Most Loved: Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette

Welcome to all of your childhood dreams of Willy Wonka chocolate bars. This Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette is something I *really* tried my hardest to avoid purchasing. At first, when it came out, the packaging was rather bulky and the tester in my local Sephora was so beaten up and abused by fellow beauty swatchers, that I really had no interest. Even when I saw the HSN promo for it, I was tempted but I held back... they even had an insane deal for the palette (regular retail is $49 at Ulta or Sephora). Alas, the packaging was too bulky and it would have taken too much space in my already over-flowing collection.

Cue the new, updated, summer packaging:

This packaging is literally half the thickness (girth?) of the previous one. My husband insisted on purchasing it for me when we were away on our summer vacation... and how could a girl resist, am I right?

And let me tell you... the scent... oh the smell is far better than you read or hear about. It's almost like a freshly opened truffle doused in cocoa powder. It's desirable and infectious, it makes opening this palette an absolute delight in the morning when I'm groggy, it wakes me right up in the most pleasant of ways!

The names of the colors are unique and ingenious, Too Faced is always very creative with their branding. I really did think that there would be duds in this palette in terms of pigmentation since I had heard from various blog/vloggers that Candied Violet and a few of the lighter shades were rather chalky or lacking pigmentation. I haven't noticed any product kick-up (though I don't typically go beast-mode hard into my shadows with my brushes) or patchiness upon application. I like that Too Faced decided to give us more of the highlight shades White Chocolate (matte finish) and Champagne Truffle (metallic finish), since these get used most frequently when creating looks.

You can really achieve a very subdued look or a more glamorous night-time look... you can even do a dark, goth look if you're feeling in the mood! So whether you're a bronze goddess or a child of the night, this palette really does have it all covered, the only caveat is that the shades are mostly warm-toned with the exception of Gilded Ganache, Triple Fudge, and Candied Violet.

Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette Swatches (No Primer, Ambient Lighting)

Matte: White Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Triple Fudge, Salted Caramel, Semi-Sweet, Strawberry Bon Bon
Matte with Fine Glitter: Gilded Ganache, Black Forest Truffle, Cherry Cordial
Pearl with Fine Glitter: Candied Violet
Metallic: Marzipan, Amaretto, Hazelnut, Creme Brulee, Haute Chocolate, Champagne Truffle

I'm so happy with the pigmentation of these shadows, they perform very well, have great color payoff and I don't feel that I need to pack on too much of the shadow to get full opacity. There's such a good variety of matte, satin/shimmer (metallic) and more glittery shades. Salted Caramel is an absolute brilliant color for warming up the crease and transitioning darker shades. Candied Violet performs a lot better than I expected, and I really find that the glitter isn't too intense once you blend the shadow out. I think the most unique shade of the bunch is Cherry Cordial and I don't have anything else in my collection that looks similar to it (that's saying a lot!)

I highly recommend purchasing this if you apply eyeshadow on a daily basis and need to come up with wearable daytime or nighttime looks. This palette will be your best friend if you want a neutral palette with a little extra oomph. I reach for this palette more than I do my LORAC Pro, Kat Von D Saint palette, or my Urban Decay Naked 1, 2 and 3 combined because it's fun and I get the added bonus of a unique color selection and a waft of cocoa when using it!

Kawaii Chocolate Bar by Rooshoo, Click here.

New Product Alert: Milani Bella Eyes Gel Powder Eyeshadow

Everyone brace yourselves! Milani's new Bella Eyes Gel Powder Eyeshadows are showing up in your local drugstores (my CVS now has them in stock)! I was so excited to pick up a few of these to review. These retail for $3.99-$4.99.

The packaging is Milani's signature gold compact, similar to their baked blushes which came out in late 2013. The formulation is a soft, smooth and richly pigmented powder. These eyeshadows, despite their name, do not have a gel-like consistency, nor do they feel like the Maybelline Bouncy line, rather they remind me more of MAC's baked eyeshadow consistency (the "gel" claim is because Milani states the formula starts as a gel and is then baked to a powder eyeshadow).

The Milani Bella Eyes shadows can be used wet or dry. This eyeshadow range consists of 30 colors (of which you should be able to find all of them in your drugstore displays) and comes in 3 finishes: satin matte, shimmer and iridescent metallic.

The colors that stood out to me were originally Bella Mandarin and Bella Violet (since it reminded me of Urban Decay's Grifter, which is my favorite eyeshadow color of all time). Bella Mandarin is an ideal color to blend out or warm up any crease color of your choice, specifically it works well for browns and taupes.
I picked up Bella Champagne because I watched a couple of video reviews which stated that the Shimmer-finish was superior in pigmentation and color payoff to the Satin Mattes. I do think that the least pigmented of the bunch I have is Bella Violet (which incidentally is also a shimmer), so it may have to do with the color selection as well as the finish.

Milani Bella Eyes Gel Powder Eyeshadow Swatches

The consistency appears to be good for these shadows, they all perform decently thus far in swatches and on the eyes. I haven't noticed any creasing or fading (but let me disclose that I always wear eyeshadow primer or concealer underneath any eyeshadow). I would definitely recommend purchasing the colors that stand out to you as you won't be disappointed.

I don't think one must own the entire collection because a lot of the colors are dupe-able or very similar (Bella White, Bella Ivory, Bella Diamond and Bella Chiffon are only marginally different from one another and I'm not sure that you would notice much of a difference once blended out, same with Bella Rose and Bella Pink).

Not sure which colors you want? For great swatches of each color in the range, check out Vampy Varnish's very comprehensive blog post.

