Tom Ford Look

Eyes: Sahara Haze Eye Color Quad. The khaki color on lids, the glittery green in the crease, outer corner, and underneath, the darkest shade as a liner, smudged quite liberally, and the golden beige on the brow bone and inner corner.

Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes! on curled eyelashes (with the Tarte curler)

Skin: Make Up For Ever Face and Body Foundation in 38

Make Up For Ever Full Cover concealer in 4 on blemishes and under eyes

Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Intensity One under and on cheekbones

Shiseido Accentuating Color Stick in S5 Rosy Flush

Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Powder

Brows: MAC Eye Brows in Fling and Anastasia Tinted Brow Gel in Blonde

Lips: NARS Lip Liner in Rosebud

Tom Ford Lip Color in Casablanca

Tom Ford Eye Color Quad 08 Sahara Haze

Sahara Haze is a beautiful quad; I think the four eyeshadows work well together and in combination with other products.

The first color is a golden sandy-beige with a shimmer finish. It's unbelievably smooth and buttery with amazing color payoff.

The second color is a khaki-taupe color with a satin finish. It's a cool color, but there's an unmistakable green tinge to it. The payoff was not as perfect as the beige, but it still had a beautiful smooth texture.

The third color is a glittery forest green. It has noticeable glitter particles, but they seem to be integrated into the eyeshadow better than Urban Decay's sparkly eyeshadows do, for instance. I had very little glitter fallout, and the sparkles didn't blend out without the base color, as some sparkly shadows have a tendency to do.

The final color is a super dark green-tinged charcoal with gold shimmer. It's not overly shimmery, but the shimmer pieces are sparce and smaller than the glitter in the forest green shade.

This palette is pricy, for sure, but you really get your money's worth. The darker colors are perfect for a smoky look, and the lighter colors would work well for daytime. All in all, I think it's a palette that perfectly straddles neutral and colorful. Only the glittery forest green shade is a true green, the other two green shades only have a tinge, which makes them totally usable even if you're afraid of color.

I hope to be posting a look using this palette in the next few days.

Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Review

The Shade and Illuminate palette by Tom Ford contains a gorgeous highlighter and contouring cream. The textures are soft and luminous and perfect for creating that Tom Ford sculpted look, or just to subtly enhance your bone structure. Intensity One is the lighter of the two available and it contains a warm brown cream and a glimmering white highlighter. The texture is soft and blends out perfectly, retaining its intensity even as it dissolves into the skin.


The contour is quite warm, I was worried once I swatched it that it would have the same orangy tone on my super pink fair skin that most "contour" products have, but it blends into the skin so well that it doesn't appear that way on my face. But you can see the warmth in the swatch on my super, super pale inner arm (seriously, I couldn't give you a foundation match for it because there isn't one in most lines; my Bobbi Brown foundation stick in Porcelain is orange against it).


The highlighter is more glimmer than color payoff; paired with the contour it's enough to softly highlight the cheeks, but I think most people would be disappointed by it without the additional contour.


The packaging is, of course, stunning and luxe, hefty in the hand, but not overly bulky. It's the ideal for high end packaging, if you ask me.


The brush (not included) is the like a larger, but proportionally shorter MAC 239 eyeshadow brush. It's soft and dense, but an unusual shape for a contouring brush.


I hope to do a look with this in the next few days, so I'll post a full face picture. In the meantime, however, enjoy these photos.