Juniper
Three years ago, Jerrod Blandino (Too Faced’s Founder and Creative Director) created the Smurfette Collection and I’ve been following Too Faced Collections online ever since. If the Smurfette Collection had been available in Malaysia then, there’s no telling how many products I’d have bought as I grew up watching Smurf cartoons on tv back in the 80s.
Better late than never, now Too Faced Cosmetics are available at Sephora outlets. There are a few Too Faced palettes instore now, among them The Bronzed & The Beautiful, Eye Love, Smoky Eye, Romantic Eye and the subject of this review, Natural Eye.
Neutral or natural eyeshadows aren’t colours that impress me much. There was a decade when I only used brown toned eyeshadows but I’ve gone past that period a long time ago and since graduated to bright and vibrant colours.
However, I resolved not to let personal preferences get in the way of an honest review of Too Faced’s Natural Eye palette which consists of 3x2g highlighter shadows and 6×0.9g neutral shadows. It’s a good thing the highlighter shades are twice the amount of the neutral shades since I always tend to use more of the highlighters. The eyeshadows are housed in a cardboard box (with no mirror, unfortunately) with a pull-out drawer containing a dual-ended sponge applicator and brush which I didn’t use.
Jerrod Blandino has thoughtfully included 3 step-by-step instruction cards contained within the box cover. The cards are intended to guide the user through office to school to night out in the town looks. The instructions are easy to follow and I find them quite useful.
For a Day look, one just uses the eyeshadows in the 1st and top most row (Heaven, Velvet Revolver & Sexspresso). For a Classic look, use the eyeshadows in the 2nd and middle row (Silk Teddy, Push-up & Erotica) and for a Fashion look, use the eyeshadows in the 3rd and bottom most row (Nude Beach, Honey Pot & Cocoa Puff).
All the colours for the Day look have a matte texture with good colour pay-off but these colours are my least favourite since I’m not fond of mattes but they can be useful to tone down very pigmented shadows or when you don’t want to use shimmery highlighters.
My favourite highlighter shade is Silk Teddy used in the Classic Look because it reminds me so much of Stila’s Kitten which I have almost used up. It’s a great substitute for Kitten and I’ve been using Silk Teddy with other eyeshadows not in this palette.
Cocoa Puff used in the Fashion Look is my favourite neutral shadow as it has gold sparkles in it, it’s very beautiful. I like the Fashion look the most out of the 3 looks. There is no hard and fast rule with this palette. Generally, I use them not in any particular order and it works. I didn’t even follow the directions on the instruction cards when I created the Classic and Fashion looks (the looks are my own interpretation) but I did use the shadows as recommended for those looks.
Overall, the shadows apply smoothly and last all day. They aren’t at all chalky nor is there any fall-out. During my recent vacation, I’d brought along this palette as well as a few other eyeshadows but ended up using this palette everyday.
Truth be told, I hadn’t expected to like this palette quite as much as I did. Although the shadows are neutral, they are not at all boring. They are exceptional simply because there are a number of different neutral looks which can be created with the combination of colours.
Priced at RM139, it’s recommended for anyone who loves neutral eyeshadows. Beginners to makeup will love the fact that the instruction cards contain easy to follow, uncomplicated steps and this is a palette that can definitely take you from day to night.
