Tom Ford Eye and Cheek Compact in Unabashed

 

Tom  Ford's eye and cheek compact in Unabashed, limited edition for Summer 2014, needs no introduction. It had makeup addicts all around the world calling department stores to pre-order back in February, when leaked images surfaced on many social medias. Heck, it had my heart racing a mile a minute when I first saw said images! As many of you may already know, it is housed in the same compact as Tom Ford bronzers, except in the ivory and gold packaging that I simply adore (and clearly cannot get enough of.) There is quite a bit of product in the compact, so I personally think it warrants the $95 price tag. Of course, if you're a makeup collector, this palette is a no-brainer of a purchase.

 

To start, there are three eyeshadows in the left column. At the very top is a light beige-y glitter shadow that works best as an eyeshadow topper. Alone, it really just provides glitter with no noticeable base color. Like all Tom Ford glitter shadows (which I like to call 'adult glitter'), this is a dream to work with, and I did not experience any fallout. Next, is a cool-toned, matte, grayish taupe shade. It is probably the easiest shadow of the three to work with, as it is incredibly smooth. I also learned that this works quite nicely as a cheek contour. So, if you feel as though you had missed out on Chanel's Notorious sculpting veil, give this a go. You might find that it gives the same effect! Lastly, there's the striking matte royal blue shade. Royal in more ways than one, i.e. a royal pain to remove when swatched on my arm and when applied on my eyes! Word of caution: this shadow in particular does stain, especially on bare skin! This is extremely pigmented, however, when it is blended out, it becomes more of a dark teal color. (I intentionally blended out the edges of this shade in my swatches below so you can see what I mean.) This is probably my least favorite shade of the three, as it is quite dry in nature.

Moving on to the "bronzer" and blush, and I say bronzer with quotation marks because technically, the top pan acts more like a highlighter. (You really should not attempt to warm up your complexion with such a frosty, borderline metallic, product unless your goal is to look like a walking disco ball.) As a highlighter, it is stunning! However, on my NC25 skin tone, I find it a bit too dark of a highlighter (or at least dark enough that I can't achieve the lifted cheekbones effect when applied with a traditional highlighter brush.) Thankfully, I find that with a fan brush, all is well, and it has earned a spot in my Top 10 Highlighters of all time! Like the matte taupey gray eyeshadow, this is also multi-functional. I've used this as a lid color several times, and it works just as phenomenally!

The star of the palette, in my opinion, is the warm pink blush that some have deemed the adult version of NARS Orgasm. I can see why with its strong golden lean and frostiness, but that's where the similarities end. This blush is undoubtedly smoother and easier to blend than the infamous O. Despite it being frosty, it also never accentuated my pores (which can happen with Orgasm at times.) It reminded me a lot of Tom Ford's blush in Love Lust, so I went ahead and did comparison swatches (see below.) I would say if Love Lust and Frantic Pink had a baby, this would be it. That said, if Tom Ford ever releases this blush in a single form, I will be the first in line to pick it up. I love it that much!

In conclusion, Unabashed is a welcome addition to my embarrrassingly growing TF collection (and my palette collection, in general.) I was wary of ordering the palette in the beginning, because this is the first eye and cheek palette he has ever released, so I didn't know how it would compare to the top-notch quality of his permanent line eyeshadows and blushers. I am happy to report that both cheek products perform just as well as his blushers, in terms of pigmentation, blendability and lasting power (well over 10 hours with no signs of fading!) As far as the eyeshadows go, apart from the royal blue, the glitter and matte shades are comparable to the shadows from his quads and trios. (Read: amazing!) I did hear folks passing on the palette because it resembled the limited edition trio in She Wolf, but rest assured, they are not similar in my opinion. If anything, I would say the glitter shade is most similar to the one in Silvered Topaz. I wasn't able to find a dupe to the matte taupey gray shadow in any of the quads I currently own, but I still went ahead and swatched the shadows in the matte gray color family from both the She Wolf and Silvered Topaz palettes.

I have seen Unabashed popping up online from time to time on Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Saks, and Bloomingdale's. If you are still on the fence about this palette, I would recommend snatching it up before it sells out completely -- something I can foresee happening in the very near future -- and see for yourself if it is worth keeping. I promise that this is one palette you will be happy to have in your own collection!