Blogmas Day 15 | Compare the Pair: Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette vs I ♡ Makeup I Heart Chocolate Palette

One is an icon, the other is a new-age remake -- I'm not talking about When A Stranger Calls, I'm talking about the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette and its not-quite doppelgänger, the I ♡ Makeup I Heart Chocolate Palette! The huge price difference had a lot of people talking about the dupable shades as well as the affordability -- but just how similar are they? In Australia, cheap often means rubbish -- hell, sometimes cheapish can mean rubbish -- but high end can easily break the bank, so when the opportunity to compare these palettes presented itself, I was all over it like pirates on booty.

Packaging

The packaging for the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette is designed to draw your eye. It's cute, it's pink and it's pretty -- whether you're a girly girl or moderately so, you will most likely feel drawn to it. By comparison, the packaging for the I ♡ Makeup I Heart Chocolate palette is somewhat less pretty. It's a shiny brown cardboard with a clear plastic window so that you can see the palette inside. Both are easy to open, and both have an indication of the shades on the bottom side.

As far as the palettes go, the Chocolate Bar palette certainly resembles a chocolate bar -- that of the 70% Lindt variety. The brand and product names are printed on the lid. The I Heart Chocolate palette looks more like the chocolate bar than the Chocolate Bar; it starts as a chocolate bar and then graduates into a melty chocolate mess that makes me wish I had some to drizzle on some ice cream.

The Chocolate Bar palette is about 50% thicker than the I Heart Chocolate and a little longer, but I'm not necessarily sure that there's more shadow. The mirror is much, much smaller than that of the I Heart Chocolate palette. Both have plastic sheets with the shade names written on them, and both are easy to read. The I Heart Chocolate palette comes with a dual-ended sponge applicator, whereas the Chocolate Bar palette comes with a "Glamour Guide" of look suggestions -- you may find one or the other more useful to your needs.

Scent

One of the big selling points of the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette is that it is made with, and thus smells like, cocoa powder. This is true -- it does smell deliciously of cocoa powder, and you can get a whiff as soon as you open it up. The I Heart Chocolate palette does not smell of chocolate and is not made with cocoa powder, but then it does not claim to.

Shades

On a surface level, the shades do look dupable. There are a lot of colour similarities, but there is enough disparity to wonder if it really is a direct dupe. I found the only way to address this was to compare the shades side by side.

"Gilded Ganache" vs "Piece Me Together" || Gilded Ganache is a great deal lighter than Piece Me Together; indeed, Piece Me Together feels like it might be closer off to Triple Fudge. Both were slightly gritty to the touch -- Piece Me Together perhaps being the grittier -- and although Gilded Ganache swatched more sheer, it is an easier blending colour than Piece Me Together for this reason.

"White Chocolate" vs "You Need Love" || While they look very similar in the pan, White Chocolate is a deeper cream than You Need Love, which is whiter. Both make great highlight shades, but White Chocolate feels creamy and buttery to the touch, whereas You Need Love is thinner and silkier.

"Milk Chocolate" vs "One More Piece" || Both are quite similar in colour, but Milk Chocolate is a little darker. That being said, One More Piece packs onto the lid really well, perhaps even a little better than Milk Chocolate. I have sometimes experienced a little creasing with Milk Chocolate on days where my oil glands decide that they know no bounds, but I haven't had that problem at all with One More Piece. Milk Chocolate is buttery and creamy to the touch; One More Piece is thinner and silkier.

"Black Forest Truffle" vs "Love Torn" || Love Torn leans more towards the purplish/reddish/aubergine side than Black Forest Truffle, which is a bit more brown-based in its purple. Both have golden glitter, but Black Forest Truffle seems to have more of it evenly dispersed. Both are somewhat dry and rather gritty to the touch, Love Torn especially. Love Torn seems more sheer when swatched, but you need a light hand if you're going to apply it into your crease.

"Triple Fudge" vs "Stolen Chocolate" || These look very, very similar when swatched. Triple Fudge has a little more visual appeal than Stolen Chocolate, and it is a just a tiny bit lighter. Despite being somewhat dry to the touch and sheer to swatch, both build up easily. I could definitely say that these are dupable shades.

