Loa of course had to butt in, and that's not the end of it. Not even nearly.
Not even half.
Click to see what else was there.
I feel like I am kind of making this post prematurely, because I also managed, thanks to my friend Jon, to get my hands on the Unicorn Survival Kit.
Yes, THAT Unicorn Survival Kit.
Second release of course, the first one was sold out way too fast, so I'm glad they brought that back.
But yeah, it's not here yet so I'll post about that later when I have it.
What I do have at this point however, is mostly a whole lot of lipstick.
The Too Faced holiday/Christmas releases are always quite extensive, and I feel like this year there was rather more that appealed to me than last year.
Last year I only got the set with a deluxe Love Flush blush and Melted lipstick, purely to try the formulas before committing to a full size product.
This year I did ooh and aaah over several of the palettes, but in the end of the day I decided against it because I felt like I already owned too many similar shades to make it worth the money.
The first Christmas item I got was Gingerbread Man Melted Matte liquid lipstick back in October, which was a birthday present from Charlotte.
I wrote a full post about that here, so I won't go in depth about that again. Needless to say, I still love that lipstick.
Seeing Too Faced won't make it permanent, I feel Sephora should just dupe this, it's not like they're not duping everything else for their own lipsticks.
But enough rambling.
The two kits I'm talking about today were both Christmas gifts from Bert.
Who figured that he could NOT go wrong by getting me Too Faced lip products (he was so right).
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First up is the Too Faced beauty cracker.
Which I thought was brilliant, because I do love the concept of a Christmas cracker, I had just never seen one I wanted to bother with.
I find kits like this very interesting, because they contain a bunch of deluxe sample/travel sized products, giving you the opportunity to try out a product long enough for you to know whether or not you like it enough to commit to a full size. At a much more economical price than usual.
This set included a deluxe sample of Better than Sex mascara, Melted in Fig and the Shadow insurance eye shadow primer, as well as an enamel pin.
It's kinda nice they included an enamel pin, even though it's not really the kind of pin I'd reach for (I'm not mad at owning it, but I wouldn't have spent money on it if it were a separate item).
But I do think its nice of them to include something that can't expire or get used up.
I have to say that the quality is a bit doubtful, as it scratches extremely quickly. I also feel like the closure is a bit strange. Rather than the usual metal or rubber closures for pins, this has a metal twist and turn knob.
On one hand that's great because there's no chance your clothes will get damaged, on the other hand, as Bert rightfully remarked, this probably won't stand up against being used often. For now, its all holding up though.
Better than Sex mascara I'm kinda meh about (my full review as to why is here) but I'll still use it up.
Originally I was going to set it aside for next Halloween season, but Bert opened it up after I unpacked it on Christmas eve so I have to use it up now.
FIY, an excellent dupe for this, and a much cheaper one too, is the Yves Rocher Sexy Pulp mascara in Noir Extréme. The wand is very similar, but mascara itself is WAY better even. I feel like the formula is the same when it comes to lengthening, thickening and shade of black, BUT this succeeds where Too Faced fails. So yeah, if you can get your hands on it, I would suggest that one over this one. I've been using mine for weeks and not a single issue so far.
I think that Fig was a strange choice for a Christmas set, because it's a more purple tone lipstick and they do have a variety of reds in the Melted line, but there you go. I suppose it makes for a nice change from all the traditional holiday colours.
It may sound like I'm not pleased with this, but quite on the contrary, Fig is a lovely shade, and I love having colours like this in my lipstick collection. Especially because this is the kind of purple that is still very wearable, so I will get a lot of use out of this.
The Melted formula is still being sold as longwearing, I have to say that that is not entirely true. As long as you're not eating or drinking, this lipstick will stay on your lips for absolute ages. But the second you eat or drink, be ready to reapply.
That said, it reapplies _really_ easily. In that regard it's much more like a cream lipstick in the sense you don't have to remove it all and then reapply it. I like it, but I know a lot of people don't, so I feel I need to include that titbit of info for those unfamilliar with the formula and are thinkin about buying some.
And as for the eye shadow primer. I had wanted to try Shadow Insurance for a while, and I have to say that I really like it.
I've only worn it today, and upon initial contact I was a little worried because it felt much like a sillicone primer.
Of course I had swatch tested it before (even though it's paraben free) like I do with all new products these days, so I knew I wouldn't get a reaction.
