Tom Ford Spring 2017 Shade & Illuminate Lips + Cheeks – full swatches!

Tom Ford Spring 2017 Color Collection finally landed in Singapore!  It has been a very long wait as the collection shipped in the US more than a month ago.  As an avid fan, I was very tempted to place an order online, but I wanted to swatch and try them out for myself before making a decision.  In case you share the same reservations as me, here are some swatches and first impressions on the new collection!

This Spring 2017 collection builds upon Tom Ford’s infamous Shade and Illuminate palette, and extends the ability to define & sculpt both the cheeks and lips using color.  There are 2 new Shade and Illuminate Cheek palettes and 6 new Shade and Illuminate Lips to choose from, and they are all limited edition.

Some of my Instagram followers had pointed out that these Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Cheeks resembled the Bobbi Brown Cheek Glow Palettes [see here], but having seen these Tom Ford palettes in person, I must say they are quite different.  The new Shade and Illuminate Cheeks in Sublimate (top) and Scintillate (bottom) are much more akin to the original Shade and Illuminate sculpting and contouring palettes in terms of texture.  These palettes contain a sheer cream highlight on top and a cream blush on the bottom.  There is substantial slip in there, so it will sheer out, but it blends out easily for a natural lit-from-within look.

Given their tendency to sheer out, I found it hard to swatch these new Shade and Illuminate Cheek palettes.  Scintillate is the warmer of the 2, and features a gorgeous golden shimmery highlighter that blends in beautifully with the coral blush.  Sublimate is more neutral in tone, and the rose coloured blush seems more pigmented than Scintillate.  The matching highlighter seems much more pink in the pan but applies nearly translucent on my NC25 skin tone.  It also does not contain shimmer but leaves a slight sheen on the skin.  Worn on their own, the Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Cheek palettes require quite a bit of layering to build up color unless you are incredibly fair.  They do leave a healthy luminous flush though, and can be layered with one a powdered blush (more on that in a bit).

Moving over to the lips, Tom Ford takes ombre lips to a higher level with the new Shade & Illuminate Lips.  There are several lip pigments from various brands to choose from this season, but Tom Ford’s rendition is unique in that they come in palettes instead of sticks, and they’re technically not powder but a gelee texture.  At first touch, they feel like cream, though with much less slip than their cheek counterparts discussed above, and also less than what you would imagine is typical of a cream eyeshadow.  I would almost describe the sensation as a very dense mousse, because when it applies onto the skin/lips, the finish turns velvety.

Each palette features 2 hues – a lighter or brighter shade paired with a complementary darker shade.  Here are the full swatches:

All of the swatches shown here are single swipes!  So it gives you a very good idea of the level of pigmentation and smooth application that you can expect to get from these Tom Ford Shade & Illuminate Lips.  I have tried both the offerings from Dior and Lancome [see here] this season as well, and these Tom Fords beat the competition hands down.  They wear incredibly well on the lips, and do not require a layer of balm to be applied before hand in order for the pigment to adhere to.  These are also the most comfortable in their category, and I would compare the comfort level to Tom Ford’s matte lip colors.

Along with the limited edition Spring 2017 collection, Tom Ford has also refreshed its Cheek Color range.  There are now 3 new shades – Inhibition (left), Gratuitous (middle), and Disclosure (right).

There has been some changes to the existing shades too, with most featuring a more refined pearl and much less (even no) shimmer.  Also, Savage has been discontinued, so if you’re a hard core collector, be sure to grab it wherever you still see it.  I swatched 3 of the newly reformulated shades for your reference:

As a point of reference, I had reviewed the old Wicked here, which you may notice has some cool shimmers.

I have a couple of those Shade and Illuminate Lips in shades Impulse and Saboteur, and Shade and Illuminate Cheek in Sublimate; which I plan on putting through a proper test before reviewing in greater detail.  However, I will be traveling next week, so I may not be able to get it out as quickly as I’d like.  In the meantime, please feel free to hop on over to Sabrina’s exhaustive post here, and also Mona’s lovely review here.

Tom Ford Spring 2017 Color Collection is now available at the Tom Ford counter at Robinsons Raffles City in Singapore, and will be released at TANGS Orchard from 2 March.