too faced christmas cookie house party collection (review part one)

Every year I wonder how they will do it. How will Too Faced top their holiday collection from the year before? It always seems impossible... and yet their latest release has managed to surpass last year's stellar Christmas Dreams collection. Shocking! At this point, I should probably expect the holiday collections to be excellent. Each year, Too Faced releases makeup that is festive, fun, ultra glittery and still warm and wearable. The limited edition Christmas Cookie House Party set includes a wide array of products with a fabulous theme and creative packaging. Want to take a peek inside? See what the set includes? This is part one of a two part product review. Find out what is included in this holiday release and how a handful of products perform.

Too Faced Christmas Cookie House Party Collection

This collection is fairly unique and extensive. Like many traditional Too Faced holiday sets, there are lots of additional products included. Past holiday sets have included mini mascaras and lip products....and the Christmas Cookie House Party set is very much the same! This includes a mini Better Than Sex mascara, a mini Shadow Insurance eyeshadow primer, and a Melted Matte lipstick. Then there is a magnetic breakaway palette that includes a large eyeshadow palette, a medium eyeshadow palette, and a small blush/bronzer/highlight palette.

The addition of those extra products is always wonderful and really adds to the overall value of the collection. (According to the product page on the Too Faced website, this set retails for $58 USD but has a value of $353 USD.) They can also be used to create a more well rounded holiday makeup look. The breakaway palettes are certainly the stars here. Essentially, these are magnetic palettes that can be stacked to look like a Christmas cookie house - or stacked separately for easier storage. That attention to detail is so fun and it really adds an unexpected element to the set. As you can see from the picture above, the packaging is adorable beyond the whole magnetic-palette-thing. There are cute little cartoon cookie people, iced rooftops, gold, pink, and icy blue colours, and lots of glitter and shine. Everything about the look of these palettes makes me smile. They are festive in the best possible way...and will stand out in any makeup collection.

Review: Too Faced Mini Products

Where to begin? How about by taking a peek at the additional products included with this set. For starters, it came with the Melted Matte long wear liquid lipstick in the shade Gingerbread Man. This shade is everything. It is bold, warm, and suits a wide array of holiday themed makeup looks. Plus, it smells exactly like a gingerbread cookie! What a fun detail to include. It doesn't end there. The packaging for the liquid lipstick itself is impressive as well. It has little gingerbread men printed all along the cap and raised gold lettering along the side. Too Faced really went over the top to make sure this set was as Christmas inspired as possible. From the colours to the packaging and even the scent. Talk about a home run. (See this liquid lipstick shade in action in part two of my review post.) It also has fantastic staying power. This lasted through a dinner out with friends and long afterwards.

Then there is the Shadow Insurance and Better Than Sex mascara. These are regular staples in Too Faced sets - and they are always appreciated. The eyeshadow primer works well and there is quite a lot of product included. It will last quite a while, making this a wonderful value. The mascara is also excellent (and has long been one of my high-end favourites), however it can be somewhat tricky to apply neatly, thanks to the mini size.

Review: Small Breakaway Face Palette

Next is the medium breakaway palette, which includes three face products. There is a highlight (Get Frosted), a blush (Daydreamer), and bronzer (Extra Toasty). On the outside, there are lots of glittery decorations to make it look like a frosted gingerbread roof. Then on the inside, you have the products in the shape of triangles. The highlight is a pretty bronzey shade that would flatter a lot of skin tones. It is a more subtle highlight, though, adding a lovely glow to the skin but not an intense shine. Whether or not this will work for you really depends on your highlight preferences. The blush is a pretty dusty rose shade that looks lovely on the skin but doesn't have a ton of colour payoff. It needs to be built up gradually rather than applied in one quick application. 

Then there is the bronzer. The formula is smooth and has a nice rich feeling on the skin. It also blends well. This is definitely well suited for light to medium skin...but won't do much for deeper skin tones. Overall, the face palette is good but not spectacular. It would've been really wonderful if they had different options for light, medium, and dark skin. That way it would've been more versatile and would suit a wider range of makeup lovers. 

Review: Medium Breakaway Eyeshadow Palette

The medium breakaway eyeshadow palette definitely has appeal. Look at all that glitter! There are four glitter shades in here (Frost Yourselves, Miss Kringle, Snow Pink, and All My Wishes) and two matte eyeshadow shades. To start, let's focus on the matte shades. There is On a Roll, which is a light beige-brown and Can't Catch Me, which is a rich chocolate brown. These perform well and look beautiful on the eyes.

Then there is the glitter. Right off the bat, these were beautiful to look at. There is a lovely assortment of glitter colours (silver, gold, rose gold, and a deeper brown). That being said...the glitters do not perform well. At all. They are just pressed chunky glitters. They aren't cream, they don't have real base to stick to, and application is tricky. These don't apply well with a brush and must be applied using your fingers. Oh, and make sure to put that Shadow Insurance to good use. Otherwise, that glitter will go absolutely everywhere.

Casual Glittery Makeup Look + Overall Thoughts

The makeup look I created (seen above) uses both of the matte eyeshadow shades with three of the glitters layered over top. The silver on the inner part of the eye, the gold in the centre, and tit he deep brown on the outer corner. Then the bronzer was used to create a light contour and the blush and highlight were applied to the cheeks. On the lips was a light wash of the Gingerbread Man lipstick (not the liquid lipstick from this set but the one from the recent Gingerbread Bronzed & Kissed set). 

Overall, these items were a bit of a mixed bag. In terms of the scent and packaging....these items are incredible. The face set works well but is best suited to light and medium skin tones. The glitter eyeshadow set was a bit of a letdown though. It is certainly usable and will work well for the holiday season, but it isn't at the level that I expect from Too Faced. Find out how the large eyeshadow palette performs (spoiler alert: so much better than the glitter palette) in part two of my Too Faced Christmas Cookie House Party Collection review.

Are you a fan of Too Faced? Have you tried anything from this set?