"Salted Caramel" vs "Thank Friday" || Both are quite velvety to the touch, but Thank Friday feels a bit less creamy. Salted Caramel is a little more orange-toned, where as Thank Friday seems to be neutral. Although much more sheer than Salted Caramel, Thank Friday still builds very well. I haven't experienced any creasing with either of these shades.

"Marzipan" vs "More!" || There is a noticeable difference in pan appearance for these shades -- More! looks shimmery, but Marzipan looks frosted. They both give off a frosted finish when swatched, but the colours are not dupes of each other either, as More! leans towards a light champagne gold and Marzipan looks more golden-orange.

"Semi-Sweet" vs "Pleasure Girl" || These two aren't dupes either, and this is noticeable in the pan. Pleasure Girl is lighter than Semi-Sweet, and seems more between Semi-Sweet and Milk Chocolate. Pleasure Girl was silky to the touch, whereas Semi-Sweet was creamier.

"Strawberry Bon Bon" vs "Meet Chocolate" || These are very similar, but the winner for me is Meet Chocolate. It builds colour easier and looks warm-toned next to Strawberry Bon Bon, which looks a bit cooler and blue-toned. Meet Chocolate looks like strawberry Nesquick and I love strawberry Nesquick like nothing else.

"Candied Violet" vs "Unforgivable" || These shades aren't dupes of each other. Candied Violet is a more brownish dark purple, whereas Unforgivable does have more of the violet-purple colour. Both were slightly gritty to the touch and had pink glitter, although in Candied Violet the glitter is less finely milled.

"Amaretto" vs "Love Divine" || Neither are these dupes. Both are shades of bronze, but Love Divine is lighter and golden; Amaretto, by comparison, is rather dark. Amaretto has a kind of frosty finish, whereas Love Divine is a bit more shimmery and metallic; Love Divine, however, swatches better.

"Hazelnut" vs "Smooth Criminal" || Once again, these colours are not dupes. Hazelnut is actually more similar to Love Divine than Smooth Criminal, with the latter going more into gold territory than dark bronze. Like before, Smooth Criminal swatches a little more than Hazelnut, but the colour is softer.

"Crème Brulee" vs "Chocolate Love" || Now these two are slightly more dupable, but only slightly. Both are beautifully gorgeous antique gold shades, with Chocolate Love being lighter and more yellow than Crème Brulee. The two of them are silky to the touch and swatch beautifully.

"Haute Chocolate" vs "You Need More" || These two shades are really, really similar. You Need More leans a bit more to the bronze age of shade. Both it and Haute Chocolate are really beautiful to swatch and easy to apply. I'd be a little bit careful when applying You Need More, because it has the potential to not go where you want it if you're impatient.

"Cherry Cordial" vs "What A Way To Go" || These two shades are definitely not dupes. They look similar in the pan, but they don't swatch like each other at all. Cherry Cordial is a brown-toned purple with some iridescent glitter; on the other hand, What A Way To Go is a kind of berry wine colour with glitter. They're both very beautiful shades, but absolutely not dupes.

"Champagne Truffle" vs "Endorphins Ready!" || Woo hoo, some dupable shades! Champagne Truffle is a little more pink than Endorphins Ready!, which is slightly more natural. The former is creamier than the latter, which has a satiny touch. They apply evenly but build nicely -- and I sometimes use them as a cheek highlighter because I have no shame.

Value

The Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette is a little cheaper now than it was when I bought it earlier this year, but at $65 it will still make a hefty dent in your bank account. You can buy them at selected Mecca Maxima or Kit Cosmetics store, or try and hunt them down online -- the Too Faced website does not ship directly to Australia. At time of writing, Beauty Bay currently has the palette on sale for $59.30, which may be a more palatable price tag -- but it's normally almost $80 (I think their prices may have gone up.)

By comparison, the I ♡ Makeup I Heart Chocolate palette will only set you back $14.82 -- a definite bargain! You can only purchase it from the Makeup Revolution website, and they do charge for shipping, but it's only around $15 for standard.

