Too Faced Christmas In New York: The Chocolate Shop Review & Swatches

The Too Faced Christmas In New York Chocolate Shop is sold exclusively at Sephora ($58). There have been good, bad and "in the middle" reviews regarding this Christmas themed palette. I must admit, I never had high hopes for this palette from the initial swatches I saw online. I loved and wanted it exclusively for it's packaging. It's quite exquisite, but what about the rest of what it holds? Would I change my mind? Let's take a look...

The design of this palette is charming and truly exquisite. The box folds out to reveal a beautiful Christmas scene and the palette itself. You have a couple, perusing a chocolate shop on the sidewalk of 5th Avenue in New York during the Christmas season. The shop features an assortment of cakes, macarons, candy and other delicious treats. The gentleman is dressed in a dapper black suit. The lady is wearing a chic little black dress, pink hair and has a Sephora bag in hand. There's a cute black iron lamp post with a pink wreath and the chocolate shop has a patisserie style awning. The entire scene is dimensional (think di-cut, paper dolls, shadow box style). Deluxe samples of Too Faced's Shadow Insurance (it reminds me of Benefit's Porefessional), Better Than Sex Mascara and Too Faced Melted Chocolate Liquified Long Wear Lipstick In Milkshake are within the window of The Chocolate Shop.

Now, the palette! It says, Christmas In New York...The Chocolate Shop...Cocoa Powder Infused. It does have a light scent of chocolate. There's a pink & green Too Faced wreath on the front and in the background is a pink cityscape of New York City (both front & back). The palette can be removed from it's "tray". When you open it up, there's the cute Chocolate Shop Window scene repeated, 21 eyeshadows, blush, luminizer and bronzer color.

Let's go through the eye shadows! I love the names! FYI I used Smashbox primer AND The Too Faced Shadow Insurance on the back of my hand. Also, I marked colors that performed well with a green check mark. I was a little worried when I swatched the first group of shadows. Desserts On Me is a gorgeous (shimmering icy white). Raspberry Rose, which is a (matte light pink) applied very chalky. Loved Sugared Raisin (shimmering silver mauve). And Glaze (matte white cream) also proved to be chalky & patchy. So out of this group, I only liked 2 out of 4.

The next group was better. Cake Batter (matte soft peach) worked for me. It's a pretty soft peach. Butterscotch is gorgeous (it's a metallic copper). Banana Date (what is that? LOL is a satin soft creamy beige). It was ok, but chalky. Sugar Bells (metallic silver) and Mint Chip (metallic sea blue) are both mesmerizing. I could see using both together for a dramatic eye look. I think they're very pretty blues and I'm not a fan of blue. So out of this group, I liked 4 out of 5.

The third group, consisting of browns had some problems. I only liked 3 out of 6. If you haven't noticed already, it's the METALLICS that are the winners in this palette. The quality of the mattes... well they really struggled. Indulge is a glistening (silvered taupe), Cookie Dough is a (matte beige gold sparkle) shade. I see the matte beige, but ummm I don't see any sparkle. LOL Guilt Free is a (matte soft lavender). It came off grey-ish on me. Tootsie is nice! It's a (matte rich chocolate brown). I love gold, so I loved Gingerdoodle (shimmering champagne). Chocaholic (matte sand) fell flat for me.

The last group of shadows were a hit! But they were mainly metallics LOL Too Faced gets metallics right. Mattes (at least in this palette, not so much). Toffee Crunch is a deep (matte reddish? brown), Lava Cake is a (dark cocoa gold sparkle), Honey Dip is a (shimmering gold), Pound Cake is a (shimmering pinked gold), Jingle Berry is a (vibrant orchid) and Huckleberry is a (deep purple black pink glitter). I loved all of these and they performed well. So I liked 6 out of 6.

So for the eye shadows, I liked 15 out of 21. That's not too bad!

The last 3 things in the palette were a luminizer in (inner light), bronzer (chocolate soleil bronzer), and blush (chocolate covered strawberry). All shades are very beautiful. The blush is the only one to worry about. If you're fair (like me or lighter), I would use a very light hand. It's pigmented. I think it would look better on darker skin tones. The formulas for all are very nice.

Sweet-Bittersweet-NotSweet

supersweet(run & buy it) sweet(really good,buy it) bittersweet(ok, issues)not sweet(not good,don't buy this stuff) 

  Too Faced The Chocolate Shop is Sweet

Final thoughts. You guys know how particular I am! This palette surprised me. Is this an everyday palette? No. This is party! Night on the town! You're going to a special event or it's a special occasion palette! All these colors make a STRONG statement. I know I won't be using it very much. Just special occasions. It's also expensive! So you will have to weigh all options as to why you would want it and do you really need it. I had no expectations other than I wanted to display it in my makeup room. I'm just glad I'll get some use out of it. I JUST give this palette a Sweet rating. It's better than ok...It is good! BUT is it good for what YOU need? Don't spend that kind of money for it to be stored away. I'm a makeup package collector & blogger and I use makeup...so my purchase is justified. Hope this review helped you! I did purchase some other things from the Too Faced Christmas In New York Collection. Too Faced just mailed it. When it comes in I'll let you know my thoughts. Below are some of the looks you can put together using the color shades in this palette.