Review | Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette.

I think the very fact that I'm only getting around to buying this palette in 2016 is proof that Irish people are backwards. I know the internet is saturated with Chocolate Bar palette reviews, but I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in to the mix, since I don't seem to have the same feelings about this as most people. If you haven't heard of this palette before - where ya been, gurl?! While this hasn't blown up in popularity quite as much as the Naked palettes (for most makeup wearers I mean, die hard makeup fans not included!), this is Too Faced's offering at a neutral palette with a bit of a twist. I say twist very loosely, since I don't personally feel that any neutral eyeshadow palette is all that original anymore; although shout-out to Naked Smoky which didn't reinvent the wheel but is a great palette.

The Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette boasts 16 neutral-ish shades, infused with real cocoa powder. Yes, this smells amazing and I may or may not be able to confirm that it does actually taste like chocolate (don't try this at home, kids. I was always a curious one...) I think the metal tin packaging with the chocolate bar design on the front is super cute, but I have to say I'm really disappointed with the quality of the packaging. The magnet is just not sturdy enough and I've found myself picking it up and it opening very easily. I would have liked a stronger magnet or snap closure à la Naked 2. The layout of the palette is really nice, though, and I seriously appreciate them making the two highlight shades (one matte, one shimmer) the two bigger rectangle strips since you often go through those first in any palette. The palette contains 7 mattes and 9 more shimmery shades (some with frost, some with more shimmer and glitter). Since the quality varied so much depending on the shadow, it's impossible for me to say that the mattes/shimmers were better quality than the other so I thought it would be better to go through each individual shade and tell you the stars and duds.

Gilded Ganache is a deep smutty bronze brown with green and gold shimmer. This is probably the most unique shade in the entire palette and it is absolutely stunning. A transition or crease colour and this all over the lid and you have an instantly put together smokey eye. Definitely one of my favourites in this palette.

White Chocolate is a matte cream highlight shade. Absolutely nothing special here but a must have in a neutral palette so it's great that it's included and so big!

Milk Chocolate is a Too Faced classic. A medium toned neutral brown. Again, nothing special but it's great pigmentation wise.

Black Forest Truffle is a shimmery warm brown with some red and silver sparkle. This is quite dry in texture, and the shimmer disappears straight away unless you really pack it on over a creamy base. Meh.

Triple Fudge is a bog standard dark matte brown. It's a little stiff in texture but nothing awful and is an essential in a neutral palette in my opinion!

Salted Caramel is just that - a warm caramel toned transition colour. It isn't super dark but still warm enough to add a nice glow around the eye which I absolutely love. The pigmentation on this is lovely, it's so soft and creamy and blends like a dream. 

Marzipan is a light peach beige shimmer. It's really smooth and metallic with great pigmentation. I love this all over the lid or in the inner corners.

Semi Sweet is a matte medium-dark toned brown. This rests somewhere in between Milk Chocolate and Triple Fudge on the shade scale. It swatches really nicely on the hand but for some reason it just doesn't apply well onto the eye so I was pretty disappointed with this one.

Strawberry Bon Bon is a light milky pink. Probably the one eyeshadow shade wise in this palette that I'm not mad on, because I can't say I use a light milkshake style pink all too often. This is such a crap shade, it's so stiff and absolutely nothing shows up on the hand or eye.

Candied Violet is a blue toned purple with sparkle. Again, quite a dry shade and you need a base to keep the shimmer on the lid. I do prefer this to Black Forest Truffle, though, purely cause I think it's a bit more of a more unique shade.

Amaretto is a warm toned brown with pink and bronze/rust shimmer. This looks beautiful in the pan, really really unique. It's nice on the lid, but just looks better in the pan so it was a little bit of a disappointment for me if I'm honest.

Hazlenut is a bog standard shimmery bronze. The pigmentation is nice, but nothing I have't seen before.

Creme Brulée is a beautiful dirty gold. Not too yellow which I think makes it more unique and wearable. It has great pigmentation and it super smooth.

Haute Chocolate is basically a slightly darker version of Hazelnut with crappier pigmentation. Any time I apply this shade to my eye without a sticky base, half of it falls off my face and onto my cheek which is so disappointing. I don't think it's necessary to have both Haute Chocolate and Hazelnut in here, and it definitely isn't a unique shade.

Cherry Cordial is like that burgundy shade in the Gwen Stefani Urban Decay palette. It looks amazing in the pan; a beautiful red burgundy. Just like the Urban Decay offering, this just looks like a warm brown on my eye. That doesn't make it bad, but it isn't what I wanted from it. Furthermore, I actually think the UD one is better quality because like Haute Chocolate, I get half of the shadow on my cheek instead of my actual eye whenever I apply this.

Ending on a better note is Champagne Truffle; a pinked champagne frost. This is a bigger pan like White Chocolate which I love. This has great pigmentation, and works really nicely as a cool toned pink cheek highlight too.

I would sum this palette up as definitely not have to have. The quality of the shadows is decent, but considering I feel the need to use a sticky creamy base underneath a lot of them I was  hoping for more. I think this has a lot to do with the hype it gets online. Some of these shades are absolutely stunning (salted caramel, gilded ganache, creme brulee etc) and ones I use all the time now; but that's a relatively small portion of the overall palette - not to mention the fact that a lot of them are dupeable. I'm more than happy to have another neutral palette in my arsenal, especially for traveling since you can get so many looks with this - but the same could be said for any of the Naked palettes and I think the quality is better in the latter.
I would personally suggest a Naked palette over this, and perhaps picking up the Makeup Revolution offering of the Chocolate bar palettes for a fraction of the price. I just don't quite think the quality is there considering the €40 price tag, but maybe I've been spoiled by previous brands and their quality. Keep that in mind when reading my review; if you don't wear makeup all that often and already have a Naked palette then I think you're pretty much set and you don't need this... if you have a lot of Makeup Geek or MAC shadows then you probably won't feel you need this either.  Although I'm happy enough with the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette to continue using it, I won't be picking up any of the other branch off palettes in the future. I really wanted to love this - I know so many bloggers who adore it, I guess this just wasn't for me. My advice? Save yo' money!