Too Faced Chocolate Bar Eye Shadow Collection Review, Swatches and Photographs

Hello gentle readers.

One of my favorite recent makeup acquisitions is the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Eye Shadow Collection, a beautiful collector's tin filled with sixteen matte and shimmer eye shadows formulated with real, natural cocoa powder. It is thought that chocolate has soothing properties and can help to protect, condition and heal skin that has been exposed to sun and wind. I can't speak to the healing and soothing claims but I can say that the cocoa powder these shadows are formulated with make them smell delicious.

Okay, let's begin with this box. Pure Too Faced too sweet and pretty. How can you resist this box? It looks like the loveliest jumbo chocolate bar wrapper in girlie heaven. Confession? I haven't thrown my box away, yet. I normally toss outer packaging, right away because who needs clutter around? But this little box is still lurking It'll go, eventually. I am not ready to heave it out, just yet.

The tin packaging is brown and shaped like a chocolate bar and the little raised areas coincide with the eye shadow pans contained within. The packaging feels fairly substantial and very nice in the hands, the surface is smooth and silky, very much like a lovely, perfectly tempered chocolate bar. I am not the biggest fan of brown but I don't object to this palette, because chocolate. It looks pretty siting on my dressing table or stacked in with my other palettes. The surface is easy to keep clean. My one small gripe with this palette is that the magnetic closure that secures the lid is a touch weak and I need to remember to be careful when I pick this palette up or it can swing open when I don't want it to and I have dropped it, as a consequence. Happily, it suffered no breakage. *big whew!!! of relief!*

As the palette is opened a couple of things arrest your attention. The adorable surround around the large mirror inside the lid. The sweet, soft waft of chocolate that hits the nose. The legend sheet that tells us which flavors await our eagerly seeking shadow brushes. No guessing, here. We know exactly what we are getting in this box of chocolates. Unfortunately the only place the shadow names are listed are on that dratted legend sheet, necessitating my having to hang on to it. Really, Too Faced? All of the palettes you have created, you know better. This was lazy and sloppy. Especially since there would have been room to list the shade names in the palette above each shadow with just a tiny tweak in the overall size. Tsk-tsk.

Also, just let me gripe a bit... When this palette arrived on my doorstep, Milk Chocolate was out of the palette and there was a nasty glue smear on the plastic bar between it and white chocolate. I still need to work on getting it all cleaned up pristine but I decided to leave it a mess until after photos and review because it needed to be seen and discussed. Why? because, for fifty clams, in my not so humble opinion, a palette should be flawless, thank you very much. Am I demanding? Why yes. I am. #sorrynotsorry

The shadows, themselves. Have I mentioned that they smell like chocolate? If you haven't experienced this palette, yet, please know that I am not BS-ing you, here. It really, really does smell like chocolate. Softly, sweetly, gently like chocolate. And not nasty, chemical, fake chocolate. It smells real and sweet and yummy and it is gorgeous to work with because every time I do my eyes with this palette, it delights my senses as well as my eyelids. Om, nom, nom, nom!

There are two highlight shadows, one matte, one shimmer, 0.10 oz each.
Fourteen shadows in a mix of matte and shimmer shades, 0.03 oz each.

This palette is largely neutral with a few bright shadows to lend a fun, pop of colour and even a bit of sparkle to your eye looks, should that be what you would like. In my personal experience, these shadows perform best and last longest when applied over an eye shadow primer or base. I don't find this to be a detriment. I use primer or a creme base shadow routinely. Over a primer or base, I get all day wear with no fading or creasing. If I neglect to apply a primer, first, I experience some fading and creasing, mid day and by the end of the day, my shadow doesn't look as fantastic as I would like. As with all products, YMMV, this is my own experience.

Time for some swatches and a run down of the individual shades: These swatches are on the inside of my forearm, over primer, photographed in a combo of OttLight and light coming in through my window.

