Tarte Clay Stick Foundation in ‘Fair Neutral’ – Review, Comparison Swatches, Before & After

Recently Tarte released their version of a stick foundation.

It comes in 12 shades, and has a big selection for the lighter shades, which was music to my ears, seeing how it’s not uncommon for a brand’s lightest shade to still be a bad shade match for me.

The Tarte Clay Stick Foundation comes in a chestnut brown tube with gold accents, and an orange oil-spill design on the cap.

One tube contains 9 g of product compared to my current favourite stick foundation, the MAKE UP FOR EVER Ultra HD Invisible Cover Stick Foundation which contains 12.5 g of product.

I’m a creature of habit, so naturally I went for the lightest shade in the collection, figuring “This will do”.  Not this time.  That’s right – it was actually too light for me (which almost never happens).  But not to worry – I can always warm up a look with some blush and bronzer, and look a little less ghostly in the end.  For comparison purposes, I have swatched it next to the MAKE UP FOR EVER Ultra HD Invisible Cover Foundation in ‘R230’ which is a perfect shade match for my face.

I would classify this foundation as medium coverage that can be built up to full.  You can still see the freckles under my eyes and down my nose, but if I loaded on another layer of product, they would probably be covered.  The application was smooth, and it blended out easily with a damp Beauty Blender.  It stayed in tact throughout the day (although there was some oil blotting involved), and by the end of the day, it didn’t feel slimy like other stick foundations I have tried in the past.  I also liked the fact that the size of the stick was skinny, as it made for an easy application on those tricky areas like in between my brows, and under my nose.

If I were to improve this product in any way, I would recommend that the shade selection on the deeper end has as many shade options and caters to the variety of skintones, in the way that the lighter shade selection does (After looking at the product worn by models on the Tarte website, I would consider this collection to have six shades in the light family, four shades in the medium family, and only two shades in the deep family).

If this collection has a shade that suits you, I’d definitely recommend trying it out.