My First Impressions of the I Heart Makeup Chocolate Elixir Palette

Last year I accumulated a lot of eyeshadow palettes, one of the many perks of being a beauty blogger. About a week or so before Christmas I had a surprise gift from the team at Tam Beauty which I was not expecting and I was pretty excited to see their new I Heart Makeup Chocolate Elixir Palette*. I know Tam Beauty might have quite a few chocolate palettes to choose from, but this is the first one I own and I was pretty excited when I opened the lid and saw some beautiful looking eyeshadows inside. My excitement continued when I realised that this was a very similar looking palette to the Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance Palette, which has been on my wish list for so long. My reasoning's for never treating myself to the MR palette, is because I really do own far too many eyeshadow palettes, that combined with the price tag, I just don't know if I can justify it yet. So I'm more than happy to have something very similar looking in my collection. So if you're in the same boat as me or just want a palette that's just as pretty as the MR palette, then keep on reading.

Starting with packaging, I quite like it. I say this because when it usually comes to the packaging of makeup I always tend to reach for something that is very sleek like NARS or sway to anything that is cute and girly, that you get with the likes of Benefit and Too Faced. The Chocolate Elixir Palette has has a chocolate bar design which is gimmicky - I don't love it, but at the same time I don't hate it either - It's just somewhere in-between. However as soon as I opened it, it was love. Whether this is a dupe or not, I love the selection of shades and I got really excited to see the two pink toned, cranberry shades which look beautiful and I know I'll be able to create some really pretty makeup looks with these.

There are some really other lovely shades to choose from in this palette, most of them being warm toned, which works perfectly for me. I really love the selection of mattes, actually 12 out of the 16 are all matte and you guys know how much I love my matte eyeshadow. The 4 remaining shades are all shimmers which for me is the perfect balance in a palette. I really love the chocolate browns and  taupe shades as these will work perfectly for everyday and there the kind of shades that I tend to reach for the most. The shimmers are also really pretty and would work great packed on the lid or to be used as a highlight.

I've only used this palette a handful of times, mainly because I'm a busy mum and unfortunately have to skip eyeshadow most days. But I've been impressed with the quality and love how these shades look on my lids. I've found the pigmentation not to be the best, but the shadows are really buildable, so if you have the time to blend and build your eyeshadow every morning, then you can easily get around this. The first time I tried this, I didn't wear any primer on my eyes and I could see creasing towards the end of the day, but any good eyeshadow primer will fix this right up (my personal favourite is the Urban Decay Primer Potion).

Overall, I really love this palette and it's a welcomed addition to my collection. I also love the friendly price tag and this palette will only set you back £8.99 which you can pick up from the TAM Beauty site here or you could pick this up from Superdrug. I've had a little look on the Tam Beauty Website and have been eyeing up a few of their other Chocolate palettes and I love the look of the Rose Gold and Peaches one, so I'm thinking I might add these to my collection soon - A girl can never have too much makeup right?

What are your thoughts on this palette? Do you own any of the I heart Makeup Chocolate Palette's? Let me know.