For me, Christmas starts in September. I don’t care about Halloween or Thanksgiving, I just want to go straight into Christmas. So, as an early Christmas present to myself, I bought myself makeup. Because what else would I do? A lot of brands release holiday sets or palettes around October, but the pictures are usually leaked by early to late September. I try to wait to get the holiday sets from Sephora after the holidays, because they are usually on sale for half off, but I couldn’t resist for one set.
Recently, I started getting into the brand Too Faced. While I don’t agree with a lot of their business strategies or the way that they treat people, I liked the one product that I had tried. I got the Just Peachy Mattes palette when it was on sale in July. When they released their Gingerbread Spice palette on Instagram for the first time, I was instantly in love and while I didn’t need any more makeup, I really wanted to get it. I figured by the time it came out, about a month after, I wouldn’t want it as much.
That was unbelievably untrue. I bought it the day it came out as soon as I saw it. Also, in a last minute splurge, I bought “The Sweet Smell of Christmas-Mini Melted Liquid Lipstick Set.” I was stoked to buy these and decided that I couldn’t wait until January to make the purchase. Actually, I could wait. I just didn’t want to. The palette is filled with warm tones, and if I’m being honest, it looked really similar to a lot of the holiday palettes that were being released. However, for some reason it stuck out to me. I was looking at the palette and the one shade that made me fall in love it was the shade Gum Drop. It’s a fuschia color, which was unlike any of the other shades I have in my collection.
The first thing I’d like to mention is the packaging. I’ve seen Too Faced’s tin palettes before, but have never bought them due to the slightly outrageous price ($49) and the fact that the colors have never appealed to me. I was willing to spend the money for this one because I had like 40 Sephora gift cards I had gotten for my birthday, and it covered the entire price. It also smells really good, like vanilla gingerbread, so that’s a really nice touch. The mattes in this shade are beautiful. They blend so nicely on the eye, and aren’t too pigmented, which is good for super bright colors, because they’re buildable. Having them extremely pigmented at first can lead to messy eye looks, which I have never gotten from this palette. The shade “Spice is Nice” is beautiful and really flatters a lot of different people.
Even better than the mattes though, are the shimmers. They are so beautiful and sparkly but not chunky. I recommend applying them with a finger for the most color payoff. The shade “Warm and Toasty” is my favorite shade in the palette. It is a beautiful gold that stands out on all eye colors and skin tones. It’s not only my favorite shade in the palette, but it may be my favorite eyeshadow I own, and I own a lot. One thing that confuses me about Too Faced is their shade names and their marketing. They recently released a lot of products based off of unicorns and fairies, which had led a lot of younger people to their brand. Later, they released products with very provocative names. Some of the names in this palette are pushing the limits a little bit, with names like “Sugar Daddy” and “Spiked Eggnog.” These names would be fine for a brand that is marketed towards teenagers or adults, but when you have products that are marketed towards kids, you kind of have to pick a side, which Too Faced has not done. These names aren’t nearly as provocative as the names in some of their older palettes, some of which I don’t even feel comfortable writing in an article that anyone but me has to read.
The lipsticks are also beautiful. The set came with four different lipsticks, in a range of shades from light pink to a bright red. The shade “Pumpkin Spice” was a pinky nude, which is good for every day. “Sugar Cookie” is a true nude, which I have been wearing recently to school and I love it. It’s so flattering on everyone’s skin tone, which is hard to do for a lipstick. Cinnamon Bear is a pure red, which is also flattering, especially if you’re pale. And the shade Hot Buttered Rum is another nude; it is a little dramatic for me, but if you have a tan skin tone, it’ll be beautiful. All of these shades are perfect for fall. One thing that I love with all these sets is that they are mini instead of full size. I know that I have so many lipsticks that it is hard to finish one, so the fact that they are minis mean that I get a lot more bang for my buck. The size will last you the entire fall, even if you use it every day, and it isn’t too tiny where you get three uses out of it.
One thing that I didn’t like is that these shades are not available in full size, which means that since this set is limited edition, you can’t buy it again if you finish it up and want to repurchase it. That being said, Too Faced has very similar shades on their website that you can purchase all the time instead of just during the Holidays. The Too Faced liquid lipstick formula is great as well. It dried down completely without looking flaky or dry, and smells sweet. I will definitely be buying more of these lipsticks once I finish the ones I have now. Overall, these two Holiday releases from Too Faced were a hit. The palette, while expensive, was so worth the money and was gorgeous.
The lipstick set was such a good set and was a great volume for the price you pay. I highly recommend both of these things. They are both limited edition, and the palette is $49. The lipstick set is $25.
