Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate

I had heard many good things about the Tom Ford makeup line, but had yet to try it and as such could only pine over others pictures. Finally, I made my way to a Tom Ford counter and found that, in my opinion, it was quite over-hyped. That said, there were many products that were worth the exorbitant price tag. The Shade and Illuminate was one of them, if only because it was truly a unique product.

Tom Ford says that the "first step to beauty is understanding the architecture of your face and bringing balance and symmetry to your features. This duet of highlighting and shading creams is designed to make sculpting and contouring the face remarkably simple. The super-sheer, light shade can be used to draw light onto the skin to brighten and lift the face. The dark side defines and contours bones while staying invisible to the naked eye."

Originally, I was skeptical about this product as the dark color is really quite intimidating (I bought the intensity one by the way, number two is even darker), but it actually blends in remarkably well and looks quite good on. I quickly replaced my regular, powder bronzer with this. It really does make contouring the face quick, yet effective. Theres a brush that you can buy separately, but considering you only used the brush to apply and had to use a cream foundation brush to blend anyway, I decided to forgo this brush in favor of using my fingers to apply, which works just as well.

You use the dark side to sculpt out your cheeks (right on the underside of the cheek bone), a bit on the forehead and chin, and then blend it out. You would place the highlighter side where you regularly place your highlighter.

The product and case both feel incredibly luxe. The case is brown with gold lining (typical of the line) and has quite a bit of heft to it. It also comes in a brown protective pouch