| Review | Tom Ford Insolent Rose Eye Color Quad

| Review | Tom Ford Insolent Rose Eye Color Quad 

I love a rosy eyeshadow palette more than anyone but have we seen too many? Probably! Tom Ford has been constantly cranking out new palettes and discontinuing old palettes. The new palettes don't seem to perfectly replace the previous version. Also, if you already own most of the previous and current quads, this one feels quite redundant. I just hope the quality is increasing with these new quads but the recent quads from the brand seem to be very hit or miss, especially for the price. So, is this palette worth it? Read on to find out! 

The Tom Ford Insolent Rose Eye Color Quad retails for $88.00 USD and is available at Nordstrom and other retailers. Housed in the classic Tom Ford cognac and gold compact, this compact is slim with a magnetic closure. The compact is made of lightweight plastic and doesn't feel very luxurious but it does look luxurious. These quads also include dual-ended applicators and a dust bag, both of which I don't find very useful. 

SHADES 

This palette has a very romaic color theme and it is pinker than palettes released in the past. While promotional pictures made this palette look very wearable, the shades are very unusual in-person and not very flattering. It's very unfortunate because this palette could have potentially been a beautiful one, but the color scheme doesn't make any sense. 

Pink Cream - This pale cream shade with a subtle pink undertone and very fine light pink flecks of shimmer. The shimmers are very sparse and you really can't tell it's there when you apply this to the eyes. It is pretty much a matte creamy shade. 

Pink Glitter - This shade appears much pinker in the pan than it does on the eyes. On the eyes, this shade is a very pale pink with a lot of silver reflects. I would say it appears much more silver on the eyes than pink. The reflective particles in this formula are very large and chunky. 

Matte Pink - This matte pink is an unusual tone and color choice. It is a warm-toned matte medium pink, which applied on the eyes makes it look like your eyes are irritated! This pink is not a flattering pink on the eyes and can make you appear like you have allergies or potentially pink eye. This means to make this shade work, you really need to ground the look by adding in eyeliner and blending other shades into the pink to make it look intentional and not like you have puffy eyes. I guess one good thing about this shade is that it makes a great complementing blush color. 

Deep Purple - This deep dirty purple has a neutral brownish undertone and pink shimmer throughout. The shimmer doesn't really show up on the eyes and it appears more of a dirty purple shade on the eyes. I can see what they're going for but it is a very unsuccessful color. Instead, it's an muddy and indistinguishable shade of purple-ish. This is a very unusual muddy color that doesn't suit the palette or looks flattering on the eyes. This palette really needs a deep and rich color to ground the very pink matte eyeshadow but because this color is more medium-toned on the skin, it doesn't do much for the eyes. 

Swatches from left to right: Pink Cream, Pink Glitter, Matte Pink, Deep Purple Multiple layers were used to achieve this pigment

COMPARISON SWATCHES 

I actually own quite a few purple quads from Tom Ford but they really never came out with many pink palettes. The closest quads I could find in my collection are Orchid Haze (discontinued), Sous Le Sable (review here), and Virgin Orchid (review here). None of these palettes have enough pink to look similar to Insolent Rose but Insolent Rose doesn't have enough purple to look like many of the quads I own or the ones featured here. 

Insolent Rose vs. Virgin Orchid

Insolent Rose vs. Sous Le Sable

Insolent Rose vs. Orchid Haze

FORMULA 

I can't begin to tell you how horrendous this palette is! It is actually heartbreaking because this palette could be wonderful. It is notoriously hard to formulate purples and pink but this formula feels like Tom Ford didn't even try! By far the worst shade is the deep purple, which is powdery, dusty, lacks pigmentation, and doesn't adhere to the skin. This shade is so pivotal because it is the deep shade that grounds this look and helps prevent this very pink palette from making your eyes look irritated. Since the formula is dusty and the color is this strange muddy purple with terrible pigmentation, it does nothing for this palette. This shade could have been this beautiful and rich royal purple but instead, it's a color I wish didn't exist in this world. 

The matte pink in this palette is also pretty bad. Formula-wise, it does not meet the quality of the matte eyeshadows found in other Tom Ford palettes. The pigment is not as rich and while buildable, it does not blend or apply as smoothly. The pigment doesn't build to full opacity and the formula is also dusty. The color is also a very difficult shade to pull off and can make your eyes look irritated. 

The glitter shade in this palette is quite chunky and messy to work with. The glitter particles are large and clump as you try to pick them up on a brush. These larger particles fall off of the brush easily and the particles don't easily adhere to the eyes. The glitter eyeshadow clumps up during application and falls off the eyes or looks clumpy on the eyes. The chunky particles leave the eyes with an uneven and sheer glitter application. Not to mention, the color is very silvery and not as pink as it appears in the pan. 

THE LOOK 

For this look, I applied the Matte Pink in the crease of my eyes. Then, I applied the Deep Purple to the outer half of my lid and I applied the Pink Glitter to the center of my eyes. I finished the look with the Pink Cream shade in the inner corner, blending inward and upward to brighten the eyes. I honestly hated the way this looked and I had to apply lashes because my eyes just looked irritated. The eyelashes really help this look but you can see how sheer and soft the colors look on my eyes. This is after attempting to layer the shades. 

FINAL THOUGHTS 

This is by far one of the WORST eyeshadow palettes the brand has ever come out with! I was already starting to pull away from the brand because of the hit or miss quality and formulations they have released over the past few years, but this may be the straw that breaks the camel's back. It truly the most poorly thought-out and formulated palette I have come across! Not only are the shades unusual and extremely unflattering, but the shades also don't even work well together. 

A pink palette is difficult to create and formulate and it feels like Tom Ford put in no effort into either! The color concept is horrendous! I really don't see how the matte warm pink looks good on any skin tone. It really makes your eyes look like they may be infected. It doesn't help that the muddy and dusty purple tone doesn't apply nicely and doesn't help ground the pink shade. The purple shade has an awful dusty texture that doesn't adhere to the skin and has an extremely lackluster pigmentation, yet it is a crucial part of making this palette actually work! Let's not get started on the extremely chunky and clumpy glitter shade that doesn't adhere to the eyes. 

There are really no redeeming qualities of this quad! I desperately wanted to like it and make it work but this is just another disappointing release for me. I used to think that the Tom Ford eyeshadows were the one thing I'd never stop buying from the brand but this really is the last straw! The quality of this one is so horrendous and year after year, their prices keep skyrocketing! It is no longer worth collecting these palettes and I've really had it with the brand. I can't recommend this palette at all! Please save your money and time! 

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