Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette (Review, Swatches & Tutorial)

Too Faced Chocolate Bar Eye Shadow Palette, £45 – Debenhams | BeautyBay

The Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette has been doing the rounds on blogs for about a month now, and I was doing so well to resist the hype… well, not anymore. Payday came and my brain kind of forgot the only reason stopping me from buying this palette – its price! So now that we’re here, why not do the whole shebang? Here is a First Impressions Review, Demo, Swatches & Tutorial – yep, all-in-one. I wouldn’t be doing my job well if I didn’t make an effort, would I? :)

Summary

• 16 eyeshadows infused with cocoa powder
• Matte & shimmer shades
• Highly pigmented
• Super soft and easy to blend
• Mostly warm-toned
• Can be used for daytime & evening looks
• Neutral and non-neutral shades
• Great lasting power

About

The Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette is an eyeshadow palette in the shape of a chocolate bar, predominantly warm-toned, which contains 16 matte & shimmer eyeshadows infused with cocoa-powder. It has a good range of neutral everyday pink, cream, gold and champagne colours, darker brown and bronze shades for an evening smokey eye and more unusual, but wearable, shades of plum, green, violet and coral.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/x3MTrJvxRhY&w=740]

Video

I’ve done a video talking about my very first impressions of the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette, along with a little smokey eye makeup tutorial using this palette. So if you want to see it in action, press the play button above or click here to watch the video, then come back to read the rest of the review.

Shades

The Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette contains 16 shades, with a range of matte and shimmer. This palette is mostly warm-toned with a very good selection of colours, apart from the baby pink and violet shades, which I don’t think I’ll use that much. It’s a great all-in-one palette for daytime and evening looks, and I know it’s early days, but I actually prefer it over the Naked palettes. The shades are: Gilded Ganache, White Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Black Forest Truffle, Triple Fudge, Salted Caramel, Marzipan, Semi-Sweet, Strawberry Bon Bon, Candied Violet, Amaretto, Hazelnut, Creme Brûlée, Haute Chocolate, Cherry Cordial and Champagne Truffle.

Formulation & Pigmentation

The Chocolate Bar eyeshadows are infused with cocoa powder, which makes them smell of chocolate! They are highly pigmented, really soft and blendable; some of the shades are a little bit powdery, mostly the matte shades (White Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Salted Caramel, Semi Sweet and Strawberry Bon Bon) and a couple of the shimmer shades (Marzipan and Black Forest Truffle). The colours come out very rich and vivid, both when swatched and when applied to the lids. I haven’t tried them wet yet, but I think that will make them look even more intense. You don’t need a primer to get a good colour payoff and lasting-power, but of course a primer always helps. One thing I really like about this palette is that even the lighter shades are super pigmented, which is something that other palettes, such as the Nars Narsissist and the Urban Decay Naked 3, struggle with a lot.

Application

The eyeshadows in this palette work well with a brush or with your fingers. If I’m swiping the eyeshadow all over my eyelid, using my index finger makes the colour look more vibrant, but using a flat eyeshadow brush works too. The shade Creme Brulee when applied with fingers looks like a bronze/gold pressed pigment! It packs so much colour and it makes it last longer. Other eyeshadows like Black Forest Truffle, Triple Fudge, Haute Chocolate and Cherry Cordial are so pigmented that you’re better off applying them with a flat eyeshadow brush and blending with a clean blending brush.

Lasting Power

I’m very pleased to report that the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette eyeshadows lasted well over 8 hours without a primer and 10 hours with a primer. There was very minimal creasing and the colours stayed looking pretty vivid the whole time – bear in mind that my eyelids don’t get very oily, so it may be different for you. Some shades last better than others, and overall, I found that the only shade that lost a bit of its shimmer after a few hours was Black Forest Truffle. I had no fading problems with the matte shades.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I recommend this palette if you’re looking for a great warm-toned all-in-one eyeshadow palette. All of the eyeshadows have really impressed me so far; they are long-lasting, really soft and blendable, and super pigmented. If you already have something similar like the Urban Decay Naked Palette and you’re happy with it, you definitely don’t need this palette. However, I think this palette has a better selection of colours than the Naked palette because it has a little bit more than just your average neutral shades – I love the addition of a forest green shade (Gilded Ganache) and a berry-toned shade (Cherry Cordial)! Also, it has a delicious smell of chocolate. If you’re a ‘palette-junkie’ like me, I think you’ll find it hard to resist it! :)

Price & Availability

The Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette costs £45 and it’s available from Debenhams or BeautyBay. It’s not so bad if you think you’re paying about £2.80 for each eyeshadow, right? :)

• UK: Debenhams | BeautyBay
• US: Too Faced website

What do you think of the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette? How you got it? Are you tempted to get it?

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