Review! Too Faced Matte Eye

I purchased Too Faced Matte Eye off of Ebay.  The one I purchased was a factory second (I knew this when I bought it), and the problem with it is the eyeshadow pans were placed in the wrong slots.  For the price, I didn't care, because I got a heck of a deal on it, and other than the pans being in the wrong place, there was absolutely nothing wrong with it.

Here is the outer box:

The actual compact is rigid cardboard, which I don't like.  I prefer metal or plastic compacts, but it seems like cardboard is the way a lot of companies are going.  Anyway, it closes by way of a magnet, and there is a little grosgrain ribbon that you pull on to lift the top.

Inside, you will find nine eyeshadows.  There are three all-over shades, Tufted Suede (soft tan), Velveteen Bunny (ivory), Fresh Linen (pale pink), and those are the big pans on the left.  Then there are six other shades that you use for spot application (lid, crease, lashline), Chinchilla (light warm brown), Coffee Bean (dark brown), Pebbles (gray), London Fog (deep blue), Vintage Violet (violet mauve), Midnight (charcoal gray).

Here you can see the colors better, and if you have seen this palette before, then you know the colors are ALL messed up.  If you buy yours from a retailer, yours will be in their proper places.

So what does it matter about proper order?  Well, this palette comes with little instruction cards to tell you how to get three different looks.  The looks are very basic, but I recommend trying them anyway.  You might find a color combination you wouldn't ordinarily put together, but looks great on you.  Here is their "Day" instruction card.

Here is my application for the "Day" look, using their instructions.  If you compare this to the picture of my shadows, note that Tufted Suede is labeled correctly.  Chinchilla is labeled as Coffee Bean, and Coffee Bean is labeled as Pebbles.  (good grief!)  On my waterline, I used Persian Queen kohl by Mosha Katani.

I also tried out their directions for "Classic".  This look uses the shadows that should be in the middle row, the darkest of which is a stunning navy blue.  And I'm not big on wearing blue, so this one really did something special for me to like it.  I really liked this look, because it is so dramatic, and because each time I photographed it, it looked different!  Please note that on my waterline I am wearing Kleopatra kohl by Mosha Katani.

The only look I had trouble with was "Fashion", which uses the bottom row (well, it would, if my pans were in the right spots).  It's basically a pink, purple and grey look.  I like pink and grey... I like purple and grey...  But, pink and purple together?  I tried applying it according to their directions, and I didn't like how it looked on me.  I gave it a few tries using different placement and eventually...

Success!  To add, I used Pharaohs kohl by Mosha Katani on the waterline.


These colors are buttery soft, and apply beautifully.  Be careful when loading your brush, as they are so soft that you will get fallout if you put too much on your brush at once.  The colors build up nicely, so don't be afraid to dab on a swipe at a time.  Using the large-sized all-over colors are especially helpful to get everything to blend together. 

I am SO glad that they didn't put a black in the palette.  Putting the dark navy instead was a stroke of genius, because it makes this palette focusing in on mattes, not just nudes.  There is absolutely no shimmer, sheen, or glitter in the palette.  They kept the colors very clean, and they mix very easily with other palettes and brands.

The big but?  They tried to do it all in one palette.  These shades are a mix of cool and warm colors, which is fine if you have neutral coloring (which I happen to have).  However, putting cool and warm colors in a palette does not make the palette itself neutral... it makes it a mix of cool and warm colors.  Most of the shades stay close to neutral, but a few of them tilt pretty hard to warm (such as Tufted Suede) or cool (such as Pebbles).  I still think that all these cosmetics companies need to acknowledge that we all have different tones and depths to our skin color, and they should create more palettes geared towards matching that.  In other words, they could have made three palettes... this one, one for cool tones, and one for warm tones.  Perhaps we'll see more specialized palettes in the future.

So, do I recommend this palette?  Yes, if your coloring is either neutral or close to it.

If you have a very pale to light-medium complexion and cool, I say go with In The Know over this one.

If you have a deeper, warmer complexion, I'd go with Ladybird.

Of course, if you are a makeup junkie and really want to splurge, go with all three.  *winks*