2 Looks, 1 Palette #2: I Heart Revolution Lemon Drizzle Chocolate Palette

Whoooooooo, this post is going to be a roller coaster ride. I have a lot of feelings, so I'm not going to even bother with a fancy intro, because there's a lot of ground to cover. Buckle up for safety, folks!

I recently went half on the I Heart Revolution Chocolate Vault with a friend. The vault is an amazing value, and we got it for $48 (split by two people), which made it even better. I wanted the vault for two palettes specifically: the Lemon Drizzle Chocolate palette and the Cranberries & Chocolate palette. I'll talk more about the vault (and the other palette) later.

Lemon Drizzle stock photo, I do not own!

The Lemon Drizzle Chocolate Palette came out sometime in early to mid-August. The palette caught my eye because it looked so warm and summery. It reminded me of long summer days, where the sun doesn't go down until 9 pm, and those gorgeous nights that offer a bit of relief from the blazing summer sun.

Palette interior stock photo, I do not own!

Unfortunately, getting this palette after using the Violet Chocolate palette (my review) was a mistake. It's like that time I played Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days immediately after beating Birth By Sleep (for the Kingdom Hearts fans, you know my pain). Mistakes were made, and while I can partially blame myself, I've got a lot of questions for Makeup Revolution.

Something to keep in mind is that the Lemon Drizzle palette came out *after* the Violet Chocolate palette, so I'm not sure how we went one step forward, while simultaneously taking two steps back, but here we are.

I know that sounds really doom and gloom, and I'm not trying to be dramatic, but when I buy a yellow eyeshadow palette for some lovely yellows, and only the yellow metallics show up on my skin, it's beyond frustrating and also ridiculous. Let me walk y'all through the process.

Lemon Drizzle palette.

I popped Lemon Drizzle out of the Chocolate Vault case, and took a closer at the color story. I have to compliment them for the look and layout of the Lemon Drizzle palette because all it's really bright and pretty. It's like they took sunshine and put it in a palette, XP. 

Delicious looks gorgeous!

With 10 mattes and 8 metallics, the palette seemed really versatile and balanced. It smells SO GOOD too, a consistent scent that can be found in all the more recent chocolate palettes.

I believe part of my testing issues came from the fact that I tried to be an overachiever, but maybe not. For my first look, I used a total of 9 shades, lol. Was that ambitious of me? Most definitely, but I wanted to use as much of the palette as possible. I failed to realize my folly until it was too late. Look 2 was a struggle, but more on that in a bit.

Look 1

Look #1

The section of shades that I used had a lot more mattes than Look 2, which actually worked in my favor. I love this look! It's so warm! It's so lovely! Look at that inner corner! There were a few shades that gave me trouble though, which we'll see in the breakdown.

Close-up of Look #1

For my first look, I used the shades: 

-Afternoon Tea (base color, all over shade)

-Just a Bite (lid shimmer, layered on top of Sunshine)

-Sugar (inner corner, layered with a Tangy on top)

-Slice of Cake (outer edge, layered with some Just a Bite)

-Lemon Slice (under eye color, didn't show up)

-Citrus (crease color)

-Sunshine (on the lid, layered with Just A Bite)

-Zestful (eyebrow highlight)

-Tangy (inner corner, layered with Sugar underneath)

Our resident problem children in this batch were the shades Lemon Slice, Citrus, and Sunshine. Of the three, the bright yellow shade, Lemon Slice, wouldn't show up. At. All. How could the main stars of this yellow hued show not even bother to show their faces?

Angled close-up.

Before putting on this eyeshadow, I primed my lids with concealer, like I always do. Sunshine came out super patchy even with the help of concealer and several attempts to build the color. There were sections of my lids that the color just wouldn't stick to, which is why I dipped into Just A Bite, and covered them with a metallic shadow. 

