Too Faced Grande Hotel Cafe

grANDE HOTEL CAFE

[may contain affiliate links] Hello, class! As you know, normally I steer clear of holiday-themed packaging. However, there was something about this year’s Too Faced sets that caught my eye. In particular, the Too Faced Grande Hotel Cafe set became something that wouldn’t leave my brain, no matter how hard I tried.

The Grande Hotel Cafe features, according to the description on Sephora:

A makeup set with 18 eye shadows, two blushes, a bronzer, a mascara and a how-to guide for looks that are perfect for the season.

Now, the 18 shadows, blushes and bronzer are divided between three different palettes. Each palette has a different name that corresponds to its fragrance: Peppermint Mocha, Gingerbread Cookie, and Eggnog Latte. In my opinion, each palette can also comprise a complete “look,” or you can whip out all three and mix-and-match.

The set comes in a cute box with a roof that comes off and doors that swing open.

As with any holiday set, there is the worry that the powders are not up to par with the permanent line. Overall, I found the products in these palettes to have decent pigmentation, with a few exceptions. The satiny shadows performed the best, with the mattes being mostly OK, and the glitters needing perhaps a bit more finesse (think – fix+ and a patting motion, rather than sweeping).

Let’s take a peak at each palette and the corresponding swatches.

Eggnog Latte:

Gingerbread Cookie:

Peppermint Mocha:

Some of my favorite shades in the entire set are Sprinkles (from Peppermint Mocha), Iced Coffee, Cold Brew (both from Eggnog Latte), Ginger Snap and Winter Dream (from Gingerbread Cookie).

So, the important question is – do you need this? Here is my answer:

If any of these apply to you, then possibly yes-
– you have no other Too Faced shadows
– you love glitter and don’t mind working with it
– you like products that smell yummy
– a few of the shades really appeal to you
– you need a good travel palette
– you hate spending a lot of money on makeup

If any of these apply to you, then possibly no-
– you hate products with a fragrance
– you dislike glitter
– you’ve had problems with Too Faced shadows in the past
– you’d rather save up for a more expensive but better quality palette

Which category do you fall in? I’m definitely in the “yes!”

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