Review: Too Faced Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar

I don't usually get to see high end makeup products in real life, so when I had that chance in Sephora, I really wanted to try one of the Too Faced raved about eyeshadow palettes. I really wanted the Sweet Peach palette, but it was sold out. That's when I decided on Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar palette, because it had the most my kind of shades. I don't like buying expensive eyeshadow palettes, because there are always some shades that I don't really use. That's why I try to go for the one that has the most my kind of shades. 


Palette comes with a brownish cardboard box with gold edges. For some reason it reminds me of gingerbread man - don't know why. Packaging of the palette is a tin shaped like a milk chocolate bar. Appropriate to the name of it. I find it really pretty, but a bit too bulky for carrying around. Maybe I've just gotten a bit more used to Zoeva slim palettes. However, this one feels a lot more secure. It also has magnetic closing


3D details are just as pretty and the whole packaging in general is a very fun design.



Inside you also get a mirror, which is actually useful for applying eyeshadow. In the palette are 16 shades. Some mattes, some shimmer and even one glittery. Tones are mostly neutral with a few pops of color. In the whole palette is 17,70 grams of product and I paid 44€ for it, which makes this the priciest eyeshadow palette I own.


If you're a beginner at makeup, you'll appreciate their notes on three of the looks that you can create with this palette. 


Texture of all eyeshadows is a pretty wet one. It's not already like a cream, but they are definitely not dry to the touch. Pigmentation is good (obviously better that most drugstore ones) which I expected from such a pricey palette. Dare I say that I think my Zoeva palettes are a bit more pigmented. If I touch Zoeva eyeshadows there's a lot more payoff than with Too Faced ones. That being said, Too Faced are just a bit less pigmented, but still a really good quality. I find that some of their shimmery shades loose intensity by blending them, which doesn't happen as much with Zoeva. Mattes in Too Faced are superb.

In the ingredients of these eyeshadows is also 100% natural cocoa powder. Some say that eyeshadows smell like cocoa, but Semi-Sweet Chocolate to me smells a bit more vanilla like. It's a very sweet smell. I never thought I would say this, but I love that this palette smells so good. It just gives you a whole different experience while applying on makeup. I am actually looking forward to leaving it open by my mirror, because it just smells so good.

Staying power is as expected. I can wear these for the whole day without any major fading or creasing. Of course, I always have eyeshadow primer underneath, because I never do an eye makeup without one. I don't notice any fallout except with glitters in the shades. Those tend to fall down like Pink Sugar and glitter from Cocoa Chili. If you overload your brushes with a lot of product you may get some fallout, especially with really dark shades. 



Licorice - matte black (great for deepening makeup looks or using it as an eye liner)
Coconut Creme - very light warm beige (perfect all over the lid base)
Nougat - cool matte muddy pink (it almost vanishes on my skin tone, I use it in the crease or as an all over the base)
Truffled - warm matte medium chocolate brown (great for deepening the crease or smoky eye)
Hot Fudge - cool dark brown with multi pink and gold shimmer (great for smoky eye or darkening outer lid part)
Cocoa Chili - warm matte medium brown with sparse gold glitter (great as an all over the lid shade)
Pink Sugar - cream like transparent base with gold and pink glitter (glitter with transparent base that can be put on top of any other shade - it falls down on under eye area and my camera doesn't pick it up on the photos)
Puddin' - cool matte medium taupe (good darker crease shade)


Blueberry Swirl - cool medium blue with blue and gold shimmer (pop of color on the lid)
Peanut Butter - warm matte light caramel brown (warm crease shade)
Frosting - warm bronze brown with gold shimmer (lovely all over the lid shade)
Rum Raisin - cool light taupe with silver shimmer (lighter all over the lid shade)
Mousse - neutral matte light camel brown (neutral brown for the crease)
Caramel - warm copper gold with gold shimmer (warm accent shade for the lid)
Bon Bon - warm light shimmery salmon (pink peach brown) (great lighter all over the lid shade)
Butter Pecan - warm light yellow nude with white and light yellow shimmer (perfect inner corner highlight)


Coconut Creme is my most used shade, because it's the perfect neutral matte shade to put all over the lid as a base. I adore Peanut Butter. It's my perfect warm crease shade, because I just love warm matte browns. On days when I want my crease to be a bit more neutral, I love to use Mousse. It's less dirty than theBalm Nude'tude Sultry and less yellow toned. I'm already making a dent in this shade that's how much I love it. Truffled is perfect for further defining and darkening the crease. I like that it's not too warm nor cool. 

