Why I Think the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette Is Overrated

Too Faced's Chocolate Bar palette has become a cult favorite, and it is recommended along with the Urban Decay Naked palette as the palette that everyone should have, especially a beginner. 

And I disagree. 

I purchased the Chocolate Bar a little while after it had been released. Mine was the slimmer version, but it still did not have names printed onto the packaging the way the new ones do. 

I loved it at first and counted it among my all-time favorite palettes, sometimes considering it my number-one favorite. After having it for less than a year and a half, however, I decluttered it from my collection and I really think it is a massively overhyped item. 

I'll first tell you what I loved about it. 

• Amaretto
• Marzipan, blended with
• Salted Carmel 

Amaretto was the first shadow that I had a significant dip in. I loved the dark rosy depth to it, and I wore it all over the lid. Marzipan blended with Salted Caramel was easily my favorite look in the palette, and I wanted to keep the entire thing just for that one look. 

I liked:

• Hazelnut
• Creme Brule
• Haute Chocolate
• Gilded Ganache

But ONLY over MAC Rubenesque paint pot.

Photo: The Sunday Girl

As you can see, Rubenesque is a peachy golden color, and it really brought out the golden hues in those shades. Unfortunately, I think Rubenesque can be rather patchy, so I really didn't enjoy using it. And on their own, I felt Hazelnut was too dark and flat; Creme Brule was an unflattering shade of gold on me that looked almost burnt; Haute Chocolate was too dark, flat, and cool-toned; and Gilded Ganache was too dark and patchy. 

Shades I didn't particularly care for but would still use:

• Cherry Cordial 
• Semi-Sweet
• Milk Chocolate
• Champagne Truffle 
• White Chocolate

Cherry Cordial was probably my favorite out of all of these "meh" shades, simply because the color was interesting. I would use Semi-Sweet to deepen the outer corner, but felt the shadow to be pretty underwhelming. I didn't have much use for Champagne Truffle outside of an inner corner highlight, and I have other shadows I like better for that. Overall, I find most of Too Faced's mattes to be underwhelming on the whole, which is largely how I felt about Milk Chocolate and White Chocolate. They are pretty dry and require a few passes to really build up nicely. 

Shades that I feel are useless/unworkable:

• Black Forest Truffle
• Triple Fudge
• Candied Violet
• Strawberry Bon Bon 

These shades, in my opinion, are all terrible. I don't know why Too Faced continues to put purples in their palettes when they know their purple shades are always terrible. The only Too Faced purple that I enjoy is Jelly from the Peanut Butter and Jelly palette, and that shade leans way more pink than purple. Candied Violet and Black Forest Truffle looked terrible on me. Black Forest Truffle specially had people asking me if I had a black eye (no joke). Strawberry Bon Bon is what I consider a "nothing shade." When I swatch it, no pigment is transferred onto my finger, and when applied with a brush, no pigment transfers to my eye. Triple Fudge was just too dark for me to ever want to use, much like every black that comes in a palette. For me, it's a wasted shade. 

So, when I now look at the Chocolate Bar, I only really like three shadows without help from something else. And I specifically did not like nine shadows in the palette. Nine! The palette only has 16 shadows, and I don't like more than half of them!

The colors I did like were incredibly basic:

• A shimmery burgundy 
• A shimmery champagne 
• A matte peach
• Golds
• Bronzes 

I have all of these shades several times over in my collection, so there was really no point in me keeping the Chocolate Bar. 

And for $49, I definitely think this palette is overrated and overpriced. Let's look at alternatives.

First, I recommend the Ciate London Pretty Palette:

This palette has the gorgeous shimmery champagne and matte peach that I love so much (and frankly, I think the combination of the colors from this palette is much prettier than Marzipan and Salted Caramel), a gorgeous gold that doesn't need a base, a fantastic inner corner highlight, matte brow bone color, beautiful taupe that makes Haute Chocolate look terrible in comparison, and three other fantastic mattes. 

This palette is $35.

I would also recommend the Zoeva Cocoa Blend:

This palette is close to perfection for me. It has a very similar feel to the Chocolate Bar, but if every shadow performed well. This is the closest "dupe" palette in my collection, but since it is from Germany, it is not as readily available to US folks as the Ciate palette. 

With shipping, I believe I paid around $35, so this would be cheaper for folks in Europe. 

Finally, even from Too Faced's own line, I think the Peanut Butter and Jelly palette has a similar feeling to the Chocolate Bar (at least within the colors that I enjoyed from it):

Although I'm still not crazy about Too Faced's matte shadows, these perform better than those in the Chocolate Bar, at least in my opinion. This also comes with a beautiful gold, bronze, and copper that don't need a golden base. "Jammin'" is the only shadow in here that is kind of a dud, which again begs the question of why Too Faced continues to put purple shadows in their palettes if they are not high quality. 

This palette costs $36. 

All three of these palettes perform better as a whole than the Chocolate Bar, and all are considerably less expensive. 

I think what happens with the Chocolate Bar is the "cheerleader effect," or the more feminist-friendly "group attractiveness affect." Looking at the Chocolate Bar, the entire thing is aesthetically pleasing, which is why I thought I loved it for so long. But when I actually looked at the individual shades, I found that there were so few that I actually liked. 

It is also worth mentioning that I've seen the Chocolate Bar pop up in a few "Pan that Palette" challenges on YouTube. If you are unfamiliar with this challenge, I recommend checking out Amber F's channel on YouTube. She created the challenge a few years ago and has panned the entire Naked Palette, Lorac Pro, Stila In the Light, and is currently working on Stila in the Know. Many others in this community have also embarked on the challenge of panning entire eyeshadow palettes, and those who pan the Chocolate Bar seem to have the biggest problem with it. People who have previously said they love the Chocolate Bar find it incredibly difficult to work with once they are using it on a daily basis. 

I've found watching these videos really interesting because these people share that they realize they only like a few shadows from the Chocolate Bar and that the rest are too difficult to work with. And that was exactly my experience. Amber F has said that she is going to pan the Chocolate Bar in 2017, so it will be interesting to see if she has the same experience or not. 

I know the Chocolate Bar is incredibly hyped, and I do believe that the many people who say they love it really do. But I also think it's not a one-size-fits-all product that people tend to make it out to be. And for as expensive as it is, I really don't think it's versatile or worth the money. I think there are probably a handful of looks that someone could do, and that's about it. In trying to be a more conscious shopper, it's important for me to objectively look at purchases that I've made and later regretted and see what I can learn from it to not make a regretted purchase in the future. 

More than anything, what I've learned (and am continuing to learn) is that I have to avoid the hype. The current climate in the beauty community with blogs and YouTube channels is perfect for brands and marketers. Brands don't even have to do the work because we hype things up so much ourselves. But, hype only lasts for so long, and then people will move on to the next thing to be obsessed over. Right now, everyone is talking about the Anastasia Beverly Hills Master Palette by Mario, which is basically the Naked palette by Urban Decay. There is absolutely nothing new or innovative about that palette, except for the fact that it is literally a new product. And in a few months, people will be hyping something else entirely. 

One the whole, I don't think the Chocolate Bar is a good product worth its price tag. I think it's a great concept, but has a poor execution. It smelling like chocolate is just another gimmick Too Faced is exploiting. Again, if you are looking for positive reviews of this product, they are out there in spades. This is just my experience, and I'm offering another opinion that is not a "first impression."