Welcome to the Grand Hotel Café!

Christmas is coming! And lately I’ve really been enjoying all the sweet desserts and candy-coloured treats that seem to be popping up all over Dublin in preparation for the holiday season.

As a person with a seriously sweet tooth and an obsession with seasonal hot drinks of every variety, you can only imagine my delight when I came across this adorable little scented eyeshadow kit from Too Faced.

The makeup combines all the most loveable and enjoyable elements of Christmas from the mouth-watering aroma of sugar-coated macarons, luxury hot chocolates and shots of syrup in speciality lattes, not to mention a colour palette perfect for the festive season.

This year the theme of Too Faced’s renowned Christmas collection revolves around the holiday season in New York. And although each of the available sets in the collection conveys a Manhattan vibe, this one is my absolute favourite and I really think you’ll love it too.

The kit itself is shaped like a little pink hotel, which actually reminded me a lot of Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel due to its pretty pastel exterior. (Except the wreath makes it look a lot more Christmassy!)

Removing the roof of this doll house makeup box reveals a candy-coloured kitsch cafe,complete with three richly aromatic festive eyeshadow palettes, along with a tube of Too Faced’s iconic Better than Sex Mascara.

Each of the three palettes between the Peppermint Mocha, Gingerbread Cookie and Eggnog Latte is inspired by a different Christmas cafe treat and is so deliciously scented, I wish it were edible. ^_^”

The scent of the whole makeup kit reminded me a lot of the aroma that hits you the moment you walk into a sugary patisserie or macaron shop, or even that warm feeling of bliss you get in a comforting cafe on a cold winter’s day. For that reason alone, I just love opening this up and smelling the makeup. Even when I’m not actually using it on my eyes haha Here is what I thought of each of the individual three palettes in the set:

Peppermint Mocha

I especially love the Peppermint Mocha palette for its delicate pink shades, dusty rose tones and shimmering deep browns. These are the colours that I love mixing and blending the most for my daily look. They just create such an innocent and youthful vibe to your look which is always amazing for contrasting and complimenting your sense of style. That said though, this palette has the potential to make something much more sultry and smokey just by applying the darker shades if you want to go for something a little more dramatic with your eye makeup.

As you can see in the palette above the colours are super pigmented because they are very chalky. The shimmer also shines through quite strongly after an extra coat or two which is just such a bonus for a winter time look.

Gingerbread Cookie

I was really impressed with the contrast between the rich coffee colours and shiny shades of silver and gold in the Gingerbread Cookie palette. An eyeshadow range like this makes it super easy to create a smoky eye look, which is always a good go-to for Christmas and New Year’s Eve parties.

The ginger cream, maple syrup, gingerbread and black coffee really help to achieve a classic look, but that can easily be transformed into something a little more festive with a touch of sparkle from the glimmering copper, amethyst and gold tones that come along with the palette.

The Gingerbread Cookie palette is one you can have a lot of fun experimenting with. Especially because you can create such rich and mystifying looks due to how dark the shades are.

Eggnog Latte

The festive bronze and gold shades in the Eggnog Latte palette are so sweet and appealing. However, I would have considered them to be quite plain and neutral if it weren’t for the subtle hints of glitter and sparkle embedded in the makeup to add some festive cheer to the palette. The coupling of these shades along with a pale pink and enchanting forest green for contrast was surprisingly flattering to me and it meant for a more unique look I think.

A lot of the colours in the Grand Hotel Cafe are ones I never would have thought to use together before. But that’s the beauty of eyeshadow kits I guess!

The mascara is also amazing and makes my eyelashes super long and voluminous so I would highly recommend if you want to achieve big anime eyes ^^

So this was the Too Faced Grand Hotel Cafe. Personally I think it would make a great Christmas present for either yourself or for a friend, especially if they’re a coffee lover because the scent is just so sweet and lovely, and the packaging is positively adorable! Not to mention the makeup itself is amazing too. ^^

That’s all from me for now, but I will see you very soon in my next post.

BE HAPPY ♥ BE HAPPY

~Love Mew xx