Both palettes, as you've been able to see, have the same numbers of eye shadows, and although there doesn't seem to be any way for me to find out, I think there's a similar amount of product.

The Roadtest

The only way to roadtest shadows is by wearing them! The Chocolate Bar palette is my default palette -- it's the one I reach for most, so I know really well how good it is. As I've mentioned on this blog in the past, I feel like my eyelids sometimes produce more oil than a canola plantation, so I like to look for an eye shadow that will last with as minimal creasing as possible.

Having bought the Chocolate Bar palette in about March or April, I haven't yet been able to test it properly in the hot Australian weather. I do know that has the tendency to crease on me particularly if my face gets warm, but I think that there are a range of other factors contributing to it at the same time, such as weather, duration, skin condition, the type of primer I used, etc. I find that, despite the nice range of colours, the palette seems to consist of mainly brown-toned shades, so really pretty colours like Candied Violet and Cherry Cordial can sometimes lose their nice purple or burgundy -- or so it seems to me.

A look I did in June with the Chocolate Bar palette -- it has my old watermark!

Even so, it is possible to achieve a number of different varieties of looks with the palette -- my favourite being the birthday look I did inspired by Karlie Kloss -- and the creasing is rarely major. The shadows apply well -- I only seem to have a little trouble packing on Strawberry Bon Bon -- and I haven't experienced any fall out. The colours usually blend together well, although I have sometimes had a little trouble with blending -- but we can chalk that up with my dodgy Padawan skills.

How well the I Heart Chocolate will work under the stresses of the sun also remains to be seen, but if my previous uses are anything to go by, it seems like it will be very promising. The metallic shades mostly swatch up beautifully, but the mattes are rather sheer and disappointing -- to my surprise, however, they actually build up very well.

A look I did recently with the I Heart Chocolate palette.

You do, however, need to be more careful when applying the shades from the I Heart Chocolate palette. While not the chalkiest shadows I've had to deal with, they do tend to be a little on the powdery side, it can be easy to put too much on your brush and make a mess of it -- especially if you have serious Padawan-level skills. I noticed that sometimes a little powder would get kicked up from the pan when I dipped my brush into it, and while I haven't noticed any real fall out, I have on occasion noticed traces of shadow on my nose -- and I have no idea how it got there! I think initial fall out may occur if you put too much shadow on the brush, but once it gets on your lid, it stays there.

I had expected a cheap price to come with relatively cheap quality, as although the swatches had seemed promising, I'd thought they would probably crease like tissue paper! To my delight, at this stage I have experienced zero creasing! I've done looks that I would normally do with the Chocolate Bar palette and it's lasted on me all day. The shades all blend quite well with each other, almost -- dare I say it -- like they were designed for each other. For the most part, they seem to work with each other in a way that those in the Chocolate Bar palette do not, and I think it might come down to some of the colours being less brown-based. Then again, I could be entirely wrong.

And the winner is...

While the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette remains my favourite for the most sentimental of reasons, I honestly think most would agree that the I ♡ Makeup I Heart Chocolate Palette has it in the bag! It's much cheaper than the Chocolate Bar as well, so if you were looking for a more affordable alternative then you really can't go wrong. I would not call it an exact dupe for the Chocolate Bar, however a lot of the shades are relatively similar -- or, at least, they belong to the same colour family. I doubt there's anything the Chocolate Bar can do that the I Heart Chocolate can't.

Already have the Chocolate Bar? Curious about the I Heart Chocolate anyway? There's no reason why you can't have both! I think you could take it or leave it either way; I feel like the decisive factors would be whether or not you feel that shades like "Unforgivable" and "What A Way To Go" contain more of the vibrant colour that they appear to have.

If you're a Padawan tossing up between buying the two palettes, I Heart Chocolate would be a great place to start for its price -- and if you then decide you want the luxury of the Chocolate Bar, there's no reason why you shouldn't go for it, although I'd suggest really thinking it through to make sure that you're buying it for the colours and not for the name. $65 is a lot of money to pay for a name.

Do you have either of these palettes? Do you have both? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Sarah xo