged in a small round tub with a twist off lid. You’re probably used to the plastic sifters that come with most loose powders and foundations. This foundation does not have that. Instead it has a strange, bouncy mesh covering the powder. According to Tarte, the bouncy mesh only releases a little bit of product at a time onto your brush allowing for perfect application and eliminating waste.

The cap was designed differently from other loose powders as well. It has an inner cylinder that when closed rests against the mesh to prevent product from getting all over the inside. It does accomplish that but I find this entire design to be extremely user “unfriendly” and I don’t like it at all. ?

Having used Bare Minerals for many years, I’m used to the swirl, tap and buff method where you dump a small amount of foundation into the lid, swirl your brush around, tap it off and apply. It’s easy peasy and fast. That is not possible with this Tarte Foundation due to the design of the cap. And I find that using Tarte’s recommend method of dipping your brush into the mesh, you end up with way too much powder on the brush and there is nowhere to tap off the excess.

I’ve been using the lid off of another product to tap off the excess and use the swirl, tap & buff method that I’ve been using for years.

**Tarte Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Airbrush Foundation comes packaged in a small round tub with a twist off lid with a bouncy mesh covering the powder.**

Ingredients

✔ Cruelty Free ✔ Paraben Free ✔ Gluten Free ✔ Vegan

All of Tarte’s products are formulated without Parabens, Mineral Oil, Phthalates, Triclosan, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Gluten. (I don’t even know what half of those are – but hey that’s great!) The star ingredients in the Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Airbrush Foundation are of course, Amazonian Clay, Tourmaline, Pearl Powder, Camellia Leaf Extract and Mineral Pigments. It also contains sea salt and caffeine and all of the shades with the exception of Rich Honey & Rich Sand contain titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. Rich Honey contains titanium dioxide but no zinc oxide and Rich Sand contains neither. There is no alcohol in any of the shades.

As a side note, even though the majority of the shades contain titanium dioxide and zinc oxide (the ingredients in mineral sunscreens), please don’t rely on this for your main sun protection. We don’t know the percentages and both ingredients are WAY down on the list so I suspect they aren’t high enough percentages to be labeled SPF. I hope you are using a minimum SPF30 on your face and neck underneath your makeup every single day! It’s so important…? See the bottom of this post for some recommended sunscreens that wear well on their own and under makeup.

Shade Selection

Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Airbrush Foundation is available in Sixteen Shades ranging from the lightest being Fair to the deepest in Rich Honey. I originally purchased the Foundation in the Shade Light Neutral which is where I normally fall. However, it was too dark and too orange for me. I returned it and ended up with the Shade Fair-Light Neutral after being shade matched at Ulta. Keep this in mind if you purchase this, you should probably go down one shade from what you normally wear.

Application & Coverage

Tarte Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Airbrush Foundation provides a smooth application and blends well into the skin. Tarte recommends using their Airbuki Bamboo Powder Foundation Brush to apply this Foundation. I didn’t purchase the brush. I’ve been using my It Cosmetics Airbrush Blurring Foundation Brush #101 (pictured above) which works great with this powder formula.

Tarte Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Airbrush Foundation is buildable to full coverage but it requires several dips of the brush into the powder to achieve that. I prefer medium to full coverage and it takes about 3 layers to achieve what I consider “medium” coverage. The finish is true to the claim of being matte and it does a good job of covering redness and evening out the skin tone.

The Wear Test

I tested this on two different days. On the first day, I applied sunscreen and NO Primer. The coverage lasted about 6-8 hours before it started to wear off and became patchy in places. Problem areas like the nose and chin were starting to wear off after 6 hours. It didn’t cake or settle into fine lines or wrinkles but did have areas where it settled into pores and resulted in the pores actually being more visible. This problem can be solved by applying a light coating of loose powder (I use Bye Bye Pores HD Finishing Powder from It Cosmetics) over those problem areas. Both powder bronzers and blushes wore well over this Foundation.

On Day Two, I applied sunscreen and a Primer. Using a Primer under the Foundation gave a much smoother and more flawless finish. I used one of my favorite primers, Rimmel Fix & Protect Pro Primer which is a fab Primer from the drugstore! With the Primer, there was no settling into fine lines & wrinkles, no caking but it did still settle into pores the same as Day One. The coverage on Day Two with the Primer lasted 10-12 hours, much better than without the Primer.

The coverage remained Matte throughout the day both with and without a Primer and it didn’t become shiny. Considering the heat and humidity we are experiencing in South Carolina right now, that was quite impressive!

Price

$36.00 USD for 0.247 oz.

Final Verdict

Overall, this is an above average Mineral Powder Foundation. It’s lightweight and not heavy feeling on the skin and doesn’t look like you are wearing “makeup”. And you get a lot of product. I have a feeling this tub of foundation will last several months or more even with everyday use.

Pros:

True to Tarte’s Claim of a Matte Finish
Doesn’t Settle into Fine Lines or Wrinkles
Doesn’t Look like Makeup
Good Ingredients with No Alcohol
Performs well with other Products
Wears well over Sunscreen
Doesn’t become Shiny throughout the day

Cons:

Requires a Primer to achieve Tarte’s claim of 12 hour wear
Settles into pores in problem areas
Light to Medium Coverage – Not Full Coverage without applying several layers of powder
Package Design is awkward, not user friendly

The Pros definitely outweigh the Cons and while this one likely won’t make it onto the Holy Grail List for me, it is a quality product and a good choice for casual days around the house or out and about. If you love the natural look and prefer light to medium coverage, this may be the one for you!

Have you tried Tarte’s Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Airbrush Foundation? What Foundations would you like to see me Review? Let me know in the Comments! As always, I’d love to hear from you!

Until Next Time…

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