Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette | Review + Swatches

I finally own the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette! At last, it's mine!

As one of the most hyped, cult-status eyeshadow palettes in existence, and something found in just about every girl (and guy's) beauty collection, I certainly took my sweet time in picking up this beauty! I'll be honest, I tried very hard to ignore the hype, thinking nothing could beat my trusty UD Naked palette. Ha, was I wrong!

If the delicious, chocolatey scent that hit me when I opened the palette wasn't enough to make me fall in love, then the smooth and buttery texture of the shadows and the way they blended so easily when applied certainly sealed the deal!

The Chocolate Bar comes in a sturdy tin case that keeps the product safe, making it a great choice to bring along with you when you travel. I've got the 'new and improved' packaging, which is slimmer than the original and also has the shade names printed above each shade - which is a huge step up from the old plastic sleeve that everyone seemed to lose and really just dislike.

This palette has a versatile range of neutral, cool and warm toned shades that'll suit just about (if not) any skin tone/eye colour combination. There are 16 shades in total (6 matte, 10 shimmer) ranging from golds to browns, pinky/highlight shades, and even some 'stand-out' shades such as 'Cherry Cola' and 'Candied Violet' that add a nice albeit suttle touch of colour to any look.

Shades pictured (left to right) - Triple Fudge, Black Forest Truffle, Milk Chocolate, White Chocolate, Gilded Ganache.

Shades pictures (left to right) - Salted Caramel, Marzipan, Semi-Sweet, Strawberry Bon Bon, Candied Violet, Amaretto.

Shades pictured (left to right) - Champagne Truffle, Cherry Cola, Haute Chocolate, Crème Brulee, Hazelnut.

As I mentioned before, these shadows are buttery and smooth and blend like a dream! For the most part, they're very pigmented (unfortunately 'Strawberry Bon Bon' and 'Candied Violet' are lacking in this department), so you only need to tap lightly to pick up a fair bit of product on your brush.

At only $72 from Mecca Maxima here in Australia, this palette is great value for money and you won't be disappointed!

My favourite shades in this palette, and the ones I see myself using the most are; Marzipan, Hazelnut, Semi-Sweet, Milk Chocolate and Amaretto! But let's be honest, they're all gorgeous!

I'm extremely happy I finally jumped on the Too Faced Chocolate Bar bandwagon, and now I'm excited to try even more of the brands products - I've got my eye on the Cocoa Contour Palette and the Melted Chocolate Honey liquid lipstick, for starters!

Do you own the Chocolate Bar palette? What do you think of this palette?

x Chontelle

What I Got for My 20th Birthday!

Well, I'm no longer a teenager! Yesterday I turned twenty years old! I celebrated in small doses over the past week - a week ago mum and I had a sweet treat at Max Brenner (instead of cake, whichI actually don't like that much), and then Thursday night we had a birthday dinner at the Groove Train - which was delish! We grabbed coffee yesterday morning and I got some lovely presents, and then to finish off the night I grabbed dinner with a friend before heading out to the Valley (aka. club & bar central here in Brisbane)! 

But enough about that - the point of this post is to share with you all some of the exciting gifts I received today! I'll add the inevitable disclaimer in here and let you know that I'm honestly not trying to brag, but I'm just super excited about these gifts and wanted to share them with you guys! 

So without further adue, let's see what I got!

The two 'big' things I received for my birthday were the Too Faced Original Chocolate Bar Palette and the Rosefield Silver Bowery Watch with a Grey Leather Strap. Both of these items have been on my wishlist for a pretty long time now, but because of the heftier price tags ($72 and $115 respectively), I hadn't gotten them yet. However, if a Birthday isn't an excuse to get something special, then what is?

The Chocolate Bar palette has seriously exceeded my expectations. I almost regret purchasing Urban Decay's Original Naked Palette as my first 'high-end' palette, because this one is honestly the best beauty product I own! The shadows are super pigmented and it smells absolutely amazing! The colour selection contains a lot of cooler to medium neutrals which is perfect for me, but it has some lovely shades like 'Cherry Cordial', 'Amaretto' and 'Candied Violet' that give a bit of a 'pop' of colour to enhance any eye look! I'm super excited to play around some more with this palette!

