Tom Ford Eye Color Quad in Honeymoon

A number of Tom Ford's original Eye Color Quads were replaced earlier this year with some newer quads. Sad because two of my faves - Lavender Lust and Cognac Sable - were discontinued. But at the same time happy because they did add a number of gorgeous new palettes.

Of course, since these new palettes just launched a couple of months, you might want to give the counter a call before you go down because the first batch was sold out (enthusiastic fans called up to reserve stock) even before they hit the shelves.

One of those which got the most attention was Honeymoon, a burnished gold and wine palette which has the same gossamer texture as the ever-popular Nude Dip palette. 

The shades are decidedly Autumnal - gold, bronze, wine, and burgundy, like falling leaves and ambery booze. And even though it looks a little dramatic in the pan, the colors are actually pretty wearable and work nicely with the natural tones of skin. 

I would expect this quad works for all skin tones from tan to very pale, although you should take care to even out your skin tone and hide any discolorations, excess redness and dark circles, etc if you are very pale. If you have a very deep skin tone, you might get more of a warm shimmer rather than obvious color, but this palette will not ever look chalky because the pigments are so translucent.

The only criticism of the palettes with this iridescent texture is the complete lack of matte shades, so if you have a lot of fine lines around your eye area, you might want to keep the shadows to the lid area or else choose a different palette, as the pearl pigments will catch and magnify uneven texture and lines.

Below's a tutorial to recreate this simple look!

Red Smoky Party Eye (120 Palette)

Red is probably one of the least used colors when it comes to eye makeup.

There are some "red" looks floating around, but many of them are so muted or darkened that they don't look really red anymore. And the really red ones are not really that wearable or flattering.

Granted, red in itself is pretty dramatic to begin with, and this is definitely not a day look, but I don't think a good look should be restricted to Halloween either.

Done properly, I think it would do very well at a party or the club, where it's still sexy and sophisticated, but just that little bit more standout than the girl with the regular smoky eye.


1. Rim the top and bottom lashes with black shadow, and then start to thicken it dramatically at the outer corners.
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2. When you are done, it should look like this (above).
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3. Try not to freak out when you trace your socket bone from the outer corners in. Remember to follow the underside of your brow bone, so it's slightly higher than the hollow of your socket. (For a less dramatic look, leave out this line along the socket.)
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4. THEN, fill in the inner corner of your upper lids as well, leaving a rough gap around the "ball" of your eye. 

5. This is when you take the richest, truest satin red you have (you can use matte as well, or anything that is not flat-out metallic), and fill in the shape created by the black. Note that you should bring it to the inner corners as well, above the black.
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6. Then with a fluffy blending brush, smoke the red and black into each other so there are no harsh lines.


7. Line the upper lids and water line.
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8. Apply generous amounts of black mascara, and voila.
OF COURSE, if you're not feeling quite so adventurous, you can replace the red with a brown or gray. But honestly, this method of applying black at both ends of the eye and framing the socket does make the look more wearable.
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Please note that in real life, without flash (which makes the red much brighter) and the angles I used to show the color more clearly, the red is a lot deeper and not so coral. And the overall effect is that of a strong but edgy smoky eye.

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P.S. I will try to do more wearable looks in the coming week or so. It's just that I haven't had much opportunities to try out these really unconventional colors, so I went to town.