Too Faced - Le Grand Palais

 

Hey everyone!

This post was very delayed and by that I mean this palette came out in Christmas of 2015 and I'm only writing it about now...

 Why, you ask?

 I just didn't get much use out of it until recently but I still wanted to share my thoughts with you guys.

Too Faced is known for their impeccable shadows. I have a few other Too Faced palettes that I adore and use all the time. So naturally when I saw this come out at Christmas, despite all the mixed reviews on it I thought hey why not? and went ahead and purchased it as a gift to myself. Being a Holiday Release this was limited edition and a Sephora exclusive and it retailed for $75 CAD which I don't think is outrageous as you get a considerable amount of product in the palette itself as well as three deluxe sized samples, including a "Better Than Sex" mascara, "Melted Peony" liquified lipstick and the Too Faced Shadow Insurance primer.

The only Too Faced products I had tried before this palette previously were other eye shadow palettes so I really enjoyed getting the sample products as a way to test some other products from the brand. This may be the unpopular opinion but I hated the Better Than Sex Mascara the brush was almost bigger than my eye itself and I found it hard to scrape all the excess off of it which left me with extremely clumpy and goopy lashes, I don't understand they hype around that product at all. The liquid lipstick I adored although I think for a holiday palette though they could have chosen a more winter appropriate shade. Melted Peony to me is not a color I'd rock in the snow but I have been getting lots of use out of it this summer. I've been using a primer from Coastal Scents so I only used the Shadow Insurance once but I was blown away by how vibrant it made the shadows and there was not even the tiniest bit of creasing either after eight hours!

On to the actual palette...

Too Faced aced the outer packaging on this, love the little box its housed in and the decoration including the Sephora bag and Too faced Chocolate bar palette! As with all Too Faced products I've come across the packaging on this is super cute! My only gripe with the packaging is that the palette is in a cardboard case and instead of using the side with no products for a mirror they decided to just use it as decoration. There is more than enough space for a mirror and decoration I just don't understand why they didn't utilizie it better, I mean this could have been a perfect travel palette if a mirror was included.

Including the larger pans there are 18 eye shadows, 2 blushes, a highlight and a bronzer. A large quantity of product but is the quality there?

{left to right: White Christmas, Satin Sheets and Vintage Lace}

White Christmas: Very powdery with little pigmentation. You really have to build this one up for any color payoff.

Satin Sheets: This shadow is included in the Too Faced Boudoir palette which I also own. The lighting in this shot makes it look very white but it's not. It's a very sheer slightly shimmery pale pink champagne color. The swatch didn't do this color justice I really love this shade, no it's not pigmented but the shimmer really makes it an eye catching shade.

Vintage Lace: A yellow toned base shade. It's quite powdery but the pigment is pretty good.

{left to right - Delightful, Moon On Their Wings, Cobblestone, City Lights & Dreamlight}

Delightful: Pale pink, lots of shimmer. This one took a lot to build up but felt very buttery to the touch and had little to no fall out. Makes a great highlighting shade!

Moon On Their Wings: Shimmer finish, light gold. Again a very buttery shade but not a lot of pigment just a lot of shimmer. 

Cobblestone: Gorgeous, gorgeous matte crease shade. I love this color, I've been using this almost daily as my go to. It's buttery and blends beautifully! It's highly pigmented though so be sure to not use too much too quickly.

City Lights: Another perfect matte shade. I used this on my crease today and is perfect just like Cobblestone. The mattes in this palette are amazing. I honestly wish Too Faced would sell singles because I would buy this and Cobblestone over and over again!

Dreamlight: This shade looks almost matte in the swatch but it does have a slight hint of shimmer to it. Very pigmented and little fallout. 

 

{left to right - String of Lights, Yule Log, Wish List, Arc De Triomphe, Belle Femme}

String of Lights:  This is one of the worst shades of all. Patchy, zero pigmentation. This swatch took about 15 layers. This was just a complete waste in my opinion.

Yule Log: This looks black but I assure you it's not. In the pan it's a dark brown with flecks of gold shimmer throughout which look non existent above. This was patchy and i feel like you really had to push to get it to transfer to the skin.

Wish List: My favorite in the palette. A marvelous gold and I'm a sucker for a golds. Pigmented, buttery and blendable. Perfect gold in my eyes.

Arc De Triomphe: A shimmery rose gold. I used this as an inner highlight today and on the eyes it definitely leans more golden. This one had quite a bit of fallout but is a very pretty shade and is easily buildable for more pigment.

Belle Femme: A dark brown matte. This one was a tad more patchy then the other two matte shades but is still a great matte. Great for darkening the crease.

{left to right: Stiletto, Eiffel. Midnight in Paris, Champs Elysees, Party Dress}

Stiletto: A matte extremely patchy black. For a black I was expecting a much deeper shade than what I got. Not impressed.

Eiffel: A shimmery forest green. I love this color just wish it was a tad more pigmented because its so beautiful. Again was very patchy.

