While the formula is different from the original and Creamy Shape Tapes, a couple of key components remain consistent across the line. For one, the Radiant Shape Tape will come in the same 37 shades as the other two concealers. “We’ve found that our shade range for Shape Tape works really well for our customers,” Kelly says. “So it was important for us to make sure that the [Radiant] shades match [that range] exactly.” Kelly and Sponaugle say they went to the lab and worked one-on-one with the chemists to make sure that, for example, Light Sand (my shade) in the Radiant concealer was exactly the same color as Light Sand in the original Shape Tape.
Although the Radiant Shape Tape has a new, rose gold design on the cap, that’s where the packaging differences end. “It’s our signature applicator, the same iconic jumbo speed smoother,” Kelly says. (“Jumbo speed smoother” is the brand’s trademarked name for Shape Tape’s large doe-foot applicator.) This, Kelly says, is especially great for all those people who want to use the product as a “found-cealer” rather than applying a full face of traditional foundation.
About the ingredients
There are three key ingredients that Kelly and Sponaugle say make Shape Tape Radiant a star. First, we’ve got three weights of hyaluronic acid “to drench your skin,” Sponaugle says. “It really gives you that 24 hours of hydration.” Los Angeles-based cosmetic chemist Jane Tsui is a big fan of formulas that contain multi-molecular weight HA. “The smaller the molecular weight, the deeper it penetrates,” she says. “The larger molecular weight sits more superficially on the skin, and can give a wrinkle-filling effect while also drawing moisture to the skin.” She explains that adding a true skin-care level amount of hyaluronic acid isn’t practical for makeup because “it can make a formula very goopy,” but even smaller amounts add a nice “little somethin’ extra.”
Continuing down the list of skin-nourishing ingredients, the concealer is also infused with hippophae rhamnoides — which you probably know as seaberry or sea buckthorn — fruit and seed oil. This berry, Sponaugle says, is packed with omega-7, a fatty acid that’s also great for skin hydration. Additionally, Tsui says, seaberry seed oil can have anti-inflammatory properties.
Perhaps most intriguingly, the words “diamond powder” appear on the concealer’s full ingredient list. It’s not literal diamonds — that’d probably up the price point a bit too much — but rather “special pearl pigments that are cut to mimic the shape of a diamond,” Sponaugle explains. “On the skin, they manipulate light, kind of like a diamond does, so it gives you that subtle illumination.” These powders also settle into your fine lines which admittedly sounds like the last thing you’d want in an undereye concealer, but it’s not what you think. Rather than settling in a way that makes any creases more visible, it fills in those fine lines so you get a super-smooth finish that, Tarte claims, will stay that way for up to 12 hours. Tsui confirms that these types of ingredients are commonly used in base products, like foundation or primer, to give the formula “a blurring or ‘soft focus’ effect.”
How I tested it
As someone who comes from a long line of people with strong undereye circles, I’ve been using concealer to tone down the purple in that area for as long as I’ve been wearing makeup. These days, I’m not as concerned about full coverage as I am about a formula that blends into my skin but doesn’t get caked up into the fine lines that showed up for my 30th birthday party and decided to stick around. Plus I, like Kelly, actually like my skin to look a bit uneven — I appreciate a product that tones down redness but doesn’t completely flatten out my skin tone.