Tom Ford Cheek Color in 05 Ravish

Sorry for being a bit MIA.  Spring Break ended up being a bit longer than I expected ;).  So, today's review is for the Tom Ford Cheek Color in Ravish.  I don't know that there are any official descriptions of the colors, so you're stuck with mine.

In online swatches, Ravish tends to look much cooler and pinker than it shows up in real life, at least in my experience.  It's a very warm almost sort of rosy tan with slight gold sparkles.  I don't think the sparkles generally translate to the skin at all and I think that sheered out on the cheeks (at least on my cheeks) it is a lot less orange leaning than it looks in these swatches.

Ravish is one of those colors that looks pretty boring in the pan, but it just looks lovely on the skin.  It has this luminous satin finish with the slightest hint of shimmer.  The texture of the blush is buttery soft and it blends and sheers out beautifully.

It's Tom Ford, so you know the price point is going to be painful - and it is, $56.  Ouch.  But it does contain a very hefty 8 grams of product.  And the packaging is to die for, like all Tom Ford products.  Even being on the pasty side of pale, this is one of my favorite blushes and I reach for it often.

Overall: 10/10

Tom Ford Eye Color Quad in Silvered Topaz

So, yes, for the record, I know that I already did a review of this palette.  But, as with my previous reviews of Golden Mink, the review for the Tom Ford Silvered Topaz quad also suffered from some fairly dismal product and swatch pictures.

The problem with getting good quality pictures in terms of color accuracy is that the pictures really need to be taken outside, on a sunny day, around mid-day.  And at this time of year, days like that are incredibly limited.  I have such a backlog of products I need to photograph and swatch.  I apologize for the delay and a huge thank you to anybody who is still bothering to check in.

The Tom Ford Quad in Silvered Topaz contains glitter, satin and matte shades.  Starting in the upper left hand corner and moving clockwise, the shades are:

• Light peachy glitter shade.  Mostly, it's a lot of sparkle, but it does retain enough color that you can tell it's peachy.  This shade is ideal for adding very precise sparkle or for layering on top of other shades in the quad.

• Warm silver satin.  Like all of the satin finish Tom Ford shades I've tried, the color payoff is phenomenal.  The shade is buttery soft and intensely pigmented.  I love this shade because warm silvers (and pewters) are fairly hard to find, at least for me.  I feel like this shade is one of the most unique across the Tom Ford line and it definitely makes this palette worth picking up for me.
• Light brown satin.  This shade verges very close to taupe territory for me. (Which is a good thing!)  While I do think 'light brown' is the best description for the shade, I also think it sells it short.  This is a complex shade that I find incredibly wearable.

• Matte cool dark brown.  This is similar to the dark matte brown from the Cocoa Mirage quad, but they are different.  The shade from Cocoa Mirage is definitely warmer.  Also, I do not detect any glitter in this matte shade, unlike the shade from Cocoa Mirage.  As with the other Tom Ford matte shades I've tried, the texture on this shadow is incredibly soft and very pigmented.

Silvered Topaz is part of the permanent Tom Ford line.  Like the other Tom Ford quads, it contains a generous 10 grams of product and retails for $78 wherever Tom Ford Beauty is sold.

Overall:  10/10

Tom Ford Eye Quad in Cocoa Mirage

The next up in the Tom Ford overview is the Eye Color Quad in Cocoa Mirage.  This palette is part of the permanent line and is the only one of the Tom Ford palettes I own that doesn't contain any of the shimmer (glitter) shades.  This quad has two complete matte shades, one mostly-matte shade and one satin finish.

The top two shades are completely matte.  My experience with the Tom Ford mattes so far has been phenomenal.  The mattes are buttery soft with fantastic pigmentation (though I understand that in some of his other palettes, that isn't the case). 

Cocoa Mirage is fairly neutral in my opinion.  It leans ever so slightly warm, but I don't feel like it's so warm that someone cool toned couldn't wear it.

 As you can see from the swatches, the lightest shade is a very close match to my natural skintone.  The second matte shade is a mid tone slightly warm brown.  The third shade is a warm medium-dark brown and the only satin finish in the palette.  It has lovely pigmentation and texture.  The last shade is a dark brown that leans warm.  It is mostly matte, but there is the tiniest amount of gold glitter.

I swear I'm not a total Tom Ford fangirl.  There have been two palettes which I acquired (swapped for on MakeupAlley) and then promptly swapped away because I was not happy with them.  So when I say that Cocoa Mirage is a fantastic palette, I really mean it.

Overall:  10/10

Tom Ford Eye Color Quad 01 Golden Mink

Yes, so this is the third, count 'em, the third time I've reviewed this quad.  And not to beat a dead horse, but the review quality is steadily getting better.  I'm trying new lighting and I think these pictures come much closest I've managed to capturing how the product looks in real life.  Also, I've started posting YouTube videos again and this blog post was created to accompany the video.