Midnight in Paris: A blue glitter. I say glitter instead of shimmer because even in the swatch you can see CHUNKS of glitter. There are more chunks of glitter than there is eye shadow which  is not what I was expecting when looking in the pan. This is right up there with String Of Lights as the worst shade in the palette.

Champs Elysees: A purple shimmer shade. I used this wet on my eyes today and it looked terrific when I first applied it. It was vibrant and glittery but after not even a couple of hours it had almost completely vanished. I might try using a different primer next time to see how it holds up.

Party Dress: A pink shimmer. This one again like Midnight In Paris has some larger chunks of glitter but overall it's not terrible. Good pigment albeit a little patchy.

There's a great range of shades in this palette with three very well done mattes and a few shimmer shades that I really liked. Most of the eye shadows were nothing special though but the super glittery shades do look much better when used wet.

 {swatched wet}

Midnight in Paris even used wet is still patchy and chunky. This honestly was such a horrible shade it's almost unusable. Eiffel has much more pigment when applied wet and looks stunning!

The Face Products

 

{left to right: Stardust, Skyline, Flush and Sun Bunny}

Stardust: Very pigmented coral/pink blush. This applied like a dream and is super blendable.

Skyline: Classic barbie pink, easy to use too much product with this one as its extremely pigmented. I'm very fair so have to be very careful when using this one.

Flush: Light golden champagne. I didn't really like this highlight. It' much more subtle and I like a very in your face highlight but if you're one for subtlety this may be up your alley. Has very little shimmer but still adds a lovely glow to the skin.

Sun Bunny: This feels just like butter and is so pigmented. Being fair skinned this was too orange for me and made me look very muddy but I do think it's a lovely color and for darker skinned folks would look amazing!

I don't regret buying this palette but I understand the mixed reviews. It's disappointing when there are a few amazing shades in a palette and the rest are just mediocre especially when splashing out more than fifty dollars on one item.

Did anyone else get this? Thoughts?

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Bri

 

The Balm Nude Tude Fake?

Hi everyone! 

It's been a while I know, I'm sorry. I hope you can forgive me!

I had heard about the Balms "Nude Tude" palette for a long time but only recently purchased it within the past year. The disappointing truth was that I got a fake. I didn't order this directly from The Balm's website which was my first mistake and I should have known better but I proceeded to order it anyways knowing full well there was an extremely high risk of it being fake. Luckily I only paid thirteen dollars for it so it didn't break the bank nor did I feel as bad as I could have. 

I even spent time researching the fakes so that I could tell before hand but photos do lie my friends. 

I don't have the real palette to compare but I wanted to post this for others who may be thinking they can find it elsewhere for cheaper. Please take it from me, if you want this palette purchase it from the Balm directly as there are so many fakes out there and people will charge full price if not more if they think you'll go for it. I would have been so angry had I paid full price and found out later that it was fake.

 

So as you can see I used the whole pan up of Silly as it was my brow color and I wasn't originally planning to do a post on this so I never took blog photos previously. The colors are chalky and hardly pigmented. The swatches below took about ten swipes each to build up any color.

{Top - Bottom: Sassy, Stubborn, Selfish, Sophisticated, Sexy, Serious, Snobby, Stand-Offish, Sultry, Seductive, Silly (originally named Schitzo) and Sleek} 

As you can see "Snobby and Stand-Offish" offer little to no pigment even after building it up. 

Another dead giveaway for me that this was a fake palette was that the brush it came with was just about too long for the spot it was in and it broke in half without me using it even once. If that's not poor quality I don't know what is.

 When I researched the fake vs. the real palette here's some of the things I read/saw that did not match my fake but could be in others;

Real: Tan packaging

Fake: Grey packaging

Real: QR code in top right corner

Fake: No barcode - mine did have a QR code which I did try to scan but it would just constantly keep scanning over it and nothing would happen so the fake may have one as well.

Real: Fair skinned girls (my fake had fair skinned girls)

Fake: Orange looking skin 

I wish I had the real palette to compare and I most likely will buy it, so I may come back and edit this post in the near future. ;)

<3 p="">

Bri

Coastal Scents -- Revealed

 

I know this is an old palette that's been out for a while but my love has been rekindled for this and I wanted to share my thoughts. 

We all know that this was heavily inspired by the ever popular Urban Decay "Naked" palette.

 

It's so pretty, I could stare it all day.

Here's a side by side comparison, as you can see the pan shape/size is identical and the shades of course are very similar. Dupe alerts coming up!

The packaging is cardboard and there's no mirror which isn't a big con for me as I never use my palette mirror, I prefer a much larger mirror to do my makeup in but I did see a lot of people commenting about this not having mirror and how they wished it would have.

There is twenty shades in the Revealed palette opposed to 12 in the Naked. The Revealed palette retails for $19.95 on the Coastal Scents website opposed to $64 for Urban Decay. With Coastal Scents you're getting a lot more bang for your buck as you're getting almost double the shadows for a fraction of the price! The color scheme is well put together in the Revealed I love my nudes as does everyone and this palette although it has some miss shades I think the quality is overall well done. I love that there is a range of mattes and shimmer's it gives you more depth for creating eye looks and with this I can only imagine the amount of looks someone could come up with!

