Too Faced used to be one of my favorite brands, and I always got really excited for their new releases. For the past couple years, however, I felt like the brand was more and more trying to appeal to teenagers with cutesy collections inspired by fruits or unicorns, and sweet scented palettes. So when Too Faced finally launched a new collection that appeared designed for grown-ups, I was really happy to see that maybe the brand I loved is still there, hidden under all the glitter. The It Just Comes Naturally collection was released in March for Spring 2018 and I grabbed as much as I could from the lineup: the Natural Eyes palette, the Natural Face palette, and Natural Nudes lipstick in Pout About It. Did they convince me that Too Faced is still a brand worth following? Keep reading to find out!

The outer cardboard packaging the palettes and lipstick came in

Let's first talk about the packaging. After an indigestion of chocolate, peach, and even peanut butter and jelly, Too Faced proved with this It Just Comes Naturally collection that they're still able to deliver beautiful and elegant design. The packaging ticks all the boxes for me: it's very sturdy, has a pretty but not childish lace theme, and the details are very high quality.


The Natural Eyes and Natural Face palettes come in the same compact, the latter just being a little larger. It has an understated and classy blush color with gold accents, and the lid is raised to give it a curvy look. The palettes are kept securely closed with a magnetic system but there is a cute gold clasp that is purely decorative. Both palettes have a large mirror (the one in the Natural Face is huge and can be used to do a full face look), and the inside is also a reflective gold (which made them a bit hard to photograph!). One thing to note: the powders in both palettes had a strong vanilla scent the first time I opened them. But after just a few weeks, it's almost completely gone. I can't even smell it when I use them anymore.




The Natural Nudes lipstick also comes in gorgeous packaging: the whole tube is made of metal painted in the color of the lipstick inside, with white lace accents. I think this is one of the prettiest lipstick tubes in my collection, and definitely the most unique (ie not black, gold or white).


TOO FACED NATURAL EYES PALETTE


Let's jump into the detailed reviews with the eyeshadow palette. Two quick facts you should know first: this is one of two eyeshadow palettes in the It Just Comes Naturally collection, the other being the Natural Mattes palette ; this is not the first time Too Faced releases a Natural Eyes set, in fact this is the third edition of a popular palette. The first one was in the brand's old school cardboard packaging, then it got an update with a tin box, and now this beautiful compact. According to the brand the eyeshadows themselves went through minor tweaks, with only one brand new shade. I didn't test any of the previous iterations so I can't compare them, I can just give you my opinion on this new palette.

And the truth is that I'm on the fence about it. It's not terrible, but I expected more from it. The promo pictures made the shadows look stunning, but in real life they're just okay. There isn't one single shade in the Natural Eyes palette that really impressed me. Nothing that made me go "wow"! But every look I created with it was pretty and flattering. So as a team effort, this palette gets B+, although some individual shades disappoint. Here's the breakdown of the shades:


- the first row contains three matte shades:
     - Heaven is a matte cream. These kinds of shades are often sheer, but this one is excellent. It feels buttery soft, it's opaque and goes on evenly. It's great as a base shade to set your eyeshadow primer or as a brow bone shade.
     - Cashmere Bunny is a light brown matte. It's also smooth and silky but a little thin, and I don't feel like it has much impact by itself. It works well as a transition shade in the crease, not so much on the lid where the lack of opacity makes it a bit uneven.
     - Sexspresso: a dark cool brown. Just like Cashmere Bunny, it's smooth and soft but thin. It works great to darken the outer corner or to tightline, but it's not opaque and even enough to wear all around the eye for a smoky look, for example - at least not without a lot of work. It does blend well into the other shades though.

- the second row contains three shimmery shades:
     - Silk Teddy is a very pale rose with a metallic finish. I feels silky but a little powdery. It swatches great, but on the eye applied with a brush it can look a bit chunky.
     - Push Up is medium rose gold with the same metallic finish. It also swatches better on the arm than it applies with a brush. It loses a lot of intensity on the lid, unless you apply it with a fingertip, and tends to look textured. Silk Teddy and Push Up look like they should have a lot of contrast, but because they're sheer on the lid, they actually tend to run together. I really wish Too Faced had replaced this one with a shimmery cool taupe. Taupes are flattering on more skin tones, and I'm not a fan of the rose undertones in Push Up.
     - Erotica is a cool, mauve-y dark brown with gold glitter. That's one of the shades that looked fabulous in pictures and in the pan, but disappointed when applied to the eye. The glitter basically disappears when you apply it with a brush, falling all over the cheek bones, so what's left is a matte shade. Quite a let down.

- the third row contains one matte and two shimmery shades:
     - Strip Poker is a matte peachy beige. I've used it as a transition shade mostly, as I find it too sheer to use on the lid. The texture feels very much like Cashmere Bunny and Sexspresso: smooth and buttery but thin.
     - Honey Pot is a coppery gold with a metallic finish. Again it looks great swatched, but as much as I build it up on the lid, it won't look as bold and beautiful. It also causes a lot of fallout and looks textured.
     - Chocolate Martini is a warm dark brown with gold glitter. It's basically the warm version of Erotica and suffers from the same faults: lots of fallout, ends up looking matte when all the sparkles have landed on your cheeks.