Citrus showed up upon application, but required lots of packing and blending to get the color to stay. I would apply it to my lid, and then it would just sort of... fade. Lemon Slice wouldn't show up no matter what I did -- I packed it on, applied it with three different eyeshadow brushes, and still nothing. I didn't wet my brush though, which may have gotten it to show up, but I hate doing that because the eyeshadow can get streaky/clumpy, :/ 

Three problem shadows out of nine isn't so bad, right? I told myself that everything would be ok, because I still had nine other shades to try. But booooooooooyyyyyy, was I wrong!

Look 2

Look 2, why did i wear a black turtleneck??

For some reason, the more I see Look 2, the more I actually like what I did with it. I originally wanted to go for a cut-crease, but when that attempt failed, I went with a halo eye instead. Though tt's definitely not perfect, I was a little proud of the fact that I was able to create a look with 9 colors featuring a majority of metallic shades.

Still, creating Look 2 was a s-t-r-u-g-g-l-e. Nothing worked the way I wanted it to: I had more than a few shades that just didn't show up, and others that took a lot of building. 

Close-up of Look 2.

For my second look, I used the shades:

-Scrumptious (upper crease color, just below my eyebrows)

-Butter (inner corner, didn't show up)

-Baked (inner corner after Butter failed)

-Fluffy (eyebrow highlight, tried it on the inner corner, but that failed)

-Tempting (lower crease, under eye)

-Delicious (on my lid, surrounding the halo)

-Zingy (also under the eye, didn't show up)

-Sharp but Sweet (all over color)

-Nothing But Crumbs (in the center of my lid for the halo)

Of these shades, I had two (Butter and Zingy) that didn't appear at all, and a third shade (Fluffy) that acted like it didn't want to work, but then for some reason, was visible in another area.  

Angled close-up of Look #2.

Though few of the shades had fall-out, Tempting left a few bits behind when I tried to apply it to my under eye area. It wasn't so bad that I was worried about my foundation getting ruined, but it was there. 

This group of shadows had more metallics in it, and a lot of them underperformed, especially compared to the wonderful metallics in the Violet Chocolate palette. It's almost like Makeup Rev changed the formula of the metallics between the Violet Chocolate and the Lemon Drizzle, which makes no sense because as I mentioned earlier, Lemon Drizzle is a newer release.

In total, that makes 6 problem shades and 12 that work with little to no manipulation. For $15, is it really worth it? For the first time in a while, I'm gonna say no. If I had to give it a numeric rating, I'd give the Lemon Drizzle a 5 out of 8. It's not so bad that I'd call it mediocre, but I don't love it.

That isn't to say this is an absolutely, utterly horrible palette, but that the Mint Chocolate and Violet Chocolate are just that much better, and you can avoid the issues I had by getting those two instead. The Mint Chocolate even has a yellow shade in it, so between those two palettes, plus the Golden Bar palette, I could have re-created both of these looks.

Though I was initially attracted to the palette for the yellow shades(which didn't show up on me), the stars of both eye looks were actually the orange-y shades, which makes me wonder if the Chocolate Orange palette would have been a better choice for me. For stand-outs in the metallic shades, Delicious and Baked were my absolute favorite.

Eventually, I'll stop buying Chocolate bar palettes, but there are still a handful that I want to test out like the Galactic Chocolate palette and now, the Chocolate Orange. So far, my ranking of the Chocolate palettes I own is (from most favorite to least favorite):

1. Violet Chocolate

2. Mint Chocolate

3. Golden Bar

4. Lemon Drizzle

The good news is I already have a new contender for this Chocolate bar showdown! I have lots of plans this coming weekend, so that gives me ample time to test out the Cranberries & Chocolate palette. Stay tuned for another eyeshadow review very soon, and a *gasp* Lolita post!

Let me know how you felt about either of these looks in the comment section down below! Which of these two looks was your favorite? Would you spend your money on the Lemon Drizzle palette or any of the other Chocolate palettes? Tell me all about it.

Until next time, my lovely readers! <3

Stay beautiful, stay true,

~J