The Tom Ford quad in Golden Mink contains 2 glitter shades and 2 satin shades.  

The two glitters are a pale non-metallic gold and a peach.  The glitters are more like a pressed pigment.  There is definitely some type of binding agent in the glitter that keeps it from ending up all over my face.  These are the most fantastic glitters I've ever seen.  They're beautiful and sparkly without being over the top.  You can see that they do have a good bit of color to them, they're not just shimmer.

The satin shades are incredibly pigmented and buttery soft.  They apply like a dream and are easy to blend.  I don't ever have any issue with them fading or with my hooded eyes "eating" the shadows.  They last a solid ten hours without problems.

 The first satin shade is a pretty neutral taupe with lots of dimension.  It is hands down one of my most loved eyeshadows and you can see the obvious dip in the picture below.  The second satin shade is a rich dark brown that complements the taupe shade perfectly.  

The quad is lovely, with high gloss brown and gold packaging.  It's sturdy and feels substantial.  The mirror is sizeable and the little sponge tip applicators are actually really useful in applying the glitter shades.  The compact has a magnetic closure that keeps it securely closed and it has a little pouch for storage.

The Tom Ford Eye Quads contain 10 grams of product and currently retail for $78 (though they were $75 when I picked mine up.)  Golden Mink is part of the permanent Tom Ford line and is available anywhere that carries the Tom Ford Cosmetics line.  I got mine at Neiman Marcus.

Overall:  10/10

Tom Ford Cheek Color in 05 Ravish

After spending the last year and a half coveting the Tom Ford blushes, I finally picked several up this summer, mostly through trades on Make-up Alley.  The first that I'm going to review is the Tom Ford blush in Ravish.

Ravish is a warm rosy tan with a satin finish.  It is much in the same family as Tarte Exposed, Estee Lauder Rebel Rose and Benefit's Dallas.  As previously stated, I absolutely love these kinds of colors to use as a contouring blush.  I run them along the backs of my cheeks and it gives color as well as definition.

It has excellent color payoff and I think would work on just about any skin tone.  Even on my super pale skin, it isn't hard to apply lightly and I think on darker skintones you could definitely amp it up.

The texture of this blush is divine.  It is finely milled without being powdery.  It applies like a dream and blends out easily.  It lasts really well.  Mine wore for a solid 10 hours before I had noticeable fading.

The packaging, as with all Tom Ford beauty products, is outstanding.  It has the signature brown and gold high gloss packaging.  It's not too bulky, the compact is only slightly larger than the blush pan itself and it has a large mirror.

I will be the first to admit the price point on these are crazy.  The Tom For Cheek Colors contain 8 grams of product and retail for $56.  As previously stated, I swapped for mine on Makeup Alley, so I didn't pay retail, but still ... ouch.    That said, I love this blush.  I love everything about this blush and if I hadn't swapped for it, I probably would have chunked over the cash for it.

Overall:  10/10

Tom Ford Eye Color Quad 05 Silvered Topaz

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I'm not dead, just incredibly busy with work.  I will probably be super busy through the end of July, but I will try to post here and there in the meantime.  And since my posts are few and far between right now, I am going to post about things that I truly love!

It has sort of become my ritual that when I go to Vegas, I stop by Nieman Marcus and pick up a Tom Ford eyeshadow quad.  Yes, I know they're available online, but I just love looking through the Tom Ford cosmetics line.  It is gorgeous.  

Last time I picked up the quad in Golden Mink, so this time, I picked up a quad in Silvered Topaz.

The Tom Ford eyeshadows come in 3 different formulas, shimmer, satin and matte.  This quad contains 1 shimmer, 2 satins and a matte.  All of the shadows had good payoff and were very soft and blendable without having fallout issues.

• shimmery champagne - Shimmer formula.  Beautiful, translucent shimmer, with gold and silver sparkles.
• gray taupe -   Satin formula.  Very complex color, very taupe-y, but in certain lights can look almost greenish.  Good payoff, but not great.
• dark cool brown -  Matte formula.  Soft, blendable, excellent payoff.  Color is very true to pan.
• medium cool brown - Satin formula.  Complex formula that swatches a smidge warmer than it looks in the pan.  Very soft and blendable with good payoff.

Overall:  10/10

Tom Ford Platinum Eyeshadow dupe

(L - Hard Candy Quick Sand; R - Tom Ford Platinum)

The Tom Ford Cream Color for Eyes in Platinum is one of those products that got a ton of hype and a cult following.  I'm not sure where exactly it started.  I know that  Pixiwoo talked about the color and I think Wayne Goss did a video about it as well.  It launched with the Tom Ford Summer 2012 collection and was limited edition.

I managed to pick up a pot of Platinum and the first thing I have to say is that it's not platinum.  It's not even kind of platinum.  There is absolutely nothing platinum colored about this shade.  Which isn't to say it isn't stunning.  It is, but it's certainly not platinum colored.  FYI.