• Gilded Ganache: Medium-deep brown with a gold shift and shimmer. A little stiff in the pan, beautiful pigmentation and payoff, applies and blends beautifully.
• White Chocolate: Soft, velvety, semi sheer matte creme highlight or all over the lid shade. Very soft and a bit flaky.
• Milk Chocolate: Light, generously pigmented matte slightly rosy based tan brown. Soft, velvety, applies and blends beautifully. Lovely lid and blending out or transition shade.
• Black Forest Truffle: Intensely pigmented purple base with gold shift and shimmer and fleck. A bit stiff and flaky gives up some fallout. Is intense when swatched. I haven't played with this on my eyeballs, yet. (Dark circles and purple? Yeah. No.)
• Triple Fudge: Matte deep brown. Extremely pigmented. Very stiff to the touch and to swatch. Applies patchy and needs a great deal of work to smooth out and make even and pleasant. Not the best matte in this palette.
• Salted Caramel: Warm light caramel brown matte. Lovely and smooth and soft. Great pigmentation and payoff and blends like a dream. Love this for transition and blending.
• Marzipan: Silky smooth insanely pigmented peach shimmer. Slightly flaky but nothing to worry about. Delicious.
• Semi-Sweet: Matte medium brown. A tad stiff but not hard. A little patchy but definitely blendable. Very pigmented, make it work, it's worth it. Crease, lower lash line liner... Yep. Yep.
• Strawberry Bon Bon: Soft, velvety, smooth, somewhat sheer-ish cool toned matte light pink. I like this for highlight or inner corner or lid for easy, breezy light-bright eye looks.
• Candied Violet: Slightly sheer violet shimmer with bright pink fleck. A bit stiff, not super pigmented but very pretty swatched, I have yet to get this on my eyes.
• Amaretto: Rich red-brown shimmer. Intensely pigmented, very silky and smooth to apply tho a bit stiff to the finger touch.
• Hazelnut: Medium brown shimmer. Very pigmented and beautiful payoff. Silky going on tho a touch stiff in the pan. Have a care for fallout.
• Creme Brulee: Ooo! Gorgeous golden shimmah. Smooth, pigmented, applies like a dream. This is like the custard. Delicious. Perfect.
• Haute Chocolate: Medium-deep brown shimmer. Smooth, intensely pigmented, applies and blends like heaven.
• Cherry Cordial: Deep, intensely pigmented matte burgundy with tiny hints of iridescent fleck. Stiff, dry, a bit patchy but blendable. Really beautiful to look at but it is my experience that colours like this don't look well on me and I haven't put this one on, yet.
• Champagne Truffle: Pale, pale pink shimmer highlight shade. This one can also do double duty as a face highlight with a very soft brush and a light hand.

The Too Faced Chocolate Bar Eye Shadow Collection is an excellent palette. The colours are versatile, wearable and age appropriate whether you are seventeen or seventy. This palette can flatter a wide range of skin tones and delight the nose every lover of something sweet. Look, If you haven't checked this palette out, yet, give it a shot. Go to Ulta or Sephora and swatch it for yourself. Don't let the branding throw you off; I steered clear of Too Faced for a long time because I thought it was just for kids. Nonsense. Too Faced is for anyone and everyone who loves pretty, quality makeup and whimsical, charming packaging. If you love those things like I love those things, go get yourself a Too Faced Chocolate Bar Eye Shadow Collection palette. Seriously. Go get one. You'll love it.

Did you take a shot every time I said love? How drunk are you?
Do you own this palette? Do you love it? Were you underwhelmed by it? Please do tell, I'd like to hear what you think.
The Too Faced Chocolate Bar Eye Shadow Collection palette is $49.00 and is available at Sephora, Ulta, from their websites, from Too Faced's website and various other sellers of quality makeup.
I am not posting consistently. I understand this and I am not apologizing and I am not offering an explanation I just want to say that I am trying. Trying to get my blog mojo back and my life mojo back. It's just... Taking me time. I'll get there. Thank you for swinging by and reading and have a beautiful day!