Too Faced Cocoa Contour Review

Part of me wants to ask why I bought this product, but deep down I know exactly why. They enticed me in with that delicious chocolate smell and I fell for it. I'd actually been really excited for buying one for a while but  it hadn't been available in the UK until recently when I saw it on Debenhams website and decided to pick it up. Most contouring kits come with at least 6 colour's which I think is a bit excessive for what I need personally, so I liked the look of this palette with only for shades.

I've been using Light Cocoa to set my concealer but that's really the only colour I expect to get any real use out of. Medium Cocoa isn't too warm for me so I could use it as a contour shade if I applied it with a very light hand and blended it a whole load, but I'd prefer to use something else which looks good without all of the extra effort. It might look good if I'm going to a club or something though so I might try it out for that. 

Dark Cocoa though, is so warm its practically orange. There is no way I can make that colour work on my skin as a contour without it looking like a streak of dirt down both of my cheeks and it's too dark for me as a bronzer. I hate pop of light too. I love highlighters, I really do, but this is horrible. It's not a nice sheen or even a shimmer, it's like a cream eyeshadow with huge chunks of gold glitter in it. I don't know who thought it  would be a good idea because when I tried it on my face I looked ridiculous. It doesn't look like my skin is catching the light, you can clearly see the giant pieces of sparkle!

 

T-B: Pop Of Light, Dark, Medium, Light

I do like the brush which comes with the kit though, especially for a brush which came with a palette because I don't often like the brushes which come with stuff. The only other Too Faced brush I have to compare it with is the Powder Pouf but I know all of their brushes are made of their teddy bear hair so I'm assuming they're all pretty similar. The Contour Buki is very similar in softness to the Powder Pouf but feels a tiny bit stiffer and for some reason smells a bit chemically but that'll probably wear off when its washed. The shape of the brush is pretty good for contouring too since its narrow and densely packed. I wish that the handle was a tiny bit bigger so it felt better to hold but I suppose it's that size to fit into the little slot in the palette.

Overall I don't think this palette is worth buying if you have quite pale skin. It might work better if you're darker but I cant say for definite since Dark Cocoa seems very warm to me. For 1, maybe 2, usable colours though, I don't think this palette was worth the money for me.

Inglot Dupe for Limecrime Venus Palette

Review and Swatches

When it first came out, I was drooling over the Limecrime Venus: The Grunge Palette, but reviews seemed to all say that the shadows felt chalky and had lots of fall out and that the red shades even stained your skin. Because for a palette at that price I expect better quality, and because of the controversy surrounding the brand, I decided not to buy the palette.

I was in love with the colour scheme though, so when I saw the idea of making a dupe palette with Inglot Freedom shadows, I was excited. I'd never really considered buying Inglot shadows before but I had heard that the formula was good and that the pans were huge (almost twice the size of Mac!), so it seemed like a good option. I looked at some swatches online and then because there isn't an 8 pan version of the Freedom System Palette, I purchased a 10 pan palette, 8 dupe eyeshadows and 2 other eyeshadows which I thought would fit with the rest of the colours.

The shadows I bought were:

• 450 (Pearl) - Dupe for Venus
• 397 (Pearl)- Dupe for Shell
• 45 (Shine)- Dupe for Aura
• 335 (Matte)- Dupe for Creation
• 329 (Matte)- Dupe for Icon
• 361 (Matte)- Dupe for Rebirth
• 349 (Matte)- Dupe for Divine
• 55 (AMC)- Dupe for Muse
• 382 (Matte)- A bright pinkish red, the Relentlessly Red of the eyeshadow world
• 387 (Matte)- A light warm grey (And a dupe for an FCUK eyeshadow I loved, panned and could never find again)

I love the packaging of the Inlgot Freedom Palettes, they come in two parts, with a black side with slots for the pans to fit in and a clear lid with 'Inglot' printed all over it. The two parts are magnetic and stick together really well, so you don't have to worry about it accidentally coming open and your eyeshadows getting damaged. The black part is also magnetic to hold in the metal eyeshadow pans, they fit really snugly and need to be removed using another magnet to pick them up. Inglot have recently released a tool specifically for removing the pans from the palette but I've heard the corner of the lid or another Freedom work just as well. Because once the pans are in, it's not easy to be removing them all of the time, I wrote the names of the shadows on the edges if the palette in pencil so that I can see what they're called, but I can also rub off the writing easily if I decided to rearrange my palette.

The texture of the 'shine' eyeshadows is my favourite, it feels incredibly smooth and is packed with shimmer with not too many huge chunks of glitter. I love 45 as a colour for my inner corner and brow bone highlight, however its definitely much more yellow than Aura, so I wouldn't consider it a true dupe.

The 'pearl' formula is my second favourite since it feels smooth and soft but needs a couple of swipes to get it to full opacity. Pearl is the perfect description for the finish of these shadows since they're not shimmery or glittery and just have a sheen to them. 450 is a pretty good dupe for Venus while 397 is less pink and more golden than Shell but is still a beautiful lid or highlighting colour.

'AMC' is a strange formula, it is full of gold specks of glitter when in the pan but the glitter doesn't seem to transfer well in swatches or on your eye. This isn't a bad thing as such since Muse is described as a matte shade, so obviously a shadow full of glitter wouldn't be a good dupe. 55 is close to Muse but with less red in it.