The texture of platinum is very light and mousse-like.  It goes on easily and sheers out beautifully.  When you do a stronger swatch, it looks grayer and more of a metallic taupe color.  Sheered out it is a light pink leaning  brown.  It has a fair bit of microglitter in it that is more obvious the more you sheer it out.  It seems to be the glitter that gives Platinum its metallic look because I don't think the shadow base itself is metallic at all.

So, on to the dupe.

Last week I picked up the Hard Candy All Lid Up Creme Shadow in #571, Quick Sand.  Swatched, Quick Sand is really, really close to Platinum.  (I believe the All Lid Up shadows are new this spring).

(daybulbs)

(natural, indirect light)

(direct sunlight)

The textures of the 2 shadows are quite different.  Hard Candy is a thicker formula, much closer to the Make Up For Ever Aqua Creams in many respects.  The Tom Ford, as I said before, is very mousse-like.  Platinum contains a lot of glitter, Quick Sand has no glitter, but does have a metallic finish.  Platinum is warmer, pinker, especially as it fades.  Quick Sand is a bit cooler.

In heavy applications, the two shadows are fairly indistinguishable.  Sheerer, the differences are much more pronounced.  The Hard Candy shadow wore way better than the Tom Ford.  The Tom Ford wasn't awful, but it wasn't great.  It didn't crease on my non-oily lids, even without a primer, but it did fade noticeably after three hours.  Whereas the Hard Candy shadow looked pretty much exactly the way it had when I initially applied it, the Tom Ford really changed as it wore.  Platinum started out looking much the way it does in the swatches above, but after a couple of hours on the lid, it had really sheered out, had become much pinker and much more obviously glittery.  It almost changed from looking like a shadow, to almost looking like the lid was wet.  I don't know if this is your thing or not.  It's not really mine.  But I know a lot of people like 'lived in' eye looks.  You'll definitely get that from Platinum.

Platinum is much, much easier to remove - I'm pretty sure I could have rubbed most of it off with a tissue.  The Hard Candy shadow, in contrast, stays where you put it and requires an oil cleanser to remove completely.

Packaging, obviously, is very different.  Platinum comes in some seriously luxurious packaging.  It is a heavy, glass jar.  It feels substantial.  Everything about it lets you know it's a $40 eyeshadow.  Hard Candy comes in cheap plastic packaging and is available exclusively at Wal-Mart.

They are both beautiful shadows.  Personally, I think the Hard Candy shadow has a better formula.  It definitely wears better.  Also, it's $6.

Review: Tom Ford Eye Color Quad in 01 Golden Mink

I know I have mentioned this quad several times, but I just realized that I've never done an offiical review of it.  Ooops!  

I picked up the Tom Ford Eye Color Quad in 01 Golden Mink last November when I was in Vegas.  Unfortuantely, I don't have any department stores locally that carry the Tom Ford beauty line and I am just not willing to shell out this much money for a quad without trying it out first.  So while I was in Las Vegas, I made a special trip to the Neiman Marcus to look at these quads.

I wasn't disappointed, these quads are stunning!  But I am really glad that I looked before buying because I found the retailer descriptions of this quad in particular to be incredibly misleading.  If I had just looked at the pictures online I would have assumed that all four of the shades were shadows rather than half the compact being glittery pigments.

The Tom Ford shadows have four finishes, sheer sparkle, satin, shimmer and matte.  I can't find any official description of which color is which in any of the quads which is incredibly annoying.  

(I didn't swatch these in the best order.  L-R It's the two shades from the bottom first and then the two shades from the top.)

I will assume based on the name alone that the two across the top in the first picture (and swatched on the right) are the sheer sparkle finish.  They are basically a super finely milled glitter with some sort of liquid component.  They are incredibly shimmery and look just beautiful on the eye.  I don't wear them alone, but layered in strategic places over other shadows, they are stunning.

The lighter brown color in the lower left of the quad is probably a shimmer.  It's a satin eyeshadow with discernable glitter.The darker brown on the lower right of the quad is probably a satin as it contains no obvious glitter.

The two brown shadows are so incredibly creamy and pigmented.  They apply like a dream.  The two sparkly shades across the top are trickier to apply.  I've found that using one of those little sponge applicators works really well.

The packaging is the typically masculine, super sleek Tom Ford packaging.  It is also incredibly reflective.

The quad contains a total of 10g of product and retails for $75 at Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue or Bergdorff Goodman.  

I will grant you that $75 is a lot for an eyeshadow compact, but you do get a lot of product.  If you look at just grams per dollar, it's actually not that bad.  Tom for works out to $7.50 per gram.  MAKE UP FOR EVER shadows work out to $8.80 per gram.  MAC shadows are $10 per gram.

This is certainly a luxury purchase, but I love it and I think it is absolutely worth the money.

Overall:  10/10