My favorite basic shimmery brown has to be Frosting. It's not too warm, but just looks great all over the lid. Especially when you're in a rush. Of course, Caramel has to be my favorite shimmery shades. I love those warm copper golden shades. I also really like Bon Bon which is kind of unique to my collection. It can almost look a bit pink sometimes and sometimes it looks peach. This is a very subtle lid shade that doesn't stand out as much as Caramel. On rare occasions I also really like Blueberry Swirl, because it has such a lovely blue almost peacock sheen to it. It's not my every day shade, but it looks really nice with a smoky eye. 

I compared some of the shades with my other eyeshadows. Too Faced Caramel seemed similar to Zoeva Cocoa Blend Pure Ganache. Pure Ganache is more orange copper toned and Caramel is more yellow golden toned. Frosting seemed similar to Zoeva Cocoa Blend Subtle Blend, but is in fact less shimmery, lighter and more taupe based. Subtle Blend is a lot more shimmery, warmer, darker and more gold based. Peanut Butter looked very much like Zoeva Cocoa Blend Substitute for Love, but is again a bit different. Peanut Butter is more peachy while Substitute for Love is more yellow orange toned.


Hot Fudge is similar to theBalm Nude'tude Sophisticated, but not a dupe. Hot Fudge is darker, more purple grey and has a light pink and gold shimmer in it. Sophisticated is lighter, more brown and has a lot more shimmer, which is gold. One of my favorite shade of theBalm Nude'tude - Sultry, seemed similar to Mousse. Mousse is actually a bit more red based brown and Sultry is more yellow toned and more muddy looking. The only two shades that could easily be dupes are Coconut Creme and Zoeva Cocoa Blend Bitter Start. Both of these are your regular bone colored matte shades for all over the lid. I can't detect any difference between them. 


As always here a few of the looks that I created with this palette just to give you some ideas as to how these look like on the eyes.

Brown

All over: Coconut Creme
Crease: Mousse
Outer corner: Peanut Butter
Lid: Frosting
Inner corner: Butter Pecan

Lips: Kiko Creamy Colour Comfort Lip Liner 301





Taupe

All over: Nougat
Crease: Mousse
Outer crease: Puddin'
Lid: Rum Raisin
Over the lid: Pink Sugar
Inner corner: Nougat, Pink Sugar, Butter Pecan

Liner: Avon Liquid Chrome Eyeliner - Plum Dazzle
Lips: NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream - Stockholm





Warm 

 All over: Coconut Creme
Crease: Peanut Butter
Outer corner: Truffled
Lid: Bon Bon 
Center lid: Caramel

Liner: Clio Kill Brown Waterproof Brush Liner
Lips: Avon 3D Plumping Lipstick - Cantaloupe





Blue

All over: Coconut Creme
Crease: Mousse + Puddin'
Outer corner: Hot Fudge
Lid: Blueberry Swirl
Inner Corner: Butter Pecan
Lower lid: Mousse + Caramel

Liner: Clio Kill Black Waterproof Brush Liner
Lips: Avon 3D Plumping Lipstick - Cantaloupe





Smoky

All over: Coconut Creme
Crease: Peanut Butter
Lid: Cocoa Chili
Inner Corner: Butter Pecan
Liner: Licorice

Lips: Avon Shine Burst Stick - Nude Shine





It has a very fun looking and well made packaging. Eyeshadows have good pigmentation and you get a variety of shades as well as finishes. I'd say this is great neutral palette with lots of warm as well as cool toned shades. You also get a few colorful pops of shades for a bit more adventurous looks, but still very much in a comfort zone. Eyeshadows last all day long. Vanillary sweet scent of this palette is an added bonus and makes for a more pleasurable use (considering that you're not sensitive to scent). 

My problem with palettes that have a wide range of shades is that I'll never use all of the shades. In this case cooler toned shades are not in my daily use. However, it's a great basic palette for anyone that just wanst one palette to do many different looks with. Is it worth 44€? In all honesty, you do get a lot of shades and the quality is good, but me personally, I would probably rather buy one of the Zoeva Spectrum Palettes (assuming that the quality of the shades is as good as with my Cocoa Blend and Mixed Metals). These are a bit cheaper (around 35€) and offer around the same amount of product (15 grams). 

