(*affiliate link) Hey Guys! I got this newly released eyeshadow palette couple weeks ago- the Too Faced Better Than Chocolate Eyeshadow palette *! Recently I have been digging blue and purple/lavender eyeshadow shades and the two shades in this palette are the main trigger for me to get this palette! I’ll review the formulas and their performance in later sessions.
As usual, this Better Than Chocolate palette is housed in the same type of metal casing as their other chocolate-themed palettes. Too Faced * has been coming out with different eyeshadow formats lately! Like the Born This Way Sunset Stripped eyeshadow palette * (reviewed here), Too Femme Ethereal Eye Shadow & Pressed Pigment Palette *, and their mini palettes. However, the chocolate palettes are my favorite among all! I’m so excited to talk about and give you some of my thoughts about this palette if you’re interested!
Table of Contents
About the Too Faced Better Than Chocolate Eyeshadow palette
This Too Faced Better Than Chocolate Eyeshadow palette * retails for $54 USD. There is a total of 0.69 oz (19.8 g) of product in this palette. Each shade is 0.0388 oz (1.1 g). It is also bulk made in USA and assembled in Dominican Republic.
As per Too Faced’s eyeshadow palettes, this Better Than Chocolate eyeshadow palette has a ‘molten chocolate cake’ scent upon opening the lid. It is not overpowering in my opinion (in contrast to the Born This Way Sunset Stripped eyeshadow palette! *), nor it lingers after application.
There are a total of 18 multi-finish shades: 7 mattes, 11 shimmers/metallics.
I do have some opinions on the choice of colors in this palette, especially for the mattes!
Ingredients and formulation of the Too Faced Better Than Chocolate Eyeshadow palette
It was really hard to capture the list of ingredients on the back of the box packaging due to the contrast, so I suggest you to go to Too Faced’s website or other retailers’ site for the full list!
If you’ve already read my other reviews of the recent Too Faced palettes, you’ll know that they have changed their eyeshadow formula (especially for mattes) to a talc-free one, which I really appreciate and support! The new formula works great performance-wise.
As mentioned earlier, this palette does give a chocolate scent, so fragrance has been added in their formula. However, this palette is parabens-free and cruelty-free.
The matte eyeshadows in this Better Than Chocolate palette blend like a dream and are very smooth, non-patchy! They are also pigmented.
The shimmers/metallics on the other hand, are rather inconsistent in terms of performance:
Pros: the different shades of brown shimmers/metallics are very smooth and pigmented as the mattes. The white (left upper corner, Milk It), deep plum (right upper corner, Midnight Snack) and olive (right lower corner, Sexts & Candy) shimmers are also great, both as highlight/outer corner deepening shades and center lid shades.
Cons: the pops of color in this palette (which are also the reason why I got this palette!), the blue (Bless Your Tart), lavender (Sugar Rush) and yellow (Gold Digger) shimmers/metallics, are very hard pressed that I can’t get a good pigmentation out of the shades. They looks awesome in the pan, but it’s also a lot of effort to make them work and show up on the lid. I have to constantly stab my brush into the pan (especially Sugar Rush), to get a little bit of pigment. I’ll highly recommend you use a sort of eyeshadow primer/stick base, or even glitter glue, for these few shades, also to minimize fall out.
Swatches and Color story for the Too Faced Better Than Chocolate Eyeshadow palette
Usually Too Faced makes high quality matte shades for their palettes, the ones here are no difference! Love their new talc-free matte formula!
The shimmers/metallics are mostly good, except the few I mentioned in the last session. I still love the blue shimmer with sparkly glitter particles (Bless Your Tart) though. The dud in this palette is definitely the lavender in the middle (Sugar Rush).
As for the color story, I think this Too Faced Better Than Chocolate Eyeshadow palette is not as exciting as it could have been.
The proportion of brown shades (mattes or not) is too overwhelming in this palette. It’s okay to have matte and shimmer browns of different depth. However, there are too many of them and they are too close to each others. I understand the mattes on the left and right side of the palette have different undertones, but on the lid they all look the same- half of the mattes are redundant and overlapping. I wish they put something else to complement the blue/purple shades.
In addition, the olive green at the right lower corner (Sexts & Candy) is kind of a random choice IMO. There are not enough variety of matte shades to support the olive green.
So I’d think the color story is not very well thought-out and it could have been a more exciting palette.
Live swatch video:
4 eye looks created using Too Faced Better Than Chocolate Eyeshadow palette
I started with eye look 1 which is office-appropriate for me. It is very basic and natural, with a little bit sheer on the center of the lid. All the shades perform very well, it is a low-effort look.
This eye look 2 can be a nighttime version of eye look 1 once you pop the metallic shade onto the center of the lid, although I did achieve this with a different set of shades from the palette for review purpose.
As a recent blue eyeshadow lover, this third look is my favorite! It’s a bit out of my comfort zone for going to the office, but I’m down to wear this on a weekend or a night out! Love it! I also think this is a more unique eye look you can make out of this brown shade-heavy palette.
Although I have said earlier that the blue and lavender shades are not performing as I wish, the level of intensity the blue shade gives makes it blends easily with other shades, without overpowering.
This final eye look features the olive green shade in the palette. The deep brown sort of worked for the outer corner here, but I do wish they include a deep olive matte for this purpose.
I had actually created a 5th look using this Too Faced Better Than Chocolate Eyeshadow palette, but it was very similar to the 2nd look, so I omitted it. All in all, this is still a palette that can allow you to make a lot of different looks.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I like this Too Faced Better Than Chocolate Eyeshadow palette *. It is not unique, or even repetitive from Too Faced if you have some of their palettes already, but it works for me. It is a one and done palette. I love most of the looks created using this palette, and the overall performance of the shades are good. So if you’re looking for a new everyday palette with a little something, I’d recommend you try this out.
However, this is not a palette for you if you want every single shade (especially the non-mattes) in this palette to perform equally well and gives a good pigmentation. You need to work for some of the shades here. Nor if you’re eyeing this palette because of the royal blue and lavender shades, I would suggest you look somewhere else. I think Nars’ * 16-pan palettes can be good alternatives in a similar price range- great formulas for most of the finishes and lovely color stories. You can see some of my reviews on Nars’ eyeshadow palettes here.
In summary, I will rate this Too Faced Better Than Chocolate Eyeshadow palette *as:
- Texture: 6/10
- Color payoff: 7/10
- Longevity on eye lid: 8.5/10
- Quality consistency among shades: 2/10
- Color scheme uniqueness: 3/10
- Affordability: 6/10
