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ColourPop Not A Box Of Chocolates is an all brown-toned neutral eyeshadow palette containing 8 mattes, 6 shimmers, 1 matte with sparkle, and 1 pressed glitter. The shades come in a square cardboard palette (no mirror) with magnetic pans that can be removed from the packaging if desired. None of the shades are marked as pressed pigments. The pressed glitter shade looks and feels like a cross between a shimmery eyeshadow and their regular pressed glitters that have a clear base. It retails for $24 and can be purchased from ColourPop and Ulta.
I have done 6 looks with this and thought the quality was nice, very workable. The shades were pigmented, went on the eye evenly, blending was easy. Some (not all) of the shimmers had more fallout than I would’ve liked, but I generally liked how they performed. They mostly adhered well, didn’t require too much building to show up well, had good shine and sparkle. I wear-tested this twice and got between 7-8 hours of solid wear over primer before seeing mild creasing.
The overall range of colors leans dark on me so I tend to get deeper looks in general from this palette. There aren’t too many lighter shades to go to for more of a natural, barely-there neutral look. It’s also all warm toned, though not terribly warm. So far, I have used this twice as a pairing palette and very much enjoyed it that way. It is very functional as a standalone palette but lacks a pale matte and contains several similar midtone and deep brown shades that could have been reduced to fewer shades.
If you’re looking for a good neutral palette but prefer cooler tones or lighter looks, you might want to consider other options first. Quality-wise I think it’s a safe buy for the price.
Champagne Truffle
Champagne Truffle is a sheer golden beige shimmer. This has a mixture of fine shimmer and large sparkle. When applied to the lid, it mostly just looks like a regular fine shimmer and I don’t see a whole lot of sparkle come through in the finish. Reasonable amount of sparkle fallout, nothing crazy. Using a setting spray to dampen your brush after picking up color is helpful to get this to pop more and reduce the sparkle fallout.
Lil’ Nougat
Lil’ Nougat is a light peachy matte. Shows up well against my skin tone and works nicely as a transition shade to add extra warmth when using deeper mattes in the crease.
Honeycomb Crunch
Honeycomb Crunch is a light golden bronze shimmer with a similar mixture of fine shimmer and large sparkle as Champagne Truffle. This one seems to have a little bit more fallout and the sparkle is a little bit more noticeable on the eye (could be the color is just easier to see). Has a silky feel to the touch and easily spreads onto the skin. Not a thick-feeling formula.
Praline
Praline is a matte caramel brown. This shade is very powdery when my brush touches the surface. Good color payoff, blends easily/smoothly. Not patchy.
On Chip
On Chip is slightly darker and less orange than Praline. It has the same amount of kickup in the pan and applies and blends the same as well.
PB Brittle
PB Brittle is a pressed glitter. Most of the pressed glitters I have tried from ColourPop have had clear bases. This one has an orangey-bronze shimmer behind the larger gold and copper glitter. I kind of like that they went this route to at least have something different. I don’t feel this is a super dramatic-looking glitter, it’s not particularly bright and reflective, but it does add some extra sparkly texture to the palette.
Amaretto
Amaretto is the coolest midtone matte in the palette. It is still warm though, and leans more in the direction of a red-brown than an orange-brown. I was able to apply this in a way that was soft and sheered out over a tinted primer and the color went on evenly that way. I helped it out by blending excess color on the back of my hand first.
Still Bitter
Still Bitter is a shimmery copper with all fine particles. Doesn’t feel particularly thick/waxy nor dry. Right in the middle. Picks up easily on a brush. No noticeable fallout. The first time I used this, I used it over bare lids and it didn’t apply that evenly, like it didn’t want to adhere evenly on my lid, though it did have good color payoff where it did adhere. The second time I used it over NYX Glitter Primer and it looked so much better.
Drizzle Me This
Drizzle Me This has a deep brown base color with lots of gold sparkle. I used this once on the lower lashline and once on the upper lid over NYX Glitter Primer. Both times I got sparkle and pigment fallout but it wasn’t bad the way I applied it. The sparkles are on the smaller side, nowhere near as large as glitter.
Tiramisu
Tiramisu is a medium brown with strong red undertones.
Vibe Choc
Vibe Choc has lots of large sparkle fallout. It’s not bad if I’m careful to tap/press the shade into place, but once I attempt to blend at all, it falls down. This is similar to Drizzle Me This but has more of a reddish brown shimmer in the base color.
Crazy 4 Cocoa
Crazy 4 Cocoa is deeper than Tiramisu but with the same kind of reddish tone to it. Not much kickup in the pan when my brush touches the surface. Not as easy to blend as the lighter mattes, but not terrible either.
That’s Rich
That’s Rich is another deep red-brown that almost wants to look purple. I used this to create a small winged liner and thought it was plenty pigmented to that easily.
Cherry Cordial
Cherry Cordial is a brownish burgundy shimmer with larger gold sparkles. I’m impressed with how little sparkle fallout there is from this shade. It has good color payoff and really adheres to the lid well. Even when blending around the edges (carefully), the sparkles tend to stay put. A few fall but only very few.
In Truffle
In Truffle has a deep neutral brown base with gold sparkles.
90% Cacao
90% Cacao is a mostly neutral deep brown. It warms up only slightly as it’s sheered out. Used all over the lid, there was only a tiny bit of fallout. It darkened a little in areas over primer, but it wasn’t very noticeable. It had about as much kickup as Praline… part of me thinks it could be due to the heart-shaped embossing on these shades because not all of the mattes do this.