So far so good, it's very hydrating and keeps my eyeshadow put. It's not making my lids crease free though, but I do have creasy lids as is. As that's one of it's claims, its something to be aware of if you also have creasy lids. Although frankly, I feel like nothing will save you there if that's the case. My solution to that issue is to just not care :).
So that's the christmas cracker!
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The other kit I got is Under the Kissletoe.
It's basically 4 different deluxe size lipsticks from 4 different Too Faced series. Melted in Chihuahua, Melted Chocolate in Chocolate Honey, Melted Latex in Hopeless Romantic and Melted Matte in Drop Dead Red.
Aside from the Melted Latex one they were all shades I would really not be opposed to owning.
I hadn't tried Melted Latex yet, so I figured that now was as good a time as any.
The Melted in Chihuahua is a shade just a little pinkier than my own lips.
So it's kind of a “your own lips but better” kinda colour, only not quite.
I quite like it to be honest.
It's not a super exciting shade, but it's a really good shade to have in my bag with me, especially because this is such a comfortable and practical formula.
Chocolate Honey is the one Melted Chocolate shade I really wanted to try. But of course, that one isn't sold via the French Sephora.
So I was pretty stoked it was in this set.
I know it's not exactly an exciting shade of brown, but I didn't own anything like it. I quite like that I now have a light, more nude style brown because sometimes I want to wear brown and I can't get away with my two dark browns. And if I now want to do a brown ombre look, it's totally an option as well.
Hopeless Romantic is the one I cared for the least, because I thought the shade wouldn't suit me and I wouldn't like the Melted Latex formula.
I was right on one count, because out of the four in the set, this was the shade I loved the most.
Sadly, I can NOT stand the formula.
I hate glosses the best of days, and this is a special kind of FOUL. It was fine when it was on my lips, I didn't feel like it was overly gross on my lips at all. It also didn't transfer on my teeth, so for a short moment I was pretty convinced a lot of negative reviews were overly well, negative.
And then I set one foot outside and my hair blew into my face. It didn't just get stuck in the lipstick, it became DISGUSTING in an instant, it felt like someone was pulling my hair and as if there was glue stuck in my hair.
I went right back inside and wiped it off.
And then told my friend Aurélie I am donating it to her for her kit (she's studying to become a certified MUA). I was all: HAVE IT!
And I can totally donate it because I was smart and used a lip pencil applying it, because I wasn't sure I'd like it enough to keep it and wanted to make sure it was 100% ok to pass on (there's nothing wrong with my mouth or lips, but its the principle of the thing. Plus it's the thing you SHOULD do anyway in a case like this).
So yeah, that's why this is the only one without a worn photo, it was legit not possible without me freaking out.
Drop Dead Red is a beautiful matte very dark red. I'm not sure whether or not it qualifies as a blackened red, but it's cutting it close. I really love it. I've wanted a shade of red like that for a while, and of course Too Faced was my first choice because I love their Melted Matte formula (as long as it's not Evil Twin at least).
As there is no way I would use up a full size before it expires, this deluxe sample size is an excellent option for me.
The only thing I do need to warn about is that this stains. So be prepared to have dark pink lips after you take this off.
It stains if you swatch it on your hand too, as you can see from the photo where I'm holding Otto the octopus. It's not mega terrible and it will wear off before the day is over if you regularly wash your hands, but still, something best to know beforehand.
Just an FIY, but for the lipstick swatches, with exception of the Melted Matte in Gingerbread, I wore the same eye and face make-up as we did all photos in one afternoon.
I just changed my accessories and wore a coat over my dress for the last one (because it was getting too cold to be outside in what is essentially a super long sweater) to make the photos a little less boring.
But the rest of the make-up I'm wearing is:
BROWS:
- M.A.C, brow sculpt in Cork
- Too Faced, Love Lights prismatic highlighter in Blinded by the Light
EYES:
- M.A.C, pro longwear concealer in NC20
- M.A.C, technakohl liner in Snowed In
- Too Faced, Chocolate Bon Bons in Divinity and Satin Sheets
- Too Faced, Better than Sex mascara
- Too Faced, Shadow Insurance eyeshadow primer
FACE:
- M.A.C, sized to go strobe cream
- Too Faced, Hangover primer
- Too Faced, Love Lights prismatic highlighter in Blinded by the Light
LIPS:
- Weleda, Everon lip balm (as primer)
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