Too Faced Shadow Bon Bons Review and Swatches

Choosing from all the holiday gift sets and palettes can be a challenge.  It really is the best time of the year to pick up some really good deals, but narrowing down to my final choices took some time!  I've got Too Faced's Shadow Bon Bons to show you today, and it's the only eye shadow palette that I indulged in this year.  Bon Bon's retails for $42.

So why Shadow Bon Bons over all the other lovely palettes?  First, because I felt assured that the quality of the shadows would be good.  Sometimes the shadow formula in holiday palettes are not the same as a brand's regular offerings, which can lead to disappointment.  Too Faced's founder, Jerrod Blandino, has gone on record saying he does not dummy down the quality of sets and palettes, so that is reassuring!  I actually don't own many Too Faced eye shadows, so this was also a good way to get my feet wet.

Included in this set are 12 shadows, a full sized Lashgasm mascara in black, and a deluxe sized Shadow Insurance in Candlelight.  Shadow Insurance is one of my favorite eye primers, but I haven't tried Candlelight before.  I'm also a fan of Lashgasm, as I find the brush works well with my lashes.  Somehow, I can reach inner corners without leaving a smudgy mess, which happens with other mascaras.

The shadows themselves are predominantly neutrals with some muted purples and a pink.  There is a variety of finishes, including some mattes that I found really easy to work with.  There are also some fall out inducing glitters, but I've come to accept that you need to use some type of fixing medium or sticky base with glitter shadows anyhow, or you will experience some fall out.

Candlelight Shadow Insurance

All swatches are over bare arm, no primer.  Starting with the first column and working our way down, we have:

• Vanilla:  matte cream, good for highlighting the brow and inner eye
• Peach Fuzz:  peach shimmer with gold micro glitter
• Nude Beach:  champagne shimmer with dense gold glitter.  Here is where the fallout happens.  I used a fixing medium and had minimal strays, however.
• Cut the Cake:  lavender matte with silver micro shimmer

• Hot Cocoa:  medium brown shimmer
• Cinnamon Sugar:  topaz gold shimmer
• Framboise:  medium grayed purple shimmer.  This one is crumbly upon application but blends out nicely.
• Candy Rose:  matte pink with silver micro shimmer.

• Marzipan:  fawn matte, very versatile as lid color or for blending
• Coffee Bean:  dark brown matte
• Lovey Dovey:  reddish sable brown shimmer
• Licorice Latte:  blackened brown matte with copper micro glitter

Both Coffee Bean and Licorice Latte were the problematic ones for me and took multiple swipes to build up color, but I'm thinking Licorice Latte may be a good layering shade over other blacks/browns.  Coffee Bean worked well over an eye liner along the lash line. 

Personally, these neutrals are right up my alley so this will be a useful palette for me.  The mutedness of the shades make for work friendly eye looks, but the pink and purples included also introduce a bit of color to keep things from becoming monotone.  My favorite shadows from Bon Bons are Marzipan, Candy Rose, Peach Fuzz, Hot Cocoa, and Cinnamon Sugar.

This last look was with the Candlelight Shadow Insurance, which makes for a nice highlighter.  All of the looks featured the Lashgasm mascara.

Disclosure:  I purchased this.