Tom Ford Beauty

When You Want Marvelous Medium Coverage and Natural-Looking Skin, There’s Tom Ford Traceless Perfecting Foundation: Pores Don’t Fear It, But Pocketbooks Might

October 8th, 2014 by Karen 19 Comments

Yeah, this foundation is $80. It’s Tom Ford, so it comes with 10,000 volts of taser-like TF sticker shock.

Traceless Perfecting Foundation is a new addition to Tom’s permanent line, liquid foundation formula, available in 15 shades for $80, and that gets you a 1-ounce bottle.

The medium-coverage formula has a super subtle sheen and a velvety finish, so skin looks natural, real and not flat, and you can sheer it out even more to enhance that.

The formula doesn’t do much by way of controlling oil, so if you have oily skin, it may not help you out there, but for normal or dry skin, this would be a good, lightweight, natural-looking foundation for everyday wear.

With a fairly painful price.

To be honest, the coverage doesn’t dazzle me in pics, where I like my coverage closer to full and opaque, and my pores are totally unafraid of this stuff. I wish it blurred them into the background a bit better, but that’s me. If you already have perfect skin, you’ll be fine, but homegirl needs more help. Seriously, it takes a village.

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Rated X-cellent, the Tom Ford Contouring Cheek Color Duo in Softcore Is Making Sculpted Dreams Come True

September 1st, 2014 by Karen 12 Comments

Tom Ford Softcore Contouring Cheek Color Duo — Wearing the new Tom Ford Contouring Cheek Color Duo in Softcore ($77) on my cheeks

My kneecaps liquified into jiggly piles of pudding when I swatched the deep red terracotta shade from Tom Ford’s new Contouring Cheek Color Duo in Softcore ($77) and found out that — aaah! — it has a matte finish.

Matte.

Finish.

YES!

It’s what I was hoping for from Stroked, the other Cheek Duo Tom Ford released for fall, but didn’t get.

Now, Softcore isn’t your run-of-the-mill, standard issue contouring palette. You’ll find no flat browns or grayed-out taupes here.

Instead, it has a dark terracotta red (to sculpt out the hollows just below the apples of your cheeks) and a lighter shimmery, peachy pink (to reflect light off the high points of your upper cheekbones). Very retro ’80s fab, and if you’ve ever wanted to look like you just stepped out of a Jody Watley video circa 1984 — I totally have, not gonna lie! — then this duo could make your sculpted cheek dreams come true.

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Sculpting Cheekbones, One Stroke at a Time: Tom Ford’s New Contouring Cheek Color Duo in Stroked

August 29th, 2014 by Karen 14 Comments

Tom Ford Stroked Contouring Cheek Color Duo — Wearing Tom Ford’s new Contouring Cheek Color Duo in Stroked ($77) on my cheeks while throwing my best “penetrating gaze…”

As someone who pays both monthly and annual dues to The Society of Chubby Cherub Cheeks, I always get a little hot and bothered when I bump into makeup designed to chisel cheeks, like Tom Ford’s two Contouring Cheek Color Duos ($77 each, eek!), which come complete with naughty names.

Softcore (the darker option) and Stroked (the lighter one) each come with two shades — a darker contouring powder and a lighter powder for highlighting.

I’m currently pretty stoked about Stroked…

I didn’t expect the darker contouring shade (in Stroked) to look so flat and matte, but when I opened the compact for the first time, I saw a warm peachy reddish shade.

Cool! It looked like a straight-up matte, so I was like, “Haaaay, gurl!” (because I really like matte contouring products). 🙂

But then, as I buffed and worked it into my skin, I started to see light reflecting particles of reddish pink pearl.

Hmm…

That’s when the mixed feelings started.

On the one hand, I love the rich peachy reddish color and how well it deepens that area just beneath the apples of my cheeks in such a radical retro ’80s way, but I can’t help thinking that a flat matte would’ve been a tad more effective.

To quote the text I just got from my XXL pores, “A matte finish would’ve been bomb!” And it may also have been more forgiving than the pearl, which tends to amplify any dips and depressions on my skin (although not dramatically).

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The Nude ’90s Are Back With Rosy Brown Tom Ford Beauty Lip Color in Negligee

August 26th, 2014 by Karen 22 Comments

Tom Ford Negligee Lipstick — Wearing Tom Ford’s new Lip Color in Negligee ($50) on my lips

Tom Ford’s Lip Colors, at $50 each — holy sh*t — are redonkulously expensive.

Yup, redonkulous, the adverbial form of the made-up word. That’s how redonkulous they are.

Still, I think they’re among the most drool-worthy, covetable things in his line. Smooth like a tabby’s tum and oh, so comfortable. Plus, it’s almost criminal how much color they contain, and they fade slowly and evenly, too, like mystical makeup apparitions…

As a side, I’m hoping we can keep the fact that I just ordered a new tube of Sable Smoke a secret, because El Hub would probably freak. Bless his heart, but he thinks that paying one penny more than $10 is too much to pay for a t-shirt, so I have a pretty good idea what he’d think about a $50 lipstick. 🙂

Until this week, Sable Smoke was my TF nude lip jam, but there’s a new nude in town, the provocatively named Negligee.

