Too Faced The Chocolate Shop Review & Swatches
The Too Faced The Chocolate Shop ($59) is one of several gift sets and eyeshadow palettes that are part of the Too Faced Christmas in New York Holiday 2016 Collection. I felt compelled to indulge in this set during the Sephora Holiday 2016 Preview Event because hello? I live in New York and as far as I’m concerned there’s no place like it for the Holidays 🙂
Another selling point for me is the fact it’s scented like chocolate. My downfall is actually Cadbury Chocolate from the UK but aside from that I’m not really a lover of chocolate or the way it smells but the novelty of an eyeshadow palette that smells like chocolate, well, I dunno something about it tickles me. Earlier this year, Too Faced launched their Sweet Peach Eyeshadow Palette and many of us got into a discussion about Too Faced potentially doing more scented products. So, at least I’m not alone here in the fact that I kind love the idea of scented makeup!
Here’s my review and thoughts on the Too Faced the Chocolate Shop Palette and Gift Set!
The Too Faced The Chocolate Shop is without a doubt a very cute offering from Too Faced. Call me a kid but I think it is simply darling! If you’re presenting this to a girl who’s around 16 to 18 years old I can see it going over really big and you’ll def score some extra brownie points gifting it to a younger makeup lover. It comes housed in a large pink box with a New York skyline decorating the front. Remove the top, and the palette unfolds to reveal a pop up scene of a pastry shop window with a cute little dog and two New Yorker’s bustling past the store (one of them is carrying a Sephora bag which is a nod to the fact this is exclusively available at Sephora. I mentioned in an earlier post I did about the palette that this art work is very Shag-like! Inside the pastry shop’s window you’ll find mini sizes of Too Faced Better than Sex Mascara, Shadow Insurance Eyeshadow Primer, and Melted Chocolate Liquified Long Wear Lipstick in Chocolate Milkshake. Lucky enough if you hate the bulky packaging you can toss it out! There’s a removable palette that holds the blush, bronzer, highlighter, and eyeshadows which has the same cute scenes from the outer and inner packaging. The same pastry shop scene decorates the inside flap of the palette so, you aren’t getting a mirror here.
You’ll get a total of 21 eyeshadow shades, 18 of which are 0.03 oz in size and 3 are 0.07 oz in size. There’s also a highlighter, Chocolate Soleil Bronzer, and Blush which are 0.08 oz in size.
Shades:
- Indulge (silvered taupe)
- Cookie Dough (matte beige/gold sparkle)
- Raspberry Rose (matte light pink)
- Sugared Raisin (shimmering silvered mauve)
- Guilt-Free (matte soft lavender)
- Tootsie (matte rich chocolate brown)
- Gingerdoodle (shimmering champagne)
- Chocaholic (matte sand)
- Cake Batter (matte soft peach)
- Butterscotch (metallic copper)
- Toffee Crunch (matte reddish brown)
- Lava Cake (dark cocoa/gold sparkle)
- Honey Dip (shimmering gold)
- Pound Cake (shimmering pinked gold)
- Sugar Bells (metallic silver)
- Mint Chip (metallic sea blue)
- Jingle Berry (vibrant orchid)
- Huckleberry (deep purple black/pink glitter)
- Dessert�s On Me (shimmering icy white)
- Glaze (matte white cream)
- Banana Date (satin soft creamy beige)
- Luminizer in Inner Light (pale peach pink/gold shimmer)
- Chocolate Soleil Bronzer (matte chocolate brown)
- Blush in Chocolate Covered Strawberry (dark pink)
For me this palette is like having a combination of the Sweet Peach Eyeshadow Palette, the Peanut Butter and Jelly Palette, and the Nikkitutorials Palette all combined together into one spot. There are many, many variations of shades you likely already own if you have those three palettes already. For example, Pound Cake looks like Bellini from the Sweet Peach Palette, Jingle Berry looks like Jelly from the Peanut Butter and Jelly Palette, needless to say there are plenty of dupeable shades here.
The first thing you’ll notice about this palette is the packaging but the second thing would be the mismatch of shades. It’s one of the most head turning things about the palette in my opinion. It’s such a mismatch of shades. Personally, I think the set up makes it challenging to create looks. On that note, I will say the palette is dominated by mostly warmer shades but they end up throwing in some weird cool shades randomly. The larger shadows like Dessert’s On Me and Glaze are a bit too bright and white to work as a highbrow highlighters and seem odd to me. Pops of purple, barely there pink, and silvery, sparkly grays look a bit odd grouped into a mostly neutral, natural palette.
The shades aren’t the only mismatch here, the formula also suffers with plenty of inconsistencies. Many of the shimmer shades like Indulge, Sugar Bells, and Sugared Raisin have a chunky, flakier texture with a good deal of fall out. These shades don’t adhere well to my lids and have a sheerer color pay off. Many of the mattes in the palette are denser and very difficult to pick up with a brush or even a sponge applicator. For example, I tried packing Chocaholic on my lids with an sponged tipped eyeshadow applicator and could barely pick up color. There are some good shades here with excellent pigmentation and a velvety texture but they are so shimmery and metallic they appear very frosty on my lids such as Honey Dip, Butterscotch, and Pound Cake.
It’s weird because so many of these shades are shades I would love to use in looks like Cookie Dough and Cake Better. There are great shades here with poor formulas. The highlight of the palette would be the face powders all of which had a good formula. Chocolate Covered Strawberry is dense but applied nicely on my cheeks likewise foe CHocolate Soleil! Inner Light had a smooth, velvety consistency that applied easily but it does cling to drier areas so prep well prior to application.
I didn’t go into details about the primer, lip shade, or mascara as I’ve reviewed all three in past posts. You can look through my archives or click on the links I’ve included in this post to see my reviews on those!
The Too Faced The Chocolate Shop has some very cute packaging and it’ll likely make a really nice gift for a younger girl but I see it being a disappointing pick for fans of the brand that already own a lot of Too Faced palettes already. The rerun of shades, inconsistent eyeshadow formula with their hit or miss formula, and the mismatch of shades are all reasons I personally didn’t like the palette.
Cute yes, but this one has a long way to go before I’d recommend a purchase.
The Too Faced The Chocolate Shop is available exclusively at Sephora and Sephora.com.
Did you indulge?
How did it work out for you?
Do share!