I first saw Rosefield watches on instagram (I follow a lot of European bloggers) and fell in love with the minimal, classic styles they had on offer. Rosefield is a Dutch brand, with a gorgeous selection of watches that are super affordable compared to similar brands here in Australia like 'The Horse' and 'The Fifth' (anywhere from $35 to $85 cheaper per watch). To be fair, the discount is mainly because if you live outside of Europe you don't pay VAT taxes so we basically get to skip out on GST because of an international loophole - I'm certainly not complaining, though! I chose the grey leather strap because grey is one of my favourite colours, but also because though I wanted to go with the black strap and buy a grey one later, the grey only comes with silver hardware when it's with the watch itself, whereas the black strap by itself can have either rose gold or silver hardware.

These silver pieces of jewelery from Colette were a great bargain, I think they were around 50-75% off each and came to about $13 all up! I basically only wear silver jewellery and I've gotten rid of a lot of old junk so it's nice to have some new, on-trend pieces to dress up my outfits!

How to Be Parisian was another item I got to check off of my wishlist, as I've been wanting this one for ages! With my obsession with all things Paris and dream of one day living in Paris, this book kind of had to be mine! It's a great read, full of helpful and humorous life, beauty and style tips, and looks perfect displayed on my desk ;)

Again, another wishlist item, Mac's Diva lipstick is everything I'd hoped it would be, and more! It's the most gorgeous deep red, something of a wine/blood/vampire red shade, and looks seriously stunning on! It's also my first proper red lipstick - ever! I know, I know! Still, it's the perfect start to my inevitable collection of red lipsticks!

I also got a few bits and pieces of clothing and accessory items! The grey cropped cross-over front top was only $30 from Bardot after using my $20 birthday voucher, which was a great deal! Both the clear/gold patterned iPhone cover and the striped phone case/wallet were sale buys from Forever New, as was the Playboy bra & undies set from Bras 'n' Things.

My friend Meg also got me a present, a seriously lovely scented candle, which I unfortunately don't have a picture of as I had to leave it at her place (but I'll be sure to add a picture a.s.a.p)!

All in all, I had a great birthday and got some amazing presents that I'm seriously grateful for! I hope you guys enjoyed this post and feel free to leave a comment down below! 

Have a great weekend!

xx Chontelle

BEAUTY | Too Faced 'Sweet Peach' Palette Sneak Peak!

Today I found out about something that will finally convince me to purchase my first Too Faced palette - the first sneak peek of the Sweet Peach palette from the brand's upcoming Summer 2016 (aka.Aussie Winter 2016) collection!

As the name so clearly suggests, this palette is all about the peachy hues, full of beautiful warm toned shadows that are perfect for any Summer/Fall look (or just year-round really, depending on how much you like peachy colours)! Now for me, this is the perfect palette - I love love LOVE peach tones and I've yet to find a palette that actually embraces and provides such a gorgeous range of peachiness, well until now that is!

Picture Credit: @trendmood1 on Instagram

Now, I totally appreciate the quality, pigmentation, variety etc etc of the current Too Faced palettes, not just the Chocolate Bar palettes but the natural eyes, budoir, cat eyes - all of them are lovely, great quality palettes. But I'm not a fan of 'too crazy' colours (if you haven't already noticed, I'm a neutrals kinda gal), and both of the Chocolate Bar palettes really don't offer the hugest range of new shades after my original Naked 1 palette so despite loving the palettes, with my student & casual employee budget I really cannot justify such similar palettes (at least not at $70-$81 each).

So this gorgeous palette has me SUPER excited, because I've always wanted to own some of the amazing Too Faced eyeshadows, and this here is not only a palette I can totally and completely justify, but one I could honestly see becoming my favourite! I'm especially lusting over 'Just Peachy', 'Candied Peach', and 'Bell-something (I can't make it out)'!

Oh, and did I mention that it's supposedly going to be infused with real peach essence and smells like peahces!?! YES PLEASE!

Picture Credit: @trendmood1 on Instagram

And here's a photo that shows the packaging - seriously, how cute is it? I love the ombre look going on, gorgeous peachy colours, and as with the previous palettes the palette is in a sturdy, slim tin palette. 

I seriously cannot wait for this palette to be released, and hopefully it won't take too long for it to be released here in little ole' Australia after the US. Who knows, it may even be released in time for my 20th Birthday at the end of July?! ;)

What do you think of this new palette, are you as excited as I am? Will you be picking this one up? Let me know in the comments below!

xx Chontelle Louise