| Review | Tom Ford Extreme Eye Quad
There seems to a lot of surprises and an onslaught of releases coming from Tom Ford at the end of this year, including this very unexpected Sephora Exclusive quad. While I enjoyed some of the Extreme Shadows formula (see my review here on the singles), I would say its not their best formula and it's not for everyone. Since Sephora had their big sale during it's release, it thought I'd bite the bullet and see how this quad performs.
The Tom Ford Extreme Eye Quad retails for $92.00 USD and is available exclusively at Sephora. Like all their Extreme Collection packaging, it is a very reflective chrome packaging. Very fun and edgy but it will be a bit fingerprint-prone. The costs of this quad is higher than their traditional quads which are $88.00, I suppose this is the cost of the "special packaging". Honestly, I think it's just an excuse to blow up their prices even more than they have lately! $88.00 is already an insane price hike from what they used to sell these quads for.
The shades included in this palette are very cool and icy toned, they look incredible cohesive and appear to make a very complete look. However, the quality is severely lacking in some of the shades and when applied together, the shades are kind of awkward. Let's take a deeper dive into these shades:
Duochrome Pink-Green Glitter (Top Left) - This shadow is extremely chunky and gritty in texture. You can apply it with a very dense flat brush but you will get fallout. I recommend picking up a little at a time and pressing it on to the lids. It is very sheer and while it appears to have a green reflect in the pan, only the pink reflect actually shows up. It does shift to a green/light blue in certain lighting but it is so subtle it looks more like you shadow is patchy than changing colors. I prefer this shade as a very sheer glitter wash over the lid with a winged liner than paired with any of the colors in this palette. I personally would much prefer their classic glitter formula, which is more refined and sophisticated.
The shades included in this palette are very cool and icy toned, they look incredible cohesive and appear to make a very complete look. However, the quality is severely lacking in some of the shades and when applied together, the shades are kind of awkward. Let's take a deeper dive into these shades:
Duochrome Pink-Green Glitter (Top Left) - This shadow is extremely chunky and gritty in texture. You can apply it with a very dense flat brush but you will get fallout. I recommend picking up a little at a time and pressing it on to the lids. It is very sheer and while it appears to have a green reflect in the pan, only the pink reflect actually shows up. It does shift to a green/light blue in certain lighting but it is so subtle it looks more like you shadow is patchy than changing colors. I prefer this shade as a very sheer glitter wash over the lid with a winged liner than paired with any of the colors in this palette. I personally would much prefer their classic glitter formula, which is more refined and sophisticated.
Soft Lavender (Top Right) - This soft lavender shadow has fine little gold shimmer and it is the WORST shadow in the palette! It has NO PIGMENTATION and can't be built up at all! It's just a barely-there lavender wash that blend completely away, when you attempt to blend it, leaving the fine gold shimmer on the eyes. I have tried to pack on this shade and it is so dusty and doesn't do anything for the eyes. This is the only shade I would consider to be not part of the Extreme Formula, it appears to a be a regular shadow formula but extremely dusty and severely lacking pigment. The texture of this shadow is incredibly dry and even when swatching, I had to really layer the color to get it to show true to color in the pan.
Icy Baby Blue (Bottom Left) - This icy baby blue shade is shimmery and pigmented. It still applied quite sheer and you do need to build this shadow up. This is a more difficult blue for most people to pull off. It has a nice metallic finish and blends quite well.
Black with Rainbow Shimmer - This shade is the most pigmented of the all the shades and is a beautifully complex. It is a black base and many multi-colored shimmer, primarily blue, purple and pink shimmer. This shade really adds a lot of depth to this palette and makes a great smokey eye.
This look I used mostly the glitter all over the lid and you can see it looks a bit patchy or like I have nothing on my lid in some areas because the pink reflect is not showing, instead it is the blue/green but because the reflect isn't very strong, it looks like I have nothing on my lid. The glitter looks much better in person than in pictures.
This is probably my favorite look I created with this palette (below). This smokey cat eye doesn't use the chunky glitter shade and turned out very well but you still can't see the lavender in the crease. Like I said, It just blends away.
The Extreme Shadow formula is extremely hit or miss, no pun intended! The metallic formula, which is the Icy Baby Blue and Purple with Rainbow Shimmer, are good quality. Whereas the chunky glitter formula is kind of a flop. It is just too difficult to use and messy for it to be worth the price, alone or with this palette. The inclusion of the regular shadow in the Soft Lavender is a HUGE FAIL for me! I could not for the life of me figure out how to make it work and trust me, I really tried.
Overall, for the crazy price surge on this palette it really isn't worth it! One of the shades is a complete dud, the glitter is messy and difficult to use, and shades don't really go together as well as you'd expect them to. Tom Ford is releasing 7 new palettes this year with great formulas, so I don't understand the purpose of releasing this limited edition one that is substandard! I really feel with the bombardment of releases coming from them is just corporate greed. If you really want a palette from Tom Ford, I recommend checking out the ones from the permanent range and the new releases that will be a part of the permanent range. Not only do they cost less, they have a much better and consistent formula.
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This first look I used the glitter on the inner corner and the blue more on the outer and middle of the lid.
This look I used mostly the glitter all over the lid and you can see it looks a bit patchy or like I have nothing on my lid in some areas because the pink reflect is not showing, instead it is the blue/green but because the reflect isn't very strong, it looks like I have nothing on my lid. The glitter looks much better in person than in pictures.
This is probably my favorite look I created with this palette (below). This smokey cat eye doesn't use the chunky glitter shade and turned out very well but you still can't see the lavender in the crease. Like I said, It just blends away.
Overall, for the crazy price surge on this palette it really isn't worth it! One of the shades is a complete dud, the glitter is messy and difficult to use, and shades don't really go together as well as you'd expect them to. Tom Ford is releasing 7 new palettes this year with great formulas, so I don't understand the purpose of releasing this limited edition one that is substandard! I really feel with the bombardment of releases coming from them is just corporate greed. If you really want a palette from Tom Ford, I recommend checking out the ones from the permanent range and the new releases that will be a part of the permanent range. Not only do they cost less, they have a much better and consistent formula.
Shop Tom Ford Beauty:
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