Chocolate for Work: Eyeshadow Options

I mentioned before that I really love makeup and I really love colorful makeup, especially a bright eye.  When I was younger I would ignore the “don’t be matchy-matchy” rule and match my shadow to my outfit and I loved it!  But, obviously, now that I’m older and working as an attorney bright blue shadow isn’t going to work while I’m talking to judges.  Sad.  But! that doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun with a neutral eye.  So, today we’re comparing two palettes by Too Faced that are great options for work:

Too Faced’s Chocolate Bar and their second edition, Semi-Sweet, offers a great variety of neutral eyes and mixes enough mattes, shimmers, and a few colors to easily go from day to night.

I think each palette is different enough to give you a variety of looks that it’s worth it to get the two palettes, if you can afford both.  However, if you can only get one, then I think the one you get depends on your skin coloring.  As you can see, the colors in the original are more subtle golden and ruby toned, which works well with someone that’s tan like me; whereas the Semi-sweet has brighter golden/brown tones.

In the original, the Candied Violet is a gorgeous purple that looks great on brown-eyed girls, and it complements the other colors nicely.  I also wear Marzipan to work, which is like a pink/melon shimmer. I especially like to use it on days that I have evening events because the color helps brighten my eye, or on days when I’m extra tired because it helps me look awake and alert.  The mattes on this palette are also great because, while giving great color pay-off, they are not dark browns.  That means I can wear them to work on my lid or crease and it doesn’t look overwhelming.

Now Semi-sweet took me a minute to fall in love with compared to how easily I liked the original palette.  I loved how the Semi-sweet looked in videos and even swatching it at the store, it looked great.   But for me, it didn’t translate as well on my lids and I think that just has to do with my coloring.   The first issue for me is that about three of the colors are too orange/brassy in their application.  Peanut Butter, for example, looks like a great matte but it’s a bit too garish on my lid because it looks straight up orange.  The other mattes like Truffled or Puddin’ are too dark to use for work.  I mean, I can use them, but I think it would look a little too smoulder-y for work because they are so dark  and that’s distracting.  So that’s a little disappointing.

Additionally, the color Nougat, which is a lighter matte, does not have as high pigmentation as the other shadows.  That is super odd to me because I have a lot of Too Faced palettes and that has never been an issue.  But below you can see Nougat and I had to swipe a lot to get that color.  It just doesn’t transfer to my lids when I apply it and I’m not sure if that’s because my lids are tan?  Finally, Pink Sugar is supposed to be this shimmer add-on, meaning you can add shimmer to any matte color.  But it doesn’t seem to work very effectively and it actually looks chalky on the brush.

I know I just said, “get  both!” and then kind of ragged on Semi-sweet, but aside from my gripes, which I think (minus Pink Sugar) are due to my skin tone, I think the colors are really nice!  Someone with different coloring, or more creative, can get better use out of the shades.  And I have been using the palette for work quite often–I mainly use Rum Raisin which is so similar to WetNWild’s Nutty (which was a dupe for MAC’s Satin Taupe). I also love Blueberry Swirl.  I love an aquamarine eye–it’s just such a great color!  Not pictured is Licorice, a matte black that is one of the best matte blacks I’ve had.  It just applies smoother and more velvet-y than other blacks; with a primer it can easily be used as a liquid liner substitute.

So overall, I do like both but think that the original gives me more use as it has better look options for work.  Have you tried either palette?  Which one is your favorite?