Tom Ford Eye and Cheek Compact Unabashed for Summer 2014, Review, Swatch, Comparison & FOTD

It must be around January when I was playing around with lipsticks and nail polishes at our small Tom Ford counter, I happened to ask if they know about the future releases. SA pulled out a brochure and opened it up to show me the new lipsticks and nail polishes, then I have seen a compact which was round and divided, she nodded "this is for summer!".

Yes, it is round, the compact is sleek and hefty. Here is the star product of Tom Ford Summer Collection, Unabashed.

Unabashed might look like a new word to extensive(!) Tom Ford vocabulary, but it doesn't count as one since it is just a version of another word which is already included. Do you remember the nail polish from last Holiday, Shameless? Most used words remain the same, namely, Haze, Smoke, Orchid, Bitch and Lust. I have heard that Titanium Smoke will be discontinued and replaced by a new quad called Smokey Bitch but I might be just making it up so don't call me on that. ;-))

Don't get me wrong though, I like Tom Ford make-up, which must be my worst addiction. Each season it  becomes more and more dangerous for my pocket. The only thing I can't get along with must be the names...

But what makes this compact so shameless? Its golden dropping luxury screaming ivory case or combination of five generously sized products in one? Might be the price?

Ivory compact is really elegant. Unabashed has the same size as Tom Ford bronzers and has 13.5 g/.47 OZ of product, which is larger than their regular quads (10g) or in other words includes three of their trios (4.5 g). I got mine from Selfridges and there it costs only £3 more than their regular Eye Shadow Quads. Thin but big compact might be practical or not that practical depending on your storage ways and your handbag forms but no one would ever deny that it looks hefty and luxurious. I would like to believe that this is not designed for a evening hand bag but for a beach tote. Or maybe Mr. Ford is about to design a bag in which this can fit in?

Inside the compact there are five products for eyes and cheeks. Intuitively one would think that left hand side is for eyes and right hand side is for cheeks, but we will come to that again. All of the product are powder. 

Left hand side has (classified as it looks in the picture below):

Top: Light champagne glitter on a transparent base

Middle: Mid-toned natural taupe with matte finish, 

Bottom: An insanely pigmented deep blue with matte finish.

Right hand side contains:

Top: Medium copper with satin to shimmery finish

Bottom: Medium coral pink with satin finish.

Glitter shade felt somehow dry to touch and it was a little harder than usual to get the product. On the lids though, it performed well, giving a wash of glitter to add a little bit of something to the eye makeup. 

Two matte shades are very smooth. They feel almost creamy to the touch and they don't kick excess powder. These mattes are both to die for. I don't think I own anything similar, so pigmented but at the same time they are so easy to build up and blend. At some point I was wondering if Mr. Ford collaborated with an alien laboratory to bring a new formula out of this world. I wouldn't be surprised as the blue shade could even be applied dry on the lower water line!  

The face part of the palette is a little confusing. Blush applies beautifully but bronzer/highlighter shade is too dark to be a highlighter for me and too shimmery to be a bronzer. I mixed it with the blush to get a bronzy effect going on on the cheeks and it worked fine. It is so pigmented, I believe it can also be used as an eye shadow.

For the look below I only used Tom Ford Unabashed for eyes (no liner), just added mascara. On the cheeks I have both of the cheek shades layered. On my lips, I have the highlighter/lip stick Solar Gold (reviewed here) from the same collection. For eyes I applied taupe shade all over the lid and accentuated it with blue shade. I used blue as a liner as well. I then padded some glitter with my fingers on the inner corner, which doesn't who's up on this photo but the effect was gorgeous under low light.

I pulled out some other palettes for comparisons. I was mostly wondering how taupe and glitter compares to that of She Wolf and Silvered Topaz. I also took out Cobalt Rush to compare it with the blue shade.

The blue from the other world (the one in Unabashed) is no other blue on earth, therefore this comparison with Cobalt Rush makes no sense but I leave it here for a reference.

After all comparisons were over, a thought stroke me. That matte taupe shade suddenly looked so intriguing as a contour. Then I was almost sure it would be very close to Kevin Aucoin's Sculpting Powder but it turns out it is a little cooler than that one. The level of pigmentation is close though, so this one would also work. Oh and it is still warmer than Notorious, so be sure to give it a go.

Tomorrow I will try the bronzer shade on the eyes and taupe shade on the cheeks!

See more swatches and beautiful pictures from Jenny and Ebru. Ebru also has the analysis of ingredients.

Final thoughts: Unabashed is something every beauty addict can enjoy. I believe this one will also look gorgeous on deeper skin tones. It is something I would love wearing even more after I become my black self during summer (which is unavoidable even with so many factors of SPF). Unabashed has some great matte formulation which I hope to see more from Tom Ford.

Will you be checking out Unabashed?