Saturday, November 14, 2015

Too Faced Le Grand Palais Swatches and First Impressions

Too Faced's Le Grande Palais is one of the key items in the brand's Holiday 2015 collection. It's basically a set, with a palette of 18 eyeshadows, two blushes, a bronzer, and a highlighter. It also has minis of the Melted Lipstick in Peony, the Better Than Sex Mascara, and the Shadow Insurance Eye Primer. I've gotten a lot of interest ever since I posted about this on my Instagram (and one person even bought it when it came out on account of the Instagram pic), so I figure I'd better get around to swatching this!

Too Faced Le Grand Palais: One of the stars of the Holiday 2015 collection

Le Grand Palais is a Sephora exclusive, so if you want it, you know where to get it! Also, this is limited time only since it's a Christmas item. So I wouldn't wait too long to get it if you're interested! Swatches of the other Too Faced Holiday 2015 makeup items will be up soon too - I've just been busy, and there are a ton of Christmas collections out now!

Too Faced Le Grand Palais PaletteToo Faced Le Grand Palais: 18 eyesahdows and 4 face colours are the highlight of the set

Without further ado, let's move on to the swatches! Before we start the swatches proper, though, let me apologize for any lack in quality of the swatches. These were made over lunch indoors in a restaurant, so I had the ultimate first-world-beauty-blogger-cum-foodie problem of eating and swatching makeup at the same time! Obviously it was a good problem to have, so I'm not complaining! I've tried my best with these swatches, so I hope they help somebody!

Below, the first two rows of eyeshadow. These consist of most of the neutral shades in the palette, and as you can see from the swatches below, some of them are pretty sparkly and glittery (in the true tradition of holiday and Christmas makeup items). Nevertheless, if you're a neutral girl, there are plenty of shades in the palette you'll like!

Too Faced Le Grand Palais Swatches Eyeshadows Row 1 2
Too Faced Le Grand Palais Swatches: Eyeshadows

White Christmas is a matte white shade. Good as a base for lighter skintones, or as a very subtle tear duct colour.
Satin Sheets was previously in some of the other Too Faced palettes, like the Boudoir Eyes Palette, so this is nothing new. But it's a great shimmery pinky nude, and very pretty.
Vintage Lace is also previously in some older Too Faced palettes (I'm not sure if anyone remembers, but I had the Face Lace Case, which had this shade), and it's a nice light beige shade. Great as a base.
Delightful is a pretty light pink with subtle shimmer.
Moon on Their Wings is a sparkly shade that's full of glitter - a "holiday" shade if you will. It's a gorgeous neutral beige-brown. So pretty!
Cobblestone is a medium cool-toned brown. A great shade for subtle contouring of the eye, or as a lid shade.
City Lights is a warm bronzey brown. This also has subtle shimmer.
Dreamlight is a deep neutral brown, a good companion to any look.

And below, you can see the rest of the eyeshadow shades. Still a lot of neutrals here, but there are a few pops of colour as well.

Too Faced Le Grand Palais Swatches Eyeshadows Row 3 4
Too Faced Le Grand Palais Swatches: Eyeshadows

String of Lights is another "holiday" glittery shade. This one was quite sheer and mostly blue glitter on my arm. I imagine it would be good as a glitter shade in the center of the lid.
Yule Log is a deep, neutral sparkly brown.
Wish List is a lovely glitzy gold shade with lots of glitter. If you want gold lids appropriate for the holiday season, this is your shade!
Arc de Triomphe is probably my favourite shade in the palette! It's a purple-taupe with lots of glitter. I love taupe-y shades, so this is definitely my kind of shade!
Belle Femme is a deep blackened brown that's pretty matte.
Stiletto is a black shade, a nice basic.
Eiffel is a sparkly deep grey-green shade. It looks more green in the pan, but swatches more grey on me. I suspect this one will pull more grey or green depending on your undertones - it's going to look a little different on everyone.
Midnight in Paris is a sparkly navy blue. This is fairly light as far as navy blues go, it's not blackened and you can always tell it's a deep blue.
Champs Elysees is a gorgeous deep royal purple shade with that "holiday" glitter. It is a lovely touch of colour without being too much.
Party Dress is a bright pink with glitter and sparkle! This is probably the loudest shade in the palette, and it is so pretty!

My first impressions while swatching the eyeshadows is that these are pretty close to Too Faced's usual quality. The mattes and fine shimmer shades are smooth and pigmented. The very glittery "holiday" shades do tend to have some fallout, as is usual with glitters, and can sometimes be on the sheer side, but I think this is pretty normal for holiday glitter shades. I do think you need to like glitter to be into this palette.

Now that we're done with the eyeshadows, let's look at the blushes and bronzers and highlighters.

Too Faced Le Grand Palais Swatches Blush Bronzer Highlighter
Too Faced Le Grand Palais Swatches: Blushes, bronzer, and luminizer

Stardust is a blush in a lovely pink-red shade. It's great for that "just came in from the cold" flush of colour.
Skyline is a neutral light pink shade. This is a very pretty and universal shade, and would look good on most light to medium skintones.
Flush is a luminizer, and it is a shimmery beige shade. It's shimmery, as you might expect a highlighter to be, but is also very wearable. This isn't frosty or metallic or overly-glittery at all. It's lovely, and I could use this as an everyday highlighter too. You can certainly layer it for a stronger strobing effect.
Sun Bunny is also a familiar shade, as this is available separately as a bronzer on its own. This is a lovely deep brown with fine shimmer, not too OTT or anything. I think this is the darker shade in the permanent Sun Bunny duo.

My thoughts on the blushes, bronzer, and highlighter shade is that these are lovely. They are all smooth and pigmented, and appropriate for almost all skintones. These are a great range of shades, with an everyday blush, a "pop of colour" blush, a bronzer, and a highlighter, so you can use them for a variety of looks.

The Le Grand Palais is available exclusively at Sephora, priced at SGD$80.

2 comments:

  1. What a great array of shades, Too Faced have brought out some good sets this year, I must pick some up :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I dont know if i got a "dud" but mine was powdery, crumbly and actually not the quality of my chocolate bar, so i returned to sephora canada :(

    ReplyDelete

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