Product Review -- Too Faced Life's a Festival Eye Shadow Palette

When I first saw the photos for the Too Faced Life's a Festival Eye Shadow Palette, I was pretty adamant that I wouldn't be buying it (or anything else from the collection for that matter).

First of all, it features a brighter color scheme that I usually wear so I didn't imagine I'd get much use out of it. And secondly, I wasn't really a fan of the packaging and theme.

Don't get me wrong -- I don't have anything against unicorns per se, but I'm just not particularly into them.

(Though I do I admit I've been absolutely obsessed with the animated version of the Peter S. Beagle novel, The Last Unicorn, since childhood. It's just so good!)

And the packing seems a little cutesy and gimmicky in my mind, so it seemed like a hard pass for me.

But then, I started seeing photos of the actual shadows, and despite being a more colorful shade range, something about them started to speak to me. It was mainly the red, pink, and orange shades that drew me in, but the purples and blues were kind of persuasive too.

So on a whim, I picked up the palette -- and I've got to say, I definitely like it more than I ever thought I would.

The palette comes in cardboard packaging that's in a half moon shape with soft pastel rainbow design. There's also a gold glittery unicorn on the cover, which is cute enough but as I said, not really my cup of tea. And while the packaging isn't particularly bulky, the shape does make it a little more difficult to store.

Too Faced Life's a Festival Eye Shadow Palette

Inside, there's a small mirror, but it's not really practically for doing more than touch-ups.

Too Faced Life's a Festival Eye Shadow Palette interior

The palette contains 12 duo-chrome, shimmer, and matte shadows and one highlighter: Young & Free, a matte bubble gum pink; Rainbow Life, a bright color with pink shimmer; Sunset Dream, a golden tangerine with gold shimmer; Fun in the Sun, a shimmery gold with green shift; Fireflies; a shimmery golden green; Funtasy, a matte electric orchid; Dusk Teal Dawn; a shimmery bright teal; Euphoric, a shimmery peach with gold shift; Desert Vibes, a matte warm caramel brown; Beamin', a shimmery pearl with gold shift; Mystic Rain, a shimmery lavender with aqua shift; Artist Pass, a shimmery teal with maroon shift; and Unicorn Tears, an iridescent light blue highlighter with lilac shift.

Too Faced Life's a Festival Eye Shadow Palette

In terms of formula, the eye shadows are pretty nice. Some of the mattes like Young & Free are a little dry, and they all kick up quite a bit of powder, but they're nicely pigmented and blend easily. The shimmer and duo chrome shades are smooth and creamy, and deliver plenty of pigment.

When it comes to the shade range, I'd say that while it's a more colorful palette, the shades offer a more muted rainbow look -- which makes it considerably easier for someone like me, who's super fair and kind of afraid of bright colors, to wear.

From l. to r.: Young & Free, Rainbow Life, Sunset Dream, Fun in the Sun, Fireflies, Funtasy, Dusk Teal Dawn

From l. to r.: Euphoric, Desert Vibes, Beamin', Mystic Rain, Artist Pass, Unicorn Tears

I've done a look with all the pink and orange tones, one with all the gold and green tones, one with the purple-y tones, and one with the teal tones, and surprisingly, I've liked every one of them.

I think the palette could probably do with one or two more mattes -- in particular, it would be nice if there was a cool toned matte transition shade in the palette. Though I will say that I used Desert Vibes as my transition shade for all the looks I did, and it worked surprisingly well even with the purple and teal tones.

For me, Mystic Rain is definitely the standout shade of the palette, though Rainbow Life, Euphoric, Fireflies, and Artist Pass are all favorites too.

At the end of the day, though, this definitely isn't a must-have palette.

If you're a fan of colorful eye looks, you probably have a palette or two with rainbow shades already, and the fact that these shadows offer a more muted look may not appeal to you.

If you don't like colorful eye looks, you probably won't use the brighter tones in the palette all that often.

If you aren't into unicorns, the packaging and design may be a little too cloying for your tastes too.

However, if you're like me and want to play with color but are a little intimidated by brighter shades, this is a good palette to experiment with. It's colorful but still pretty wearable in my opinion.

I think it's going to be particularly nice for spring and summer.

The palette retails for $42, and is available on the Too Faced website, at Sephora, and at Ulta. It is limited edition, but if you're on the fence, I recommend waiting a bit to pick it up because I suspect it'll go on sale somewhere at some point.

Have you tried the Too Faced Life's a Festival Eye Shadow Palette? Are you a fan?