| Review | Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet

Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet Review and Swatches

| Review | Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet

A mixture of luminous violet tones for the eyes and an illuminating sculpting duo for the cheeks, this latest release from Tom Ford is a dreamy full face palette. The highly anticipated release of this collection of face palettes had these selling out instantly. I managed to snag this one, which is an alluring combination of cool tones. The high price tag of these palettes always puts doubt in my mind of whether these are worth the hefty cost. Read on to find out if this palette is worth hunting down.

Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet Review and Swatches

The Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet retails for $155.00 USD and is available exclusively at Nordstrom. These palettes are currently only sold on the Nordstrom and Tom Ford websites but these may be available later at other retailers. At the moment, they seem to exclusive to these websites. 

This palette is housed in a rectangular lacquered cognac compact with gold trim. This style of face palettes has been released for years but often for the Soleil Collections for summer or winter so, the palettes were white instead of the classic Tom Ford cognac. This compact looks like a luxurious clutch and it has a magnetic closure. The compact 


Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet Review and Swatches

SHADES 


Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet Review and Swatches

Highlighter - This shade is a white-gold highlighter with subtle pink reflects. You often see the white-gold combination but the addition of the pink reflects adds a little something different and unique to the highlighter. It also helps it suit a wider variety of skin tones. 

Bronzer - This shade is a nice warm medium bronze shade, which is ideal for bronzing or sculpting the face. This shade is very buildable and isn't as pigmented upon your first dip into the pan but that makes it so much easier to work with. This shade should suit medium to tan skin tones. 


Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet Review and Swatches

Taupe Champagne top left) T- This shade is a stunning and unique shimmering taupe with champagne reflects. This shade has a bit more shimmer than the others but all the shimmer is extremely fine and it gives a twinkling effect to the eyes without the fallout! 

Lilac Griege (top right) - This shade is a beautiful and soft lilac shade with a subtle grey undertone and silver reflects. This shade is quite light and is a very wearable purple shade for the majority of the eyelid. 

Deep Slate (bottom left) - This shade is a deep slate shade with a purple undertone and rainbow shimmers. There are also very obvious fine purple and silver shimmers throughout this shade, which compliments the other shades in the palette very well. This shade adds a lot of depth and dimension to the overall look. 

Cool Plum (bottom right) - This deep and cool plum shade is the most purple shade in the palette but it still maintains a wearable character. This shade has some fine reflects in it but it contains significantly less visible shimmer than the other shades in the palette. This shade adds a nice bit of color to the otherwise very greige color palette.

Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet Review and Swatches
Swatches from left to right: Highlighter, Bronzer, Taupe Champagne, Lilac Greige, Deep Slate, Cool Plum

Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet Review and Swatches
Swatches from left to right: Highlighter, Bronzer, Taupe Champagne, Lilac Greige, Deep Slate, Cool Plum
FORMULA

Warning! This issue of the product completely falling out of the compact seems to happen quite often with this formula, which is why I wrote a whole article about it. This did happen to me with the highlighter in another palette I recently purchased. This is incredibly frustrating! Please be careful when tipping your compact over or traveling with the product. This formula seems to be much more delicate and because the powders are baked, there's no pan to press the product back into. I'm not sure if there is a remedy to the problem. 

All the products in this palette are a baked gel-powder formula, which has been very popular in the Tom Ford range but also many brands recently. This gel-powder formula tends to be silky, smooth, and luminous. This formula can be used wet or dry, allowing for versatility in your look and application.

Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet Review and Swatches

Eyeshadows 

The eyeshadows are all very smooth and blendable. The formula blends very well and seamlessly on the skin. The pigmentation seems to vary among the shades but they are very buildable and you can get more intensity by layering. The shadows all have a shimmering texture and finish, which limits the amount fo dimension you will get from this palette. However, the shimmers are quite fine and don't emphasize texture of lines on the eyes. The finish of these eyeshadows is almost-glossy in the way it reflects the light.

The texture of these eyeshadows is very soft, smooth, and silky! They just glide on the eyes effortlessly and they layer very well with each other. These eyeshadows are borderline creamy in texture and can crease without a primer when worn throughout the day. These shadows gain a significant amount of intensity and boldness when used wet. It helps enhance the base color and creates a more intense sparkling finish on the eyes.

Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet Review and Swatches

The biggest issue I have with eyeshadows themselves is with the shades. These greige-purple shades tend to blend together throughout the day and become muddy. So, after the initial application, you have these beautiful distinct shades that offer a lot of definition to the eyes but after wearing for 5 hours or so, they almost become one muddy deep purple-grey shade. It's a shame and it happens quite often with shades that are so similar in tone. This is, of course, when you use all four shades together but if you create a two eyeshadow look, you're less likely to run into this issue. I think this palette is really best for a two-eyeshadow look without compromising on the dimension and depth. That being said, the quality of the eyeshadows is still excellent and a delight to work with. Also, using these shadows wet can help minimize the muddiness a bit but it really depends on your placement.

Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet Review and Swatches

Cheek Products 

The cheek products aren't as pigmented as the eyeshadows but their pigment is very buildable. These start out fairly sheer but build to be very pigmented, which is how I prefer my cheek products. This makes it easy to control the blend and amount of product. These also seem to have a waxy top layer, which is common with these baked formulas. You need to break through that initial waxy layer before getting to the creamy powder underneath.

The beauty of these gel-powders is that they can be used wet or dry and when it comes to cheek products, this is great for those who don't like to set their makeup. I am not a huge powder fan and I rarely set my base these days but that means when it comes to using powder products, it can be tricky. Powder products have a tendency to stick to any wet texture on the skin and that can make powder product application very uneven, splotchy, and hard to blend. With these gel-powders, they work beautifully over wet skin without lifting the makeup underneath and applying evenly on top.

Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet Review and Swatches

These powders glide onto the skin and leave a very seamless finish and flawless finish to the skin. Neither of them emphasizes any texture on the skin and their buildable pigment makes these powders really easy to work with. I hope in the future, we can expect to see these in their own compact as permanent cheek duos in the Shade and Illuminate Collection.

Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet Review and Swatches
Shade and Illuminate Moonlit Violet Highlighter

Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet Review and Swatches
Shade and Illuminate Moonlit Violet Bronzer 

THE LOOK 

For this look, I used the Lilac Greige in my crease, blending it upwards. Then I took the Taupe Champagne and placed it on the inner third of my lid and the Cool Plum on the outer corner of my lid, blending upwards into the Lilac Greige. Finally, I applied the Deep Slate shade along my lash line and smudging it upwards into a wing on the outer corner. This is the look after initial application but like I stated, after several hours the look gets a bit muddy and the shades just blend together.

Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet Review and Swatches

Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet Review and Swatches

Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet Review and Swatches

Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate Face & Eye Palette in Moonlit Violet Review and Swatches

FINAL THOUGHTS 

For the price, I can't recommend it, strictly because the eyeshadow shades can get quite muddy when used together. I feel like a quad should be cohesive enough to use together and create a beautiful look and it should be maintained throughout the day. I just feel there is very limited versatility in the shades of this palette despite the fact that the quality of all of the products is excellent. While I enjoy using all of the products very much, you don't get a lot of dimension and depth with this palette because it all gets lost when the shades fuse together. I am very happy and excited to finally see Tom Ford put in a bronzer shade instead of blush into these palettes, however; that means that some skin tones will be excluded from using this palette. 

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