Overall, the colors are pigmented (with a couple exceptions - looking at you shade 3 - top row) and blend like a dream. 

Below is the first ten shades (from bottom - top (1-10))

 

Ten shades from the bottom row (Bottom - Top 11-20)

Time for the dupes! Please note these are not exact dupes but you could use them to gain a similar look. I will list the dupes I found online for the Naked 2 as well. I don't own the Naked 2 so unfortunately I can't compare.

 

So, here's the "dupes" for the Naked. I have labelled the Coastal Scents side with the corresponding shade number. The only really close dupes in my opinion are Buck and Darkhorse. The other ones are similar but you can see distinct differences. Creep for example is not a black as shade 20 in the Coastal Scents palette. Half Baked is another one, its a lot more gold than the Coastal Scents shade but it is possible to get extremely similar looks with these so if you're on a budget I highly recommend picking up this palette!

List of dupes for Naked 2:

Foxy - Shade 1

Half baked - Shade 8

Bootycall - 2

Chopper - N/A (the only one I couldn't find a dupe for anywhere online)

Tease - Shade 5

Snakebite - Shade 12

Suspect - Shade 9

Pistol - Shade 13

Verve - Shade 10

YDK - Shade 17

Busted - Shade 18

Blackout - Shade 20

I used this on my eyes today actually and that's what rekindled the flame. This is great palette with fabulous shades for the most part that blend amazingly! 

What do you guys think?

=)

Bri

PSA Urban Decay Naked - Real VS. Fake

Hey guys, I wanted to write this post as a PSA. Ladies if you're looking for an Urban Decay Naked Palette please buy from a reliable source (i.e Sephora, Urban Decay) 

Here's a fake palette compared to the real one....

Top - Real

Bottom - Fake

As you can see right off the bat the real palettes writing is much smaller and the Urban Decay logo is on the opposite side.

Top: Fake

Bottom: Real 

The Spacing on the fake is larger.

Top: Real

Bottom: Fake

The real one says beauty with an edge before listing anything else.

THE BRUSHES:

The real brush is gold and is double ended, the fake brush is also gold but the logo is huge and is in black lettering. Another difference is that the brush head is a dark brown where as the real brush head is a lighter brown with almost white tipped bristles, it also is much more cheaply made as it is already starting to come apart.

Top - Real

Bottom - Fake

Top - Real 

Bottom - Fake

When looking at the colors in the palette you can see there is no dimension to the fake ones, the shimmers in the fake palette almost look matte. However when swatched side by side one can easily tell the difference;

Virgin: Much darker and more purple in the fake.

Sin: Darker and more purple toned.

Naked: This one is an exception as they are pretty close.

Sidecar: More purple toned again and less shimmer than the original

Buck: The fake is almost a dirty orange color while the original is a nice light matte brown

Half Baked: No shimmer in the fake, chalky and extremely powdery

Smog: Another close one.

Dark Horse: Purple toned

Toasted: The fake is a muddy red tone

Hustle: Almost looks like a purple shadow in the fake. The real is a beautiful dark brown (great crease color)

Creep: EXTREMELY pigmented in the oringal, no pigmentation with the fake

Gunmetal: Blue toned in the fake but much lighter than the original

The fake is not even well done in my opinion, the brush looks cheap, the packaging looks cheap and on the back I don't have it pictured but the Urban Decay logo is on the real one and its missing on the fake.

The colors in the fake are chalky, extremely unbleandable powdery and hard to apply. Not all easy to work with and for some reason it seems most of the shades in the fake one are  a lot more purple toned.

Please ladies and gentleman be careful where you shop or this might happen to you...

E.L.F. - Neutral Eyes

Hello!

I wanted to share with all of you a bargain palette from E.L.F., this is their neutral eye palette I believe I paid $12 CAD at Winners for it and there are 36 shadows, bargain? Yeah, I'd say so.

As most people know E.L.F.s products are hit and miss they are a cheap online brand however you can find a few of their products in Target, Winners and dollar stores. I have only run into about 2 or 3 products that really let me down from E.L.F. and for the money you pay you can't expect everything to be top of the line.

Below are swatches of all the shadows and I did them by the groupings in the palette. These were all swatches using Coastal Scents eye primer.

As you can see there were two groups that had hardly any pigmentation but the rest of the shadows were great, the only major problem with these shadows is the fallout they get absolutely everywhere but for twelve dollars what do you expect? I've only ever used a brush to apply them so the fallout may be less when using the fingers. I absolutely adore the purple group of shades, so pretty great for fall! Aside from other more expensive palettes this one does have a mirror personally a palette not having a mirror is not a big negative for me as I tend to use my vanity mirror to apply all my makeup.

I really do like this palette and I get a lot of use out of it so if you're looking for a cheap natural palette give this a go if you can find it it was worth every penny!