As you can see I don't have really nice things to say about any of these shadows, however I was able to create really nice and flattering looks using the Natural Eyes palette. They were just a little more subdued and plain than I expected, which may not be such a bad thing for a palette with the word "natural" in its name. I think if you expect the shades to look as vibrant and shiny on the eye as they look in the pans, you would be disappointed. I would also avoid it if you have dry, crepey or textured lids and want your shimmer shades to look very smooth. On the other hand if you're on the market for an everyday palette to create work-friendly looks, you might like it - if fall out isn't too much of a problem for you.

Wearing the warm shades in the Too Faced Natural Eyes Palette

TOO FACED NATURAL FACE PALETTE


I've been obsessed with face palettes in the past year or so, as I explained in a recent post. That's just to say that I have a lot of other blush/bronzer/highlighter palettes to compare the Natural Face to, and I think it's definitely worth grabbing. I found all shades easy to blend and flattering on my skin tone (with one exception noted below), even though they may look bold in the pan. The textures are soft, buttery, and sit well on the skin. Here's the breakdown of the shades:


- the first row contains a highlighter, a satin blush and a satin bronzer:
     - Starlight highlighter is a beige with a pink glow. The duochrome effect is less visible on the skin than in the pan, so it mostly look like a vibrant pink highlight on the cheekbones. The texture is soft and a tad powdery, but it blends well on the skin without emphasizing texture.
     - Pink Wink is a bold medium pink with subtle gold shimmer. On the skin it has a luminous satin finish, it does not look shimmery. I would say that this one is semi-sheer. The bright color might look scary in the pan, but I find that it blends beautifully on the skin and gives me a very pretty pink flush.
     - Sunny Honey is an orange-y medium brown with the same subtle gold shimmer as Pink Wink. Again it just looks luminous and natural on the skin, but it basically acts as a matte bronzer. It feels silky and has a medium pigmentation. I didn't find it too orange and it worked well to add a bit of warmth to my face using the 3 technique (swiping on forehead, down the temples to the cheekbones, back to the ear and down along the jaw line).

- the second row contains another highlighter, a matte blush and a shimmery bronzer:
     - Satin Sheets looks like such an interesting color in the pan. It's a pale lilac pink duochrome with a gold shift. Applied to the skin, most of the pale pink base is lost and what you see once blended is mostly a gold highlight. The pink can be visible at times depending on the angle of the light, but it's very subtle unless you layer it, which is not something I do with highlighters.
     - Pink Sand is a soft and silky rosy mauve with brown undertones. It's a really pretty nude blush on my skin tone and it blends very easily.
     - Tropic Like It's Hot is described as a bronzer, but it's a metallic dark copper with rose undertones. That's the one shade in this palette I had a harder time wearing. It doesn't look great as a bronzer on me, and as a blush I found it a little more difficult to blend out that the other shades so it would be subtle enough on my light skin tone. I think it could work great as a shimmery blush on deeper skin tones.

Swatches of Too Face Natural Face palette and Natural Nudes lipstick in Pout About It (top)

Wearing Sunny Honey bronzer, Pink Wink blush and Satin Sheets highlighter from the Too Faced Natural Face palette

TOO FACED NATURAL NUDES LIPSTICK


The best part about this lipstick is definitely the pretty tube. The shade range includes nudes and "my lips but better" shades for every skin tone, all in a satin finish. I usually don't like pale beige lipstick although I have a light skin tone, because they can wash me out badly. So I bought Pout About It, a medium-dark neutral with warm terracotta undertones. Depending on what I'm pairing with, it can turn a little mauve-y on my lips, which I actually like.

This Natural Nudes isn't a bad lipstick at all, but it feels a bit like an old school formula. Most recent lipsticks have gel-like or silicone-y textures so they can deliver a ton of pigment in a very light formula. This one is more like the previous generation of lipsticks: it's a bit thicker and creamier, definitely not as lightweight and slippery. It reminds me of the classic MAC lipsticks, which I do like. There's nothing inherently wrong with a creamier, thicker texture really, it's just a question of preference. I know I'll reach for my lightweight lipsticks more often, as they also tend to make my lips look smoother.

Wearing Too Faced Natural Eyes palette, Natural Face palette and Natural Nudes lipstick in Pout About It

Pout About It is opaque in one swipe and feels just a little tacky during wear. It does transfer to cups and mugs, and its wear time is average for a classic bullet lipstick at around half a day. I definitely need to reapply after a meal. Too Faced says that the coconut butter it contains makes it a hydrating formula. Personally I don't find it particularly moisturizing, but it's rather comfortable to wear and it doesn't emphasize dry spots. It also doesn't smell at all like coconut if you ask me!


I feel like this It Just Comes Naturally collection by Too Faced was a bit hit and miss and didn't really deliver the reliable quality I was hoping for. I can definitely recommend the Natural Face palette if you love cheek products. The Natural Eyes palette is not a must-have, and I wish the shimmer shades performed better. The Natural Nudes lipstick is pretty and comes in great neutral shades, but the formula feels a bit old-school for my taste.




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