One of the items I was deadset on getting throughout the (incessant) holiday launches was the Too Faced Unicorn Survival Kit!

Not a whole heck of a lot was known about this set when they originally previewed it on Too Faced‘s snapchat. Since the whole set plays off the Unicorn Tears La Crème lipstick – an Ulta exclusive item – we were left wondering if this set was going to be exclusive to Ulta as well. And sure enough, it is. It was briefly available on Too Faced‘s web site before the Ulta launch and this sucker sold out in a matter of an hour. It seems I wasn’t the only one wanting this beauty!

My makeup saviour Julie of Swatch and Review was also planning on getting this set, and one morning – just as I was crawling out of bed and headed to the toilet – I got a Facebook message telling me she had bought it for us (one for her, one for me) and she hoped that was okay. With eyes still crusty from the dead sleep I’d awoken from, I thanked her profusely for not only handling that Ulta order for us, but also for being so obsessed with makeup that she was checking for that sucker at 6 am on a Tuesday!

So why is this set so exciting? It’s got three mini products all named “Unicorn Tears” but in a variety of formats:

• La Crème Lipstick – the original Unicorn Tears lipstick!
• Melted Latex Liquified Lipstick – AT LONG LAST! This sucker took forever to come out after the initial launch of the Melted Latexes.
• Highlighter – this one is brand new and I’m not sure if it’s a preview of a launch that’ll be coming up in the future.

The colour story behind this set is very monochromatic blue-purple.

• The highlighter was the least pigmented (makes sense – it is a highlighter after all) that has a frosty blue-purple twinge to it.
• The La Crème Lipstick is such a wild colour – it goes on iridescent blue-purple and then leaves behind a purple-red stain. It’s unlike anything else I’ve ever tried and certainly one of the most unique shades in my collection.
• The Melted Latex isn’t quite the same as the La Crème – it has more of a cooler purple twinge with silver sparkle. The Melted Latex formula is more a lipgloss than a lipstick in my opinion.

The Unicorn Tears Highlighter was the most shocking item to me in this set. On first swatch I *hated* it. It was a chalky, patchy mess with absolutely no semblance of any kind of iridescent twinge. It reminded me so much of the garbage Hard Candy highlighter that I verbally slaughtered in both my review and a disappointing products video.

But, as we’re constantly reminded… do NOT judge a product by the swatch – it really only tells part of the story. On application to the cheeks with a brush I got a whole ‘nother experience. On the tops of my cheekbones this highlighter turns quite purple-pink, which is in stark contrast to the swatch on my arm above!

The La Crème lipstick in Unicorn Tears isn’t a new item to me (you can see me try it on in this video from early 2016), but it is *always* sold out at Ulta whenever I’m there. The colour is absolutely unreal – it’s a silver-lavender-blue that turns your lips a deep berry shade once you’ve removed it. You can see a little bit of the berry tone peeking through the lipstick in the picture above actually! This a fairly finicky colour – it is a bit patchy and will move around a little bit, so I’d recommend using this as a topper on top of one of your regular lipsticks just so you don’t get any patches. If you’re only interested in this item, you can buy the La Crème lipstick by itself at Ulta.com for $22 USD.

Following in the footsteps of the La Crème lipstick, the Unicorn Tears Melted Latex was only just released as a full size item even though the Melted Latex range was released about half a year ago. Not sure why this particular shade took so long to be released, but hey, now we have access to it! The Melted Latex formula is billed a liquidified lipstick… but it’s not. It’s a gloss. It’s a pigmented gloss, but it’s still a gloss. There is no real scent to the product (whereas the La Crème formula has a sweet lemon scent) and it applies rather thickly on the lips. It’s spreadable, but since there’s a lot of pigment and it has a shiny finish, there’s a bit of a tackiness to it to make sure it holds in place. This doesn’t bother me, but I know some people aren’t fans of a sticky lipgloss. It’ll last about two hours on my lips before I need to re-apply, which is fairly standard for a lipgloss on me. And I have to point out… just like the La Crème lipstick, the Melted Latex is fairly patchy as well.

