She's as cold as ice: reviewing the Icy Betch eye & cheek palette by Tarte...

The Icy Betch began life as a joke 12-pan eyeshadow palette last April Fools day on Tarte's Instagram page [or was it actually a clever way to gather customer responses & marketing idea?], which disappointed thousands of people who actually wanted to own a palette in that colour scheme. 


Fast forward to the lead-up for this year's April Fools day and Tarte began dropping promos and swatch snaps, before unveiling the real Icy Betch - yeah, I hate the cringy name too - palette; the real one contains 9 pans of shadow at 0.9g each, and 1 cheek/eyes highlighter [5g].

As someone who'd been excited by what was a joke last year and have said that I would have bought it if it became real, I naturally jumped straight on it this year...

Tarte has become hit or miss in terms of quality, however Icy Betch doesn't let us down. The shadows [the bottom 3 in the rectangular pans are wet/dry shadow and liner ones) don't all swatch well, but in use on the eyes they are all silky smooth, nicely pigmented and wear well for a complete working day. No complaints with the shadows whatsoever - I'm a big fan of compact palettes, which doesn't waste product space with the same boring types if neutrals, instead giving us the fun shades in icy white, blue, aqua, green, teal and silvery grey. I've been making complete eye looks with this palette alone, but it's very easy to pair this with a neutral palette and make Icy Betch go much further. This is a really fun palette, that is affordable.

I've tried a half dozen or so Tarte highlighters over the years, and Regina is the least 'wow' on me; the highlighter appears to be icy silver, but it actually has a peachy champagne in the undertone which tones down the shade, making it too subdued for my tastes; it is pretty and it does wear well, but I just prefer my highlights to be a bit more I'M HERE and just assumed it'd be more punchy like the other Tarte highlights I've tried, and since the shadow shades are vivid I'd guessed that the highlighter would be vivid too. If you like your highlight to be less wham bam than I do, then you'll enjoy this; it comes of as pearl on skin, rather than the ice/silver it looks in the pan.

Tarte eyeshadows were some of the first medium/low upper end ones I ever bought for myself [my first trip to a Sephora in NYC], but up until now I'd not bought any Tarte eyeshadows for a fair few year's, as they began doing the same colour story over and over, plus their formula quality became rather inconsistent. However Icy  Betch has reminded me about just how good they can be.

I don't get the reasoning behind how people are accusing Tarte [and Revolution] of copying Jeffree Star; do people really think that Tarte saw his reveal video for the Blue Blood palette and formulated their own shadows, manufactured the palette and outer packaging, assembled everything, , completed customs and safety testing, shipped everything to their retail outposts and had it in warehouses ready to sell, all within a fortnight?! This may shock people, but Jeffree Star didn't invent blue eyeshadow - Cleopatra and her fellow Egyptians were rocking blue and green colours a few thousand years before these cosmetic brands existed. I think people need to hop off the drama train and stop searching for things to bitch about...

The Icy Betch palette is £21 and is available on the Tarte site.

Their site ships worldwide and VAT & duties are included in their prices, so there are no customs & handling charges to be added. Their international shipping is great too [and is only £6] - I ordered the palette from their US-based site last Friday and received my package in England 4 days later.