Tarte Maracuja Divine Shine Lip Gloss

Tarte's Maracuja Divine Shine Lip Gloss ($21) is an answer to the prayers of women who want color - pigment - in their lip gloss. Available in 10 gorgeous shades, Divine Shine will drench your lips in healthy color and mega-watt shine, all the while pampering them with the benefits of nature's pure miracle, maracuja oil. Never heard of maracuja oil? Read on.

Always hydrating and skin-nourishing, each maracuja-infused shade will keep your lips moisturized while minimizing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. The result? Your lips will look fuller and more plump - even if they aren't. No false skin-care claims here! I love Tarte even if they can't follow conventional rules for capitalization (yes, I'm a bit of an English usage fanatic).

I decided to select one Divine Shine lip gloss to try it out, knowing I could go back to the well, something I do frequently with Tarte. The available shades are Blushing Bride (plumy rose), Flush (berry), Natural Beauty (cherry red), Amused (hot pink), Dollface (pink grapefruit), Adored (cotton candy pink), Charmed (pale pink), Glisten (peachy nude), Tipsy (warm peach), and Blissful (coral). Yikes! How was I going to select one online? I nearly threw a dart.

I selected Blushing Bride, which appeared to be a "me" color. Lucky me, when I ordered, there was a GWP offer, so I got a smaller-sized Blissful. Now that I know how these colors look, I'll be able to select more online and have a pretty good idea of what I'll receive. As you know, I'm an online shopper. Even though Tarte is available at Sephora, I hate visiting that dirty, crowded store (at least the one closest to me).

Here are two swatch photos of Blushing Bride (shown at the top of my arm) and Blissful. My photos were taken in late afternoon sun. Look at the rich and gorgeous color! Both are stunners on the lips. 

These are great lip colors in cute tubes. Kudos to the product development team! I also want to offer many thanks to the Tarte marketing team that puts accurate descriptions of the colors on the Web site. How often do you see that? Blushing Bride really is plummy rose, and Blissful really is coral. I realize this shouldn't be noteworthy, but it's rare.

To activate the gloss pen, click until product dispenses through white bristles.They do mean click. I had to click Blusing Bride about 40 times to raise the color into the application brush. That's the only flaw I can find with Maracuja Divine Shine Lip Gloss. It can be a workout to prime the pump.

OK - more about maracuja oil. One crop of this rare Brazilian fruit grows every year, with the harvest occurring in late August. Women of an Amazonian cooperative collect maracuja by hand and cold press the seeded pulp of the fruit, extracting the concentrated pure oil to prevent the loss of any nutrient-rich essential fatty acids (EFAs) or vitamins.

This skinintuitive and skin-smart ingredient that Amazon locals call "puro milagro" or "the pure miracle" is known to reduce redness, irritation, and inflammation of the skin. It delivers a healthy dose of vitamin C and the EFAs necessary for maintaining radiant skin. EFA deficiency can result in the breakdown of essential cells causing skin to appear and feel dry and aged. Pure maracuja oil helps to bring dull skin back to life. It firms and rejuvenates the skin, brightens, and leaves the skin smoother with it's moisture. More on the oil in another feature soon.

I'm sure you know that Tarte cosmetics contain no mineral oil, paraben, phthalates, or sodium lauryl sulfate and are cruelty-free. What nice choices for your lips! No matter what some "experts" say, most of us ingest our lip color.

You can find these beautiful glosses at Tarte's Web site, where I shopped, and Sephora.

Photo at top courtesy of Tarte; other photos by Best Things in Beauty