BETTER THAN NAKED?!

Too Faced is one of those brands that kind of confuses me, a bit like Benefit. The packaging is really fun, quirky and somewhat gimmicky and you can spot the brand in-store in Boots. When their new Spring launch the Chocolate Bar palette landed on my desk I immediately thought “ooh neutral palette budget buy”. I then saw the price tag… £45?! What? I’m confused…

So putting my personal confusion of the brand aside, let’s just agree that despite not looking high end, Too Faced is in fact a high end brand and sits somewhere amongst Urban Decay and Smashbox. My immediate thought on their new Chocolate Bar palette was that I couldn’t possibly write about it because the high price tag just doesn’t make sense, but then I tried it and wanted to report back.

So let’s get the frills out the way first. The tin packaging with a magnetic close is handy and hygienic and clearly it is supposed to look like a chocolate bar. There’s a decent sized mirror inside although I tend not to use these anyway. The eyeshadows are infused with cocoa powder so you can actually smell chocolate when you open the palette (not for me, but kinda cool I guess!). The palette comes with a clear cover on the shadows that show the names, which I think is a shame as I like to see the names of the shadows actually written under them.

So now onto the good stuff, the shadows and a comparison with it’s biggest competitor the Naked palette. There are 16 shadows in the Chocolate Bar palette compared to 12 in the Naked palettes. Two out of the 16 are double shadows and these are a matte and shimmer highlight. The quality of the shadows are excellent, much better than I thought they would be. They’re buttery, pick up well on the brush and blend out nicely. I found the quality wasn’t consistent throughout the palette with a few shades not being quite as great, but the majority were. In terms of texture, I think the good shades in the Chocolate Palette are actually better than the Urban Decay Naked ones. There is only really one shade I dislike which is the light pink ‘Strawberry Bon Bon’ but the rest are really wearable. My favourite shades include Hazelnut (a brown shimmer), Cherry Cordial (burgundy shimmer) and Milk Chocolate (matte crease shade).

I like the range of shades in the palette and it reminds me of a combination of the Naked 1 and Naked 3 palette. The overall feel is warm toned but it has a good mix of mattes and shimmers.

So what’s the deal? Is it worth buying this instead of a Naked palette? The Naked palettes are £37 each, so if Too Faced had priced theirs the same it would have won hands down in terms of what you get for your money. I think if you were to splash out on that extra £8, I’m not sure it’ll be hugely beneficial. The Naked palette no matter which one you choose has everything you need already…

There’s no straight answer, it depends what works best for you. All I know is that this palette is a strong contender and worth trying out if you’re looking to invest in a good neutral palette and haven’t yet got a Naked one. It’s available here from the Debenham’s website, let me know if you decide to pick it up!

Check Temptalia’s post here for in-depth swatches and comparisons.

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