Thursday, October 13, 2016


Too Faced "Chocolate Shop" Palette for Holiday, 2016 Review!

Forget what the calendar says, retail begs to differ - it's the holidays! And in celebration of the holidays, Too Faced has released the "Chocolate Shop" palette, "Christmas in New York!" This palette includes 21 eye shadow shades, a highlighter, a bronzer, a blush, and deluxe size samples of the "Better than Sex" Mascara, Melted Chocolate Liquified Long Wear Lipstick in "Milkshake," and a "Shadow Insurance" Eye Primer. This palette was created for Sephora; Ulta will have their own exclusive Too Faced holiday palette as well: the Too Faced "Merry Macaroons" palette. This set retails for $58, and is cruelty-free (kudos, Too Faced!)

Just like they have done in previous years, Too Faced has brought their signature, adorable "dollhouse" packaging back for the holidays! This kit is a little more condensed and less elaborate than last year's Paris palette, but still confirms that Too Faced is king when it comes to creative cosmetics packaging. This is totally display-worthy in your beauty room or bedroom. The eye shadow palette is a removable unit if you prefer to store it separately. When you open the lid of the eye shadow palette you are treated to a delectable cocoa scent - the same one you will be familiar with if you already have the chocolate bar palettes, chocolate bronzers, or cocoa contour kit. The aroma is truly delightful, and will give you one more reason to reach for this palette often! Get your aromatherapy during your makeup routine!

The included deluxe samples are great products, and the size is perfect for holiday travel. "Better than Sex" mascara is one of the best mascaras I have ever tried, and has become a staple in my collection. It causes my lashes to appear very full, thick, and long. This is about as close as I've ever gotten to false lashes in a mascara. The wand is made of fibers, which also is more comfortable on application than the plastic wands that are so common. The Melted Liquified Lipsticks are another product which I have kept going back for more shades, because they are very long-wearing, easy to apply, and non-drying on my lips. "Milkshake" is a very practical, nude brown shade. The primer is a functional primer that works to provide a good base for my eye shadows and help them last longer.

As for the eye shadow shades, there is an excellent range of light to dark shades, mattes, shimmers, and glitters, and a variety of pops of bright color, making this palette very comprehensive and fun. As for the formula... these are hit-or-miss. Some of them are very pigmented, while others I struggled to repeatedly apply trying to get them to show up. The glitters swatched far more pigmented than I was able to get them to show up on the lids. Most of the mattes and shimmers were less of a problem than the chunky glitters. I appreciated that a greater volume of product was included for the highlight shades, since I tend to use fewer of those in greater quantity than lid shades, which I tend to alternate more. I had some fallout with the glitter shades, but powder kickup in the palette was barely noticeable. The photo below shows almost no kickup after a full week of regular use. The shade names are delectable: "Indulge," "Cookie Dough," "Raspberry Rose," "Sugared Raisin," "Guilt-Free," "Tootsie," "Ginger Doodle," "Chocoholic," "Cake Batter," "Butterscotch," "Toffee Crunch," "Lava Cake," "Honey Dip," "Pound Cake," "Sugar Bells," "Mint Chip," "Jingle Berry," "Huckleberry," "Dessert's on Me," "Glaze," and "Banana Date." The swatches below are by finger and most of them appeared less pigmented with one brush application on my lids.

Also included in the eye palette are a highlighter, bronzer, and blush. The "Inner Light" highlighter is very light and not particularly pigmented, and barely showed up on my skin tone. The "Chocolate Soleil" bronzer performed well, and comparable to the full-size standalone product even though the ingredients are slightly different to hold up well in the different packaging. It blends well and does not appear orange on my skin. The "Chocolate Covered Strawberry" blush is a beautiful color and is very pigmented, but too dark and pigmented for my rosacea-impacted skin tone. I recommend applying with a less-dense brush and tapping it off before application to avoid too much of an overpowering look. While I can't use this as a blush, I was able to use it as an eye shadow - which was pigmented, beautiful, and long lasting! On darker skin tones and for people who do not have rosacea, this would be a great blush if not applied too heavily.

Full palette (individual swatches below)

VERDICT: Whether this product will be a good buy for you depends a lot on your priorities. If you are a collector who is interested in unique packaging, you may find this is a very worthy addition to your collection. If you don't mind a hit-or-miss palette as long as there are a lot of options, you may also enjoy it. But if you feel as though a palette is not a good value unless all or most of the shades are reliable, you may be disappointed with this. I tried most of the shades here over the course of a week and can say that there are definitely some I will want to use again and again and others I will simply avoid. But this would make a festive, delightful, and thrilling gift because of the beautiful packaging and wide array of choices that will cater to a lot of different people. If you are trying to choose between this one and the "Grand Hotel" Too Faced holiday kit - which I will have a review up for soon - definitely pick up this one. The "Grand Hotel" contains even more misses, less diverse shade selection, and the scents are way off from what they claim to be in comparison with the "Chocolate Shop" in my opinion. I definitely have no regrets about picking this up but concede that it definitely won't be for everyone.

Have a beautiful day!
Heather

Inner Light, Chocolate Soleil, Chocolate Covered Strawberry

Dessert's on Me, Raspberry Rose, Sugared Raisin, Glaze

Cake Batter, Butterscotch, Banana Date, Sugar Bells, Mint Chip


Indulge, Cookie Dough, Guilt-Free, Tootsie 


Gingerdoodle, Chocaholic, Toffee Crunch, Lava Cake



Honey Dip, Pound Cake, Jingle Berry, Huckleberry

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