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Blue Monday, Take 2: A Face of the Day With the Tom Ford Unabashed Eye and Cheek Compact

May 5th, 2014 by Karen 22 Comments

In its former life, this ratty blue wig was part of a last-minute Halloween homage to Katy Perry. It has since evolved into one of Tabs’ favorite toys.

He stalks it, swats it and basically beats-it-the-eff-up whenever he’s “supervising” me in my office.

I should probably retire it already, seeing as how it’s clearly on its last legs, but I keep it around to startle my neighbors (a favorite pastime of mine) and take crazy-@ss pictures when the mood strikes.

‘K. Now, how about the same makeup look, but with a little less crazy? 🙂

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Sky High Glimmer for $49 With Tom Ford’s Two New Sultry Lip Shimmers in Solar Gold and Moonlight

April 28th, 2014 by Karen 11 Comments

Tom Ford Lip Shimmers in Solar Gold (left) and Moonlight (right) — New from the Tom Ford Summer 2014 collection: Lip Shimmers in Solar Gold (left) and Moonlight (right), $49 each

To wear whilst yacht/mansion shopping, and/or counting your gold bars, two new lipsticks from Tom Ford.

These new Lip Shimmers might be best suited for the die-hard Tom Ford Beauty fans among us, and other lovers of super sheer, glimmering $49 lipsticks.

Both sultry shades are new for summer 2014 and limited edition (including the gorgeous packaging).

Warm, glimmering Solar Gold and cool-toned frosty white Moonlight are packed with Vitamins C and E, as well as shea butter, to nourish and moisturize yo’ dry pout.

In terms of texture, fragrance and wear time, I do detect the faintest hint of vanilla when I wear these lightweight, slick, non-sticky lipsticks, but the formula only lasts about an hour on my lips.

Tom Ford Moonlight and Solar Gold Swatches — Swatches of Moonlight (left) and Solar Gold (right)

Tom Ford Lip Shimmer in Moonlight — Lip Shimmer in Moonlight

Tom Ford Lip Shimmer in Solar Gold — Lip Shimmer in Solar Gold

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A Monday Face of the Day With the New Tom Ford Unabashed Eye and Cheek Compact

April 28th, 2014 by Karen 35 Comments

Tom Ford Unabashed Eye and Cheek Palette — Wearing Tom Ford’s new $95 Unabashed Eye and Cheek compact

The bright matte blue eyeshadow chilling in the corner of Tom Ford’s new summer eye and cheek compact is, well, unabashedly blue and comes, ironically, out of the blue, or so it seems to me.

Then again, maybe that was the point. The compact is called Unabashed, after all, and with a name like that, I guess it makes sense to have at least one outrageous color, methinks.

The bold electric blue looks like it wandered over from the Urban Decay counter and decided to kick it with TF for the summer, and it’s not one of those bait-and-switch blue eyeshadows, either — you know, the kind that scream from their pans, “Haaaay, look at me, playa!” only to apply all shy and sheer.

No way, this blue’s bright and bangin’ — perfect for bold blue eye looks, if you feel so inclined.

When I see blues like this one, my gut usually tells me to do a neutral lid and smudge the blue along my lower lash lines, or perhaps do a soft blue cat eye, but this morning my gut told me something else. It said, “Um, Karen, let the blue play with the other colors in the compact, OK?”

And I said, “Sure.” 🙂

The compact also includes a matte taupe eyeshadow, which looks a little like the taupe from She Wolf, only lighter; a glittery taupe; a shimmery golden peach blush; and a shimmery golden tan bronzer/highlighter.

I found out that if you layer the matte blue on top of the golden bronzer, it summons a dark and beautiful peacock feather teal.

COOL!

For my eyes…

Apply the bronzer/highlighter in the crease.
Sweep the matte blue into the lower crease.
Pat the matte taupe on the lids, then layer the glittery taupe on top (which I’ve applied here with a wet eyeshadow brush to intensify the glittery effect).
Line the upper lash line with Tom Ford’s Eye Defining Pen in Deeper.
Line the upper and lower water lines with Guerlain’s Black Jack Eye Pencil.
Smudge the matte taupe along the lower lash line.
Apply Katy Perry false lashes to my upper lashes.
And coat my lower lashes with Clinique Lash Power Feathering Mascara.

For the rest of the look, I swept the golden peach blush from the compact on my cheeks and applied the highlighter/bronzer on my upper cheekbones, down the bridge of my nose and on my Cupid’s bow.

I finished by applying a single layer of Tom Ford’s sumptuous Sable Smoke Lipstick (THE BEST high-end nude lippie, EVAH!) and topped it with a little NARS Striptease Lip Gloss.

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The Fab 5, Vol. 6: Tom Ford Beauty

March 6th, 2014 by Karen 10 Comments

Hey, hey! It’s another episode of The Fab 5. In this thrilling installment (yeah, right), our heroine shares her top five favorites from the Tom Ford Beauty line…

I know Tom Ford is one of the more expensive lines out there, but if luxury makeup is your idea of beauty nirvana, then sit back, put your bunny slippers up, and hit play.

But even if the pricer stuff isn’t your cup of tea, you still might find a couple things to add to your wish list. You never know.

Products mentioned…

I hope you like. Thank you as always for watching. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen