Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette | Review + Swatches

When I unwrapped the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette last Christmas, I was in awe. I'd seen it raved and raved about to the point where I felt like I was missing out... and now I know I was!

It's the ultimate go-to palette, the perfect companion for an extra special, every day eye look. In my opinion it's worth every dollar, a palette I don't think anyone could be disappointed with.

My first Too Faced purchase was the Natural Eyes palette, which I've loved so much to the point where I've hit pan on several eyeshadows. I would wear the same makeup look for days on end because it was just so reliable and always made me feel good. When I originally bought it I was tossing up between it and the Chocolate Bar palette. There was a slight price difference, and they both seemed so good, so I decided to go for the Natural Eyes. If I were to go back in time, I'd still buy the Natural Eyes palette first, although I do feel incredibly lucky to have both palettes now.

For those of you yet to try this palette, here are my thoughts.

The packaging

If there's one thing the Chocolate Bar palette is known for, it's the packaging. It comes in a pretty pink and gold box, the type of product packaging you just don't want to throw away. In a beautiful, rich, chocolatey casing, the whole outer of the palette resembles a delicious chocolate bar. 

The names of each eyeshadow are engraved on the palette which is helpful. It also has a mirror included inside. When you open the palette lid, the mirror stays in the best position for being able to use it, hands free, while having the palette sit on the table in front of you. I love how the lightest shades in the palette, White Chocolate and Champagne Truffle, have larger pans, as they're definitely the two I can see me using up first.

It has a little bit of weight to it, although not so much that you couldn't take it travelling.

The shades

What I like about this palette is how wearable every single shade is. You've got the perfect cream-white as a base, your warm, go-to browns for definition, a super pretty matte pink and a number of different shimmery and glittery shades.

You can create natural eye looks for the day, sultry looks for the evening and there's so many shimmery options in the palette that you'll never be stuck for choice. I think the additions of the purple and pink make the palette exciting to use.

I feel like the only colour it's missing for me, is a true coppery shimmer. There's Marzipan, which is a light peachy shimmer, Creme Brulee, which is a gold, then it jumps down to Hazelnut, more of a brown shimmer, and Haute Chocolate, a rich bronze. A copper included could have worked perfectly with the matte brown shades in the palette.

The formula

The first thing I noticed while swatching this palette was that most eyeshadows included were top quality. The lighter eyelid shimmers were just as wonderful as I'd hoped, as well as the selection of brown crease colours which really do blend like a dream and couldn't be better in tone.

The lighter shades apply really well with a flat shader brush and same with the shimmers, although I always tend to use my ring finger with shimmer shades to make sure they're as bright as possible. I was most pleased with Champagne Truffle, which is a beautiful pale pink champagne highlight, perfect for inner corners.

One thing I had heard quite a lot is how much it smells like chocolate on the inside, which is true, but not to the over-the-top extent I was expecting. To me it has this soft, sweet cocoa scent. I'm quite thingy about scented makeup, but I don't have any issues at all with the chocolate scent in this palette... I mean, how could you? :)

As you can see in my arm swatches above, there are some shades that don't show up as well as you'd expect from seeing them in the palette. In particular, the two darkest mattes (Cherry Cordial and Triple Fudge), which look really dark in the palette but don't translate that way, as well as two of the darkest shimmers (Black Forest Truffle and Candied Violet), which you'd expect to pack a punch.

Unfortunately the two dark matte shades are quite faded, and take several applications to build up a strong colour. This can sometimes be a good thing, as it's so easy to ruin a nice eye look when you apply a dark shadow to deepen it up and it ends up too dark.

I did expect more from the two dark shimmers as well, especially the purple which I thought would be a wonderful strong, glittery shade to add to the lower lash line. They're definitely very shimmery, however more faded than I had expected. The other dark shimmer, Gilded Ganache is a whole different story. It's so dark and pigmented that there's quite a lot of fall-out if you're not too careful.

Final thoughts

Despite a couple of eyeshadows in the palette not working as I had hoped, I still don't think anyone could be disappointed in this palette. It's a popular product for a reason - anyone can create a beautiful eye look with it, even if you're a beginner at eyeshadow. It has flattering shades for every skin tone and you're easily able to create a natural eye look. One that has a little extra special something to it.

If you want to purchase a palette for yourself that you will definitely get the use out of, I'd suggest going for one of their smaller palettes first. Find one that includes a selection of shades you love to bits. They're more compact and you will definitely get your money's worth out of it.

However, if you want to buy a palette that you can use the whole year round and continuously experiment with different looks, spend a tiny bit more and go for the Chocolate Bar Palette.

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