Product Swatches and Review: NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream

I picked up a pack of 3 soft matte lip creams about a year ago because I saw that there was a 3-pack on sale at a local Urban Outfitters. I didn't even know anything about them at the time and my expectations were very low. I used and loved my original three so much (Tokyo, Antwerp and Addis Ababa) that just last week I decided to pick up two more (Milan and Sao Paulo). 

 I wanted to take swatches of my mini-collection to give you guys an idea of the pigmentation of these (swatches were all done with one swipe) - these are highly bold, pigmented, long wearing and last well for me even through eating and drinking. I get a solid 6 hours of wear time from these before they start to disappear off my lips. They are not the most moisturizing product and can even leave your lips a bit dry but this is not a problem if you apply a tiny bit of vaseline or chapstick first.

Tokyo: Bubblegum pink

Milan: Mid-tone blue-toned pink

Antwerp: Mid tone yellow-toned pink

San Paulo: Plummy pink

Addis Ababa: Bright fuchsia

Antwerp is the most unique color of the bunch, I don't have a color like this in my lip product collection. The middle three, MIlan, Antwerp and San Paulo are my favorites. Let me know what you think about this collection and if you have any other recommendations for me to pick up!

Product Review: Physician's Formula Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Eyeshadow

I'm super excited that I can bring you a review of these products. I've been a long fan of the Physician's Formula line as they are more focused on hypoallergenic, good-for-you products with an organic twist. I happened to be perusing through the makeup section of Ross Dress for Less the other day and I found a mind-blowing deal. It was definitely not a fluke and they had many of these kits laying around, but the originally $10/each Physician's Formula Shimmer Strips Eyeshadow sets were selling for $7.99 for a 3-pack!!! I know! It was a $23 savings!

Since I had been itching to try these anyways, I immediately scooped up the set that seemed the most colorful and fun to me. Now, I'm not going to lie, they're billed as Eyeshadow and Liner 2-in-1, but since absolutely any eyeshadow can be used wet as a more intense color or as an eyeliner, I'll only be reviewing them for their eyeshadow properties. You can, certainly, use these wet for a more intense color (as you can with any other eyeshadow you may own from any other brand). 

Each 9-color Shimmer Strips pack comes with an applicator with an angled liner sponge. As with every other brush that "comes with" drugstore eyeshadows, although they are better than most eyeshadow applicators, these are not particularly adept at lining eyes or eyeshadow placement and you'll want to use your own set instead.

Now, I don't have blue eyes, but they didn't have anymore of the "brown eye" sets and even if they did, I probably still would have chosen the blue. Regardless, you don't *have* to wear the colors they suggest, depending on how you wear them, any shade can look great on all eye pigmentations. This set looked the most varied and fun!

Enhance Blue Eyes - Smokey Collection

The first kit is a Blue Eyes set from the Smokey Eyes Collection and the swatches came out decently.

I did notice and you can tell by the swatch, the dark grays (the one in the middle and the one on the bottom) look almost identical, and the second-to-last color was only about half a shade lighter).

I think this set could have used some more variety. I do appreciate the inclusion of a slightly purple navy as the third color down.

This one was definitely a splurge at the original $10 price tag, but for the $2.66 I paid for it, I was more than pleased. The size of these is small and they are lightweight so you can easily travel with them. For an on-the-go set, these colors are creamy (the darker ones tend to be a little more chalky) and very easy to work with and blend.

Enhance Blue Eyes - Eye Candy Collection

Now, I know what you're thinking, this set looks extremely repetitive in terms of shades (blues, blues and more blues). However, the colors are more varied than they appear.

The first trio of blues are more green-hued and I definitely appreciate the inclusion of these in the set. However, I definitely bought this for the cherry red color. Which is superbly pigmented and swatches exactly the same way it looks in the palette. I'm excited to use it and I'm very grateful that they included one of the larger sized rectangles full of that color!

You get a lot of product in these palettes and truth be told, the color payoff is very good, I really only had to run my finger through the color once or twice and get those very vibrant swatches. Unlike the previous set, this darker colors in this set were not chalky but very smooth, the quality was very high, on par with much more expensive companies like Urban Decay and Mac Cosmetics.

Fashionista En Vogue

This palette is my favorite of the trio. Mostly this is because of my love for purple eyeshadow, but also because there is a brow/highlighter color that is very wearable as the first shade in this palette. There is also no recommendation as to which eye color these shades are for, so they must be for any eyes.

Let me also state the obvious and that the golden neon green is another reason why I was drawn into this set set like a moth to a flame. I actually wore this as my eyelid color yesterday and it had extremely long lasting power (I even used it without a primer) and only came off when I scrubbed and washed it.

Each of the colors in this set is unique and there isn't shade overlap as with the previous 2 sets. Out of the three, I think this set is the only one I would actually pay the full asking price of $10 for. The colors are highly pigmented and there is a good variety of looks you can achieve, from light to dark. You can put together a sweet look or a smokey look with this palette, I think the possibilities are endless.

In conclusion, I would definitely look out for these if they're on sale at your local drugstore or at a discount store (such as Ross, TJ Maxx or Marshall's). I think rhe colors really have to be a good mix to pay the full asking price, but for the insanely awesome price of $2.66 each, I would easily pick up the whole collection of these. I think they're easy to work with, great for travel, a good variety of shades, and my only real problem with them is that you do have to pay attention when you're rubbing your brush or finger in the colors because it's easy to accidentally pick up more than just one shade. For this reason, I suggest using a medium sized eyeshadow brush for application, and maybe a thin blending brush for some of the smaller rectangles of color. I have seen rave reviews about the "Nude" colored set of shimmer strips and I'll link it below.

All in all, I give this product a very respectable 7.9/10 for the drugstore!