Tarte be MATTEnificent Palette review

I recently purchased the Tarte be MATTEnificent palette which contains the amazonian clay formula of 1 blush, 6 eyeshadows, and 2 powder eyeliners. I was hoping this would
be that palette I could take with me traveling and not feel like I have to take a bunch of other palettes or individual products. The colors rose/beige neutrals and as the title gives away, the finish is matte. This palette is up my alley with the packaging, the type of finish I prefer, and the colors.

Blush: Elevated
Eyeshadows: sand out from the crowd, peach for the stars, two plums up,
pink outside the box, rose to the occasion, view from the taupe
Liners: dream in chocolate, don't stand black

Do I love it? Absolutely not. I want to. I really really really want to love this thing, I've been playing with it all day, but it really isn't working for me. Here's why. The shadows are so incredibly silky and finely milled, but because the are matte, they don't grab ahold of your lids and just blend away. When you dip your brush into this baby, it is so powdery that when you apply it to your eye and start to blend, there is no shadow to be seen (for reference, I am light/medium skin tone). I think for anyone lighter than me they may be able to get these colors to show up better, but I am half ghost, how much lighter can we get?! Here are some swatches..

I have tried this is a few different bases. I used MAC painterly paint pot, NYX pencil in milk (white base, sort of tacky...hoping this could hold the shadow), and NARS eye primer. I find that it is better to conceal the color of your lids to get more pigment, however, by the time you get these lighter shades to show, which is over half the shadows, it looks messy, uneven, and powdery because I had to pack on so much product. The two powder liners that come with this palette (brown, black) are quite good. They preform better than they swatch, but enjoying the blush, liners, and maybe a couple shadows isn't enough for me to enjoy using this. The shadows just don't blend out well and by the time you start to really layer, it looks powdery and you still don't get a full color pay off. I will say, the one look that didn't turn out awful was when I took the darkest color and packed it on the lid and blended that color out in the crease with the color 'rose to the occasion'...cute name huh?

Overall, I want to love this, everything about how the shadows look screams my name, but I don't love this, I don't even like it. If you have very fair skin and like the most neutral of looks, this is for you! This retails for $36, and I would spend your money on something else.

Thanks for reading!