I'm still a bit said that I didn't get Sweet Peach. I think I'd like it a lot more, because the shades are not as neutral - I already have too many neutral eyeshadow palettes. That's probably the one palette that I would still love to try from Too Faced. 

20 comments

  1. Krasna objava :) Jo imam na tisti never-gonna-happen wishlisti (tudi zato ker jo ne morem nikjer dobit). Mi je všeč, ker ima toliko bolj taupe odtenkov in vem, da bi jo veliko uporabljala.

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    1. Hvala :). Ah dobila bi jo verjetno še, če bi koga prosila, ko gre v tujino. Mene bolj cena ovira :D. Imaš prav, ta ima res tako mešanico toplih in hladnih odtenkov in obojih je kar veliko. Ti taupe bi bili čisto zate. Vem, da imaš ti raje temnejše odtenke. Jaz sem vedno nekam bolj svetla pri senčilih :).

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  2. Se vidi, da ti je objava vzela veliko časa, sploh pa vse makeup look-e :). Čudovita paleta, bi o takoj imela, čeprav bi verjetno prej kupila Sweet Peach, če bi imela možnost :)

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    1. Hvala, je bilo treba zbrati kar nekaj fotk ja :D. Jaz sem si tudi zelo želela Sweet Peach. Predvsem zaradi več barvitih odtenkov. Ampak ker je ni bilo, sem vzela to, če sem že imela šanso. Ne vem, kdaj bom spet imela tako priložnost :).

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  3. Krasna objava ! res sem komaj čakala to objavo, že na sploh obožujem tvoje ocene paletk z dodanimi look-i ! Imam MUR salted caramel paletko, in bom poustvarila tvoje looke-e, najbolj všeč od vseh mi je všeč warm. Še več takih ocene hehe ! <3 (Y)

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    1. Oh hvala :). <3 Super, da so ti všeč moji looki. Se mi zdi, da si tako še lažje predstavljamo odtenke na koži. Warm je tudi moj najljubši look. Moja safe choice :D.

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  4. Odlicna objava! In prekrasna paleta, ampak itak ne bo nikol moja :P

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  5. Res super objava, vedno me navdušijo tvoje fotke! Sicer pa je tudi paletka super, res mi je všeč pakiranje, pa tudi odtenki so precej raznoliki in uporabni :D

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    1. Hvala :). Pakiranje je tako luškano. Meni je všeč predvsem magnetno zapiranje :). Odtenki so res precej raznoliki, čeprav še vedno ni nekih zelo živih odtenkov. Zelo nosljiva paleta.

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  6. Objava je top! Redkokdaj kupujem paletke, ker na koncu uporabljam dve ali pa tri barve, ostale pa so nedotaknjene. In pri taki ceni... ne hvala =P Mi je pa noro všeč embalaža ;)
    Xoxo, A.

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    1. Hvala :). Vem kako je. Jaz po navadi tudi veliko odtenkov ne uporabljam, kar me na koncu res moti. Ko bi si lahko vse te palete sestavil po svoje :D.
      xx

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  7. Gorgeous make-ups! You are very talented. How old are you, Petra?

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  8. Thanks for posting this! I just bought the same palette from Sephora Portugal on my holiday and I also chose it because the Peach palette wasn't available :) I haven't used the palette so much yet, but the few times I have used it, I have been impressed! Caramel is my favourite :)

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    1. You and me both. I also wanted Peach, but it was sold out :/. I also love Caramel, one of my favorites. Yeah the quality is definitely good which I would expect for this price :).

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  9. O wow, paletka izgleda čudovito. Tudi odtenki so mi zelo všeč. Kje v Sephori pa si bila, kateri kraj? :)

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    1. Taka univerzalna za vsak nevtralen look :). Bila sem pa v Strasbourgu.

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  10. I still can't choose between these palettes :D By the way,Peach palette is coming out again this December)

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    1. I know it's so hard. Especially considering the price. You want the choice to be right :D. I usually choose the one that has the most my kind of shades. I was wondering when are they going to restock it. It was sold out so quickly :).

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