Tom Ford Emerald Lust Eye Color Quad

Tom Ford Emerald Lust was a limited edition palette that was released in the US for Fall 2012.  It was widely raved about, and recently sold in Japan as a special Spring 2014 limited edition release.  Even with the advantage of past reviews as a guide, I wasn’t sure if I needed this in my collection.  And just to convince me how terribly wrong I am, a kind friend has loaned this to me.

The shades, in clockwise direction starting from top left, are:

• Frosty ivory that has very slight tinges of yellow in it, coupled with a high shine factor, this looks almost platinum
• Medium metallic teal which is more green in reality but with strong streaks of blue.  This leans towards warm-tone on me.
• Medium-dark navy blue with some light blue shimmers.  Depending on the way the light hits it, this looks blackened around the edges.
• Medium, warm-toned blue with heavy tinges of green and yellow.  It has a shiny satin finish that can be quite metallic when applied wet.

Overall, Emerald Lust is a pigmented palette with high frost / metallic content.  Apart from the single ivory, the other 3 shades are all of medium coloration in varying hues of blue-green.  2 of them in particular looked incredibly similar to me… mirror images of each other on the blue-green confluence.  Unlike most of the other Tom Ford eyecolor quads, there isn’t a distinct shimmer and matte shade in Emerald Lust.  The lack of color choice and textures, make this a decidedly one-note palette.  Make no mistake, this is a striking palette full of drama, but still rather one-note in my mind.  There are many ways of wearing this, but it would invariably amount to something close to this:

Depending on how you play it up, I think you could wear it for a day to the office… perhaps as a liner shade or something… but that would be a sad end, nay travesty, to the gorgeousness of Emerald Lust.  But, to wear it in its full glory, will probably be a rare occasion without looking like a lost peacock on the subway.  And so, much as I’m convinced Emerald Lust will be a beautiful addition to any makeup collection, I am still on the fence due to its very limited range.  What about you?