Fording New Ground
Sensual color: Tom Ford gives good face with luxury beauty collection
Lara Stone is the sultry face of Tom Ford's beauty line.
Tom Ford's lip colors come in 18 shades and retail for $48.Tom Ford
The Quad Eye Shadows offer day-to-night colors.Tom Ford Beauty
Tom Ford believes makeup is best applied with a brush.Tom Ford
The Tom Ford Shade and Illuminating duo contours and brightens.Tom Ford Beauty
Tom Ford has some pretty definitive ideas about beauty, especially when it comes to his much-anticipated luxury cosmetics line.
—No cat eyes.
—Shadows should blend seamlessly, with nary a line of color distinguishable from the next.
—All makeup should be applied with a brush.
—And nails should be rounded. Period.
With the unveiling of his lush cosmetics line, Ford applies his love for the architectural details and saturated colors seen in his fashion collection to his latest venture. The packaging is sleek, matching the silver and dark walnut décor of his boutique in the Neiman Marcus cosmetics department. And from the streamlined 'TF' stamped into the top of each Brazilian muramura-butter-enriched lipstick to the near genius brow sculptor, it’s evident Ford has forgotten no details.
It’s hard not to be swept away by Ford’s vision. After all, who doesn’t want to be sensual, bold and exotic?
Sitting at the counter, you hear a chorus of what Mr. Ford thinks from each highly-trained makeup artist. There’s an emphasis on the smoky eye, daring even the most conservative women to go for glam, carrying color into the interior corner of the eye. He also believes in sensuality, another word heard often. The purifying crème cleanser is rich on the skin without leaving a heavy post-cleaning feel, but it’s the Illuminating Protective Primer that won me over, despite the hefty $70 price tag.
Ever since introducing his selection of lip colors in 2010, interest in the rest of his collection has reached fever pitch and not even the $48 per lipstick has hampered desire. In fact, designer lipsticks are fast becoming tubes of luxury, made from exotic ingredients, promising an instant boost of glamour.
Ford’s 18 lip colors range from a demure nude to a deep red and win rave reviews for intense moisturizing thanks to soja seed extract, Brazilian murumuru butter and chamomilla flower oil. Other tastemakers are heading into the arena with equal extravagance. La Prairie introduced the caviar extract-infused Cellular Lip Color for $55 and Sisley-Paris sells a hydrating, long-lasting lipstick for $55.
It’s hard not to be swept away by Ford’s vision. After all, who doesn’t want to be sensual, bold and exotic with just the pass of a white horse hair, super goat hair and synthetic fiber brush?
There’s some pressure to apply his vision to your face and thankfully, he addresses that by coordinating his quad eye shadows with a corresponding brush so there’s no room for mistake.
The Shade and Illuminating duo, I must confess, requires a bit more instruction on my part. The duo of highlighting and shading creams in two different intensities, contours and adds a bit of brightness to the face. The creams go on light and moisturizing, but like other elements of the Tom Ford product line, take some skill to apply, so it’s worth asking for a lesson at the counter.
The Tom Ford Beauty collection is made of high quality ingredients and offers intensely beautiful colors built around intelligent design and certain amount of pressure to wear it just the way Mr. Tom Ford meant it.
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