I was excited to try the 'matte' formula of these eyeshadows since I had heard good things about it, and matte is such a hard formula to do right. I think maybe my expectations were too high because I found that I was a bit disappointed when i swatched these. They don't feel bad, they aren't too chalky or powdery and don't kick up a lot of powder when you dip your brush in but they aren't as soft as the Lorac PRO shadows, which is what i had heard them compared to. Don't get me wrong, they are good shadows, they're definitely better than drugstore shadows, and i prefer them to urban decay and find them slightly better than Mac, I just over hyped them in my head.

335 is a bit lighter and more orange than Creation and  329 is slightly warmer and lighter than Icon and I think this was my least favourite shadow in my palette, I found it less pigmented than the other matte shades and quite patchy and hard to blend. I really love 361, which is slightly lighter than Rebirth, but I love it as a transition colour for the red shades in the palette, and as a lid colour. 349 is less purple than Divine but is a lovely cooler toned grey, which when used in the crease looks like a shadow and really helps to deepen it. 382 is a beautiful colour but it didn't seem very pigmented and I had to go over it a couple of times to get a solid opaque swatch, while 387 is my favourite shadow which I chose, its very pigmented and soft and its really versatile, it can be used as a lid colour, a crease colour, as a smokey liner.

The swatches were all done over Urban Decay Primer Potion and were either one or two swipes.

Inglot do have shops, including one in London, but since isn't one near me I ordered my shadows from their website. The UK website isnt the nicest or easiest to navigate but it's not too terrible and my order shipped out and arrived quickly.  The US website looks much slicker and there's always the option of using beautylish's palette builder to play around and create different combinations.

The 10 pan palette was £12, but they also have 1,2,3,4,5, 20 and 40 pan options. The eyeshadows themselves are £5 each which is incredible considering they have 0.09oz of product in which is almost double the price. So a filled 10 pan palette costs £62 before shipping, which is more than the Venus palette, but is really nice quality, contains a huge amount of product and you get to choose 2 extra colours, so I definitely think that it is worth the price.

To see looks using this palette check out my post.

Shiro Cosmetics Review and Swatches

Shiro Cosmetics: "Cheekbones" Contouring Powders and highlighter

'Do Your Research', 'An East Wind Coming' and 'Curaga'

All across the internet I see people suggesting Nyx Taupe blush as a contour product for lighter skin tones, but personally I think that Shiro's Contouring Powder in 'Do Your Research' is amazing and I very rarely see it being suggested.

I'm not usually someone who is interested in indie makeup brands, the themed collections and loose powders don't really appeal to me, but when I heard about these Contour Powders I decided why not give it a go. After all, for $8 you get a huge 20g of product or if you're unsure you can order samples for just $1.50, so it's not exactly breaking the bank.

And honestly, I'm so glad I did try them because for the first time in my life I look like I have cheekbones. I've tried a ton of other contour products but, despite the fact that I'm pretty warm toned so theoretically warmer colours could possibly work, everything looked weird and unnatural. Do Your Research blends really easily and because it's a very grey toned taupey brown it looks incredibly natural.

The contouring powder is from the 'Cheekbones' collection, which is based around Benedict Cumberbatch which is why he's on the lid. It comes in a sifter jar, and I stupidly pulled the tape out when I first got it so half the powder ended up in the lid and I spent about a week carefully dipping my brush in so I didn't pick up too much. Then I realised that a better long term solution was to pull it apart so I could pour the powder back in and stick a fresh piece of tape over the holes so I could control the amount that I tapped out.

You only need the tiniest amount and I usually only uncover a couple of the holes to tap some into the lid then swirl my Real Techniques Sculpting Brush in it and rub it on the back of my hand to get off any excess. You could use a heavier hand for more a more dramatic contour. 

Included in my order were 2 free samples, one was another of the Cheekbones Contouring Powders, in the colour 'An East Wind Coming' and the other was an eyeshadow. The samples came in little baggies but there's still a fair amount of product in them. The website says that samples contain about a 1/4 teaspoon, but with the amount you need to use, even that much would last you a long time.

Originally I was torn between Do Your Research and An East Wind Coming but since I went with Do Your Research, I'm glad I was sent a sample of An East Wind Coming to compare the two. After seeing them swatched next to each other I found that An East Wind Coming was a very blue grey, and doesn't suit me as a contour but it's nice to have the reassurance that I chose the best colour for me.

I also bought a full size jar of the highlighter colour Curaga which is really beautiful and shimmery and very pigmented. I don't actually use it often though because it's a loose powder and I find them messy and prefer pressed powders. I can overlook the loose powder part for Do Your Research since it's such a perfect contour colour but for highlighters, I have pressed ones which I like better. The website describes it was a gold toned cream and even though it looks a bit pink in the jar it doesnt when its on my skin. Its very light so it would look best on pale skin tones. 

 

I used Urban Decay Primer Potion under the swatches to show the colour of them better since when applied normally, the colour is more subtle and blends into the skin really easily. When you see them separately, Do Your Research and An East Wind Coming both just look grey but when next to each other you can definitely see that An East Wind Coming is a lot more blue while Do Your Research is more Taupe.

Top- Bottom: Curaga, An East Wind Coming, Do Your Research

I was pretty happy with my indie makeup experience, depsite the shipping taking a few weeks, but since it was advertised as taking that long, I didn't mind. My order even came with a packet of skittles! My only real complaint is that I wish that Shiro Cosmetics had reviews for products on their website, or if they do they need to be easier to find because I like to research products before I buy them.