1. Intro
In this post I’m going to demonstrate how you can use the tarte.com showstopper palette in your own marketing efforts.
Here are some of the things I will show you how to do:
1. Create a landing page
2. Promote your product with a promo video
3. Publish a press release about your product
4. Use a blog post for your press release and blog post
5. Use social media for promotion of your products and otherwise
2. The tarte showstopper palette looks
I’ve used the tarte showstopper palette for some time now and decided to write a quick post to share my thoughts about it. I’ve been using the palette for a couple of months now, and this is my first post about it.
When I started using the showstopper palette, I ran into a few issues. The color went on very thick, and the overall look was too messy for my taste. The build up of pigmentation was also not great; you’re basically stuck with one color that would be much better if it were just a bit lighter or darker as opposed to being so sheer and sheerly opaque as compared to other palettes I’ve tried out.
I bought this palette because of its high eight palette rating on Sephora (8 being one of the best palettes) though I do find other palettes in this price range on Sephora too expensive for me personally, especially when you think about how cheap brands like Bare Escentuals and Too Faced are…
So when my friend said that she wanted me to review it (because she wanted me to try out what she had), well, I didn’t hesitate at all! If there is one thing that people love doing on social media, it is reviews!
I have been keeping quiet about this brand because they are not yet available in India (trust me: they are amazing) but after reading all these reviews, I couldn’t help but want to give them a try! And actually, they did turn out amazing! They are super pigmented! The powders blend so well in your fingers; the colors stay true even after washing your hands off – especially when you have watery hands like mine – and the shades can be layered pretty easily too. You can also easily mix-and-match different shades together without any trouble at all.
It is also super easy to use; what I mean by this is that if you read through all these reviews by people who have tried every single shade of their brand (which really does make things easier), then you will get some idea of how easy/difficult each shade actually is to work with:
For example: On my initial look at what the showstopper palette looks like when swatched on bare skin: the lightest shade is almost completely opaque, whereas the darkest shade does not fully cover your face – which means
3. How to create the perfect look using the tarte showstopper palette
I have been using the tarte showstopper palette for years on a regular basis, and it is one of my favorites. The fact that it is $40 is one reason I love it, but more importantly are the eyeshadows that make up this palette. The shadows are very sheer, so you don’t need to use them much (depending on what you’re wearing), and they are easy to blend together because they dry so quickly. It’s also really handy to have two palettes in one — you can use one as blush or bronzer and another as highlight or contour (I use the highlight palette for contouring).
But before we get into the swatches, I want to talk about something else related to this palette: the base! There are three different shades in this palette — beige, bronze shade and gold shade — which make up a very natural-looking lighting look that looks great in most lighting situations.
I think tarte has made a huge improvement over her older palette by adding some extra pretty shades for an even more natural color scheme. But, since I work with mostly natural light most of the time, I am not always able to pull this look off naturally (which is why I like having both of these palettes). So, let’s take a closer look at those new colors:
Beige – This is a bit of a browny-beige color; it adds depth without feeling too dark or too warm. It looks good on all three skin tones. It would also be great as a highlighter if your skin tone leans towards more orange-toned than cool toned.
Bronze Shade – This color is similar to the brown shade in terms of its immediate color payoff but with warmer undertones and more matte finish than the other two shades combined. Again, it would look amazing on any medium tan skin tone but would also be great as a highlighter if your skin tends towards cooler tones or yellow/brown tones!
Gold Shade – This color is similar to bronze shade in terms of its immediate color payoff but with warmer undertones and more matte finish than bronze shade combined. Again, it would look amazing on any medium tan skin tone but would also be great as a highlighter if your skin tends towards cooler tones or yellow/brown tones!
For reference purposes only; we used baremesh foundation brush for swatches:
Beige/
4. The best part of the showstopper palette
I’ve been a fan of tarte Cosmetics for a long time and one of my favourite products is their showstopper palette. But, as I’m sure you are aware, it doesn’t come cheap. I recently got a chance to review their new showstopper palette (in the shade “Fatale”), which retails for $49.95 CAD and includes 4 eyeshadow shades (at 0.03 oz each) that are full size and in the “full coverage” category of medium to full coverage:
As you can see, they aren’t really any different from the older version (the original tarte showstopper palette). The most notable difference is that Fatale is matte rather than shimmery, it also comes in a larger size (4 grams vs 3 grams) and the packaging itself has changed from an opaque white plastic to a matte black one. The thing I like most about this product though is that it feels better in hand than previous versions; it has a more solid weight to it, especially with the bigger size and less plastic feel to it.
The packaging itself looks nice enough in keeping with Joss Whedon style packaging (I think he did this for all of his product ranges), but there just seems to be something about tarte that makes them stand out from other companies who do similar things — as opposed to just copying or at least running by the same template as others do. This isn’t necessarily a new phenomenon but I have noticed this trend since their first launch at MAC stores and have seen others follow suit since then; we should strive to keep up with what they do best: uniqueness, design thinking and execution.
5. Conclusion
I just finished reading a great post by Steve Blank about what he thinks is the missing piece of the Lean Startup puzzle, and how he believes it’s missing from a lot of startup and agile methodology literature today. I think it is a very good point, but doesn’t quite hit the mark for me. It is well written, but in my opinion isn’t quite accurate in regards to what I think the Lean Startup process should be about. For instance:
Steve says: “If you want to learn from a successful startup that has gone through an iteration stage, you should begin with a design problem – something that has not been solved yet. This can range from an existing problem that needs solving (such as an existing product feature or bug) to a completely new idea (such as an app idea). And if you are struggling with this issue, then start by looking at your product as if it were an untested technology (unlike any other startup). And when you look at your product as if it were an untested technology, then you will be better able to learn from failures than if you look at it as if it were an established technology.”
I agree with this sentiment in general; but I think this point is more accurate when applied to Lean Startup rather than Agile Software Development. To me, the main difference is that Agile Software Development engineers tend to believe that everything must be tested before moving on; whereas Lean Startup people (and other software practitioners) believe in “learning by doing” — which means experimenting with different solutions until one leads to success. In other words:
I don’t think Steve’s analogy holds water for lean startups; and there are many reasons why — including things like:
• Technology development typically happens at different times and in different ways depending on who owns the tools and who decides what they can do with them;
• The primary role of a leader is not (or should not be) managing people or leading them towards certain outcomes;
• The best way to learn something is to show someone else something they didn’t know before — i.e., learning by doing instead of testing;
In addition: I have some experience helping startups experiment with new approaches using both traditional methods like “testing with failure” and agile methods like “continuous integration & delivery” ( CI/CD ), so feel free to check out my series