You can buy this one in a full size format on both Ulta.com and Sephora.com.

Final Thoughts

I’m a little bit torn on how I feel about this whole set to be honest. On one hand, the higlighter surprised the heck out of me and I was quite pleased with it in terms of colour payoff and how pretty it looked on my cheekbones. However, from a consistency standpoint I think a lot of people are going to be annoyed that both the La Crème lipstick and the Melted Latex items are patchy. They are definitely finicky items… but they’re also both incredibly unique. I own nothing like that La Crème lipstick and it’s one I have a lot of fun pulling out to wear every now and again. I don’t see myself wearing the Melted Latex again, but that’s because I’m not really keen on lipgloss. That being said… I did really want to try it and I was super happy to be able to buy it in a mini format in a relatively inexpensive set.

And that’s part of what makes this set so good – each item is a mini product but there’s plenty of product in there. The whole set retails for $26 USD on Ulta.com and I think that’s an excellent price tag for three very unique items.

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For the second year in a row, Too Faced has launched a limited edition Melted Matte in a holiday-themed format. Last year they launch the Melted Matte in Candy Cane and I loved it so, so much. This year? We’re getting Gingerbread Man!

They’ve kept with the theme of the special Melted Matte launch and given it a packaging boost. The outer packaging has a tiny printed gingerbread man and the notation that it’s gingerbread scented and limited edition.

The tube itself is your standard Melted Matte hard acrylic packaging, but the cap has cute little gingerbread men all over it. Cutesy? Absolutely, but I love it!

The formula is on par with all of the Melted Mattes I’ve tried in the past (Summer 2017 shades here, original launch here) which is to say that the texture is slightly thicker than some of the liquid lipsticks I’ve tried in the past. The coverage is completely opaque in one swipe (seriously, this colour is so, SO saturated in pigment) and it dries down relatively fast although you do have time to perfect your lip line without causing yourself any kind of panic! Although this product did not dry out my lips overall, it is on the drying side and you will notice a that it stays put a lot better in areas where your lips don’t get wet (the outer corners of my lips are always an issue for me personally).

When I originally looked at the box of the product, I was really worried that Gingerbread Man would be too brown for my tastes. Regardless, I wanted it and picked it up immediately. I was relieved to discover it’s actually a beautiful terracotta shade. Gingerbread Man is a very warm, rustic brown and thankfully not the colour of the gingerbread men my mom has made in the past (which, while delicious, were also more of a pukey brown shade). This is a warm, cozy colour that feels oh-so-right for the cooler months and holiday season!

As for the gingerbread scent… well, no. It is scented with some kind of sweet, frosting-like taste and smell, but it’s not what I would associate with gingerbread. However, I’m fine with it – I wasn’t really sure how well a gingerbread smell would translate and I’m glad it doesn’t ACTUALLY smell like gingerbread because I feel like that’d be a little offputting. Last year’s launch was supremely peppermint scented – so much so that when I licked my lips throughout the day I was basically getting a shot of peppermint. This one isn’t as flavourful, although the taste doesn’t go away completely.

I love that Too Faced didn’t come out with a basic red (nor did they last year) and instead opted for something a little bit more unique. I really, REALLY like this idea of coming out with a new Melted Matte every year for the holidays and I hope they keep this trend going for many more years to come. And of course, I’m always super happy when Too Faced scents their product with something sweet – it really adds to the experience of putting on my makeup for me. I know it’s not for everyone, but it really does make me happy!

The Too Faced Melted Matte in Gingerbread Man is available on sephora.com for $21 USD. I did get mine on sephora.ca, but it doesn’t seem to be listed there right now. Check back in a few days though… I imagine they’ll do a restock!

So let me know if you’re going to be picking up this shade! I’m already curious about what they’ll come out with next year!

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