| Review | Tom Ford Burnished Amber Eye Color Quad
I have been waiting YEARS for the re-release of this eyeshadow palette! This quad was extremely coveted when it was released and even after, many people tried to hunt it down, myself included. Finally, after years of the palette being discontinued, it is making a comeback! For those in the United States, it's a Nordstrom Aniversary 2020 exclusive. Is this palette still worth its coveted status? Read on to find out.
The Tom Ford Burnished Amber Eye Color Quad retails for $88.00 USD and is available exclusively at Nordstrom for the Anniversary Sale 2020 (see my beauty recommendations here). This quad comes with two mini lipsticks that create a "set", as they normally advertise for the sale but in actuality, you're paying for the quad and getting two mini lipsticks as gifts. Worth it? Yes, if you wanted to bu the quad anyways but as a "value pack", it's far from that. You're not getting a ton of value from two mini lipsticks, although nice to have. Casablanca, a medium-toned rose shade and Scarlet Rouge, true red, are shades they often giveaway as a gift with purchase.
The quad is housed in the classic Tom Ford sleek and slim cognac compact with gold trim. This modern packaging has a magnetic closure and is the iconic packaging of the brand. It's made of lightweight plastic with a lacquered finish. The quad also comes with two dual-ended eyeshadow applicators, which are of decent quality but still not my preferred application method.
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| Swatched from left to right: Casablanca and Scarlet Rouge |
SHADES
This palette contains a mixture of some very warm shades and I highly recommend using an eyeliner with the quad to ground your look. These warm shades, particularly the pink, can make you look ill when wearing them and deeper liner can help define the eyes and prevent your eyes from being swallowed in a haze of warm eyeshadows.
Light Gold (top left) - This light gold shade is has a very yellow undertone with a very soft satin finish. This eyeshadow can work as a lid shade or highlight, depending on your skin tone. For my medium skin tone, it works as both but on a fair skin tone, this can look very gold.
Warm Pink (top right) - This shade is probably the most unique shade in the palette. This shade is a very vibrant warm reddish pink with an orange undertone.
Maroon (bottom left) - This deep plum shade with a brown undertone and specks of silvery-blue glitters. The glitter specks are fine and they don't show up on the eyes at all, it pretty much a matte eyeshadow.
Warm Bronze (bottom right) - This warm bronze eyeshadow is vibrant and has a rose gold undertone. It has an almost metallic finish that leaves the lids looking very gilded.
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| Swatched from left to right: Light Gold, Warm Pink, Maroon, and Warm Bronze |
COMPARISON SWATCHES
Many warm-toned palettes have been released since Burnished Amber. All of them quite similar but not to each other but not similar to Burnished Amber. Burnished Amber seems to be in its own color family from eyeshadows in the Tom Ford range past or present, which is nice because it is unique to the brand. While I'd love to see more fresh and new color palettes, this one is a classic and is one worth bringing back for everyone to get their hands on.
Here, I am comparing Burnished Amber to Honeymoon, Visionaire (review here), Arabesque (review here), and Leopard Sun (review here), and Iris Bronze - discontinued (review here).
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| Burnished Amber vs. Leopard Sun |
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| Swatched from left to right: Burnished Amber, Leopard Sun |
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| Burnished Amber vs. Honeymoon |
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| Swatched from left to right: Burnished Amber, Honeymoon |
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| Burnished Amber vs. Iris Bronze |
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| Burnished Amber vs. Visionaire |
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| Swatched from left to right: Visionaire, Burnished Amber |
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| Swatched from left to right: Burnished Amber, Arabesque |
FORMULA
The formula of these eyeshadows is really impressive with the exception of the Maroon shade, which did not swatch very well but when applied to the eyes, it applied decently. The Maroon shade is not considered a matte shade because it does have these tiny flecks of glitter but the glitters don't show up on the eyes at all. To me, this is pretty much a matte eyeshadow and it has a very soft and dusty texture.
You can see the texture in the swatches and it swatches very patchily. I think this very soft and dusty texture prevents the eyeshadow from delivering the true impact it can impart in an eye look. When you layer this eyeshadow on, it just seems to barely deepen the shade underneath. I believe this is because the dusty texture doesn't allow it to adhere properly on top of other eyeshadows. It should be delivering this beautiful smokey depth to the eyes but no matter how much I layered on, it didn't get deeper. This shade has to be used on bare skin and not layered over the other eyeshadows, which kind of defeats the purpose of such a deep shade. You should be able to deepen the other shades in the palette by layering it on top but it doesn't actually do this.
The Warm Pink and the Warm Bronze are by far the best performing shades in the palette. They are both very pigmented, silky, and apply smoothly in one swipe. Both of these eyeshadows have a bit of shimmer but they still pack a punch when it comes to pigmentation. You need very little eyeshadow and it blends out beautifully. These shades are very rich and have a wonderful creamy texture. They just glide onto the lids effortlessly and you can build the color by picking up a little and just slowly adding more on.
The Light Gold in the palette works well and has good pigmentation but there isn't anything particularly spectacular about this shade that warrants any praise. It has a bit of a sheerer texture than the other shades in the palette, which is fine if you're mostly using it as a highlight color. The texture is smooth, it blends and applied evenly on the eyes.
Overall, the eyeshadows are high quality and even the deepest shade, which isn't the best quality performs well enough to create a very pretty look. I had no issues with fallout, despite the deepest shade having a dusty texture. The eyeshadows wore beautifully for the entire day without primer, they didn't fade or crease.
THE LOOK
For this look, I applied the Warm Pink into the outer corner and crease, concentrating on the outer corner and blending up toward the brow bone. I then applied the Warm Bronze to the eyelid and the Light Gold to the inner corner of the eyes. I attempted to deepen and smoke out the outer corner with the Maroon shade by layering the shade in the outer corner and blending it into the outer crease. I applied a wine-colored eyeliner to the upper lash line and the inner waterline.
To smoke out the bottom lid, I used the Maroon to smudge closely to the waterline, and then I added just a bit of the Warm Pink to the outer corner blending up toward the top lid. This look would look much better with lashes but I didn't feel like it. I highly recommend lining your eyes when using this palette because the warm shades, particularly the pink, need some deep shades to ground them. This will prevent you from looking ill when wearing pink eyeshadows.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Despite the poor performance of the deepest shade, I actually think this palette is totally worth it! The colors are beautiful and they all perform well enough to create a variety of beautiful looks. I think the color combination is quite unique in general and if you're a fan of warm-colored eyeshadows, this palette is not one to be missed. The textures and finishes create a very effortless and glamorous eye. You can make the look very striking and strong or you can use them in a wearable way. I found a lot of enjoyment in using this palette and I can see myself reaching for it often.
While I wish I had the original formula to compare it to, I also know that they have significantly improved in their eyeshadow formulas in the past couple of years and I have a feeling this latest Burnished Amber is actually the better one in terms of quality. This is based on my many years of experience with their eyeshadows.
I would like to see Tom Ford improve upon their matte eyeshadow formula. In general, as of late, their shadows formulas have been very hit or miss. I think the matte shades, in particular, need a lot of work, proven in the deepest shade in this palette. While the shade "works", it isn't easy to work with. Still, I think the majority of the shades in this palette are exceptional and the unique shades definitely make it work one to pick up. You're not exactly getting a ton of value from the purchasing the set but you get some nice little freebies!
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