2 Looks, 1 Palette: I Heart Revolution - Violet Chocolate Palette

What's going on in your area, my lovely readers? I wanted to give you guys something to read before I stuff myself with ham and turkey on Thanksgiving. This time, I'm coming back with a review of I Heart Revolution's Violet Chocolate Palette!

I feel like it's been a while since I've done a makeup review! How the heck do I even do these things again? XP

The Violet Chocolate palette!

So, I have a bit of an unhealthy obsession with chocolate things. Back in high school, I used to bathe in a chocolate scented body wash Every. Single. Day. I wish I was joking, but fareal, I drove my Dad crazy from constantly filling our hallways with the wonderfully amazing fragrance of my chocolate scented 3-in-1 body wash. Sadly, my Dad didn't share my sentiments towards the smell, lol. It got to the point where my parents told me to stop buying that body wash because I kept making the entire house smell like a bakery!

With that knowledge in mind, it should come as no surprise to anyone that the moment I saw I Heart Revolution's *massive* collection of Chocolate eyeshadow palettes, I turned into a real life Ash Ketchum! I gotta catch ALL of these chocolate eyeshadow palettes!

Currently, there are 24 different chocolate palettes under the I Heart Revolution umbrella. They range from absolutely gorgeous to pretty darn terrible, but that's to be expected when you have 24 variations of essentially the "same" product.

In the beginning, the first couple of Chocolate palettes were straight-up dupes/replicas for other brands chocolate palettes (*coughTooFacedcough*), but it seems that over the years, Makeup Rev has decided to take matters into their own hands and experiment to create some pretty diverse palettes.

Of the current line-up of Chocolate palettes, I own three: the Golden Chocolate bar (read my blog post on it here), the Mint Chocolate palette (Ulta link), and now... the Violet Chocolate palette!

Check out these beautiful colors!

I purchased the palette directly from Makeup Revolution's original website, Revolution Beauty, for $15.

Pro-tip: Don't bother buying anything from the US Makeup Rev site. Just skip it completely, because the US site isn't getting any of these products and it *sucks*. I kept waiting and waiting for the Violet Chocolate to hit the US store, and it never did, so I went to the other page and BAM! Chocolate palettes I had never even heard of. Just save yourself the trouble, and go get the good stuff from the other page. I was even able to find coupons to use on the UK store's page!

So much purple.

The Violet Chocolate palette is made up of 11 matte shades and 7 shimmers, for a total of 18 shades. The color story is, of course, that of violet and chocolate hues, with the occasional mauvy, brownish matte to create some absolutely gorgeous looks.

To give this palette a run for my money (since I spent my coins!), I put together two different looks for my review. 

I wanted to test a couple of things with this palette, but the main components I was looking for were:

-Pigmentation

-Blendability

-Versatility

-Longevity 

Right off the bat, I was worried about the pigmentation of the palette. A lot of eyeshadow palettes look great in the pan, but once I get to swatching things, it turns into a mess, quick, fast, and in a hurry. I was mostly concerned that some of the mattes wouldn't show up on me, given that they are brown shades.

Palette stock photo, I do not own!

Thankfully, the colors showed up on my skin tone and they played well with each other. As I got into creating my two eyeshadow looks, I did have to build up a few of the colors, but the shimmers came to class prepared to ace their final, lol.

For reference, I prime my eyelids with concealer, and I don't set it. I find that having a somewhat tacky base helps my shadows stick and last all day. The idea of setting my eye primer with powder seems a little contradictory to me anyway -- how is placing powder on top of powder going to help my eyeshadow show up on my eyelids? But don't ask me, y'all, I'm not a professional, XP

Look 1

For my first look, I mostly just picked the eyeshadow shades that grabbed my attention. I started off with the shades Conjure and Idolize at the top of my eyelid, using them in the area just under my eyebrows. I blended those shades downwards towards my crease, but I didn't put them all over my lid.

The next shade I grabbed with my blender brush was Wine, which I focused on my crease. That shade was a little too cool for what I wanted, so I dipped into Mulberry to add a little more warmth and to darken my crease. Finally, I took the Revive and packed it onto my lower lid. For my inner corner, I used a light purple shimmery shade, aptly named Amethyst. 

Close-up of Day 1.

It wasn't until I created this look that I realized: I don't have any purple lipsticks!! What the heck, man?! Ugh,  my life is a disaster, I tell ya. 

Anywho, I loved this look as a more toned down, yet still shimmery eye that would utilize a good amount of the palette.

But, I'm not done yet! For my  Day Two look, I really wanted to do a PURPLE purple eye, so I went a little harder and got a little bolder with my shade selection. The Violet Chocolate palette did not disappoint at all.

Makeup Rev was like: "So, I heard you like purple, yeah?"

Day 2 look!

To create my second eyeshadow look, I repeated the same method of priming my eyelids with concealer. 

I started with the shade Vitalize at the top and blended it down to my crease. I followed that up with Vaudeville, an auburn hue that is a gorgeous transition shade. On the outer parts of my eyelid, I dabbed Expedite to darken the edges a bit and blended that out to darken up my crease. Then, I got a dense eyeshadow brush and packed Desired, a matte grape shade, on my entire lid. I blended out the edges to smooth everything together, then used the shimmery shade, Violaceous, as a topper for Desired. My inner corner highlight was created using a mix of the shade Levity and a little bit of shadow from another palette.

Close-up of Day 2.

And unfortunately, for the second time, no purple lip to match, X_X Then again, with all that purple on my eyes, I honestly didn't need to have a purple lipstick too. That would have been a lot.

Each eye look lasted me several hours, though I know that my setting spray helped out with that too. There was a little fallout when I made both looks, but nothing exceptionally terrible. Still, based on my reviewing criteria, this palette knocked the ball out of the park. I LOVE this palette, and I just love how balanced it is. 

I hate buying eyeshadow palettes that require other palettes to make them work. The Violet Chocolate palette isn't like that, however; it can definitely stand all on its own.

I give the Violet Chocolate palette an 8 out of 8, and I can't wait to play with it to create more purple-ly, #FallAF eye looks. Of my three Chocolate palettes, this is my most favorite so far, but who knows? I have more Chocolate palettes on the way, so my opinion could very soon!

Tell me, dear readers, what's your favorite eyeshadow palette? What key components are you looking for in a quality eyeshadow? Let's talk about it in the comment box below!

I hope everyone has a  Happy Thanksgiving!

Stay beautiful, stay true,

~J