Unabashedly in love with Tom Ford Summer 2014 Eye & Cheek Palette! Shameless EOTDs included!

We have barely gotten our Spring 2014 fix from Tom Ford Beauty, and already Summer 2014 has arrived. You are probably already sick of all the images being floated around (as if that’s possible!), but here I am to flaunt it some more more. Just to make things a little more useful, I have a few EOTDs at the bottom of this post, so read on!

Continuing with the white and gold design theme, Tom Ford’s Summer 2014 Eye & Cheek Palette is encased in a shiny ivory sleek square with golden trimmings around the edges. It is the same size as the bronzer palette that was released last summer, and barely fits on my palm. Knowing my tendency to smack palettes into smithereens, I have to remind myself to be ultra careful with this one.

When you open it up, Unabashed hits you with that intense blue floating awash a sea of gold and shimmers. Everybody has talked about that blue, but you don’t know what it’s really like, to be holding it in your hands and looking at it in the eye. Some people have described it as Cobalt Blue, but it is actually darker, and turns slightly warmer on me (more neutral-ish really). It is an unusually bold color for Tom Ford, and a very welcome sight after having discontinued pretty much all the colored eyeshadow quads from its permanent line-up leaving only neutrals.

Swatches from left to right, corresponds to shades on palette in counter-clockwise direction starting from top left glitter shade

Although originally designed to be a palette consisting of 3 eyeshadows, 1 bronzer and 1 blusher; I like to look at these sorts of palettes as a medley of colors, painterly fashion. If you can disregard product categorization, you start to see interesting pairings, a fusion of some neutrals, pops of color, and one of the best glitter shades Tom Ford has ever produced. No fallout, ladies.

One of the biggest question floating around is, how on earth do you wear blue with taupe?!?

This, is the “proper” way of wearing the eyeshadow trios in Unabashed – Taupe all over the lid, Blue at the outer corner, taken halfway down the lower lash line, with a dab of the glitter in the middle. An unlikely pairing, but it works really well.. a grown-up take on color. Please, what else would you have expected from Tom Ford. As an aside, whilst the blue is insanely pigmented, it was still easy to work with and blend. And if you use a light hand, I found the initial wash of color to be sort of a murky blue (it might just be a matter of my yellow-based Asian skin tone)… and complexity of colors is always welcomed in my world.

Of course if blending seems too daunting for the morning rush, you can always choose to use a more precise brush and wing it with the blue as a liner. And guess what? It stays put both on my oily hooded upper lids and on my wet lower water line!

But you did not scroll all the way down to see expected-tried-and-true EOTDs. As I alluded to earlier, I see absolutely no harm in using either of the cheek shades on my eyes!

For the shimmering summer goddess, I suggest a light wash of taupe all over, followed by the “bronzer” shade from inner corner up to the middle of the lid, taken a bit higher just for the color to pop. I intensified the taupe (yes the color is buildable!) at the outer corner for definition. Then dabbed on the shimmer shade in the middle, and lined with black liner. Now we’re ready for lounging by the poolside with daiquiris in hand.

And for fun poolside parties, the pink blush shade pairs amazingly with the blue! I even lined my lower lash line with the taupe, no they don’t clash. Heck, I loved this pairing so much, I wore it to the grocery store Unabashedly!

If I must complain, it is that the “bronzer” is a tad orange and frosty on me. Instead, it works better as an alternate cheek color (wait, what was the name of this palette again??) and possibly just under the cheek bones for sculpting.

The pink blush is a warm coral-pink with some golden shimmers. No, it does not resemble NARS Orgasm, don’t even go there. It is perhaps closer to Tom Ford Love Lust, although not as dark.

I had a mini heart attack when I first saw the price tag on this, USD95 are you kidding me?!? But if you consider the price of a Tom Ford eyeshadow trio (USD60/4.8gm) and blush combined (USD56/8.4gm), Unabashed is cheaper with 14.1gm of product. And you do have 5 colors to play with, for the eyes and the cheeks! Tom Ford Unabashed Eye & Cheek Palette is one of the most exciting palettes this year, and a true collector’s item. It was snapped up immediately when it arrived in Singapore earlier this month, but is expected to come back again sometime later this month. They don’t take reservations, but you can ask for them to give you a call once the stock arrives. It was also soldout right away when it launched on Saks and then Nordstrom. It is still available on Selfridges if you’d like to save yourself some heartache later.

So, what do you think?  Unabashedly in love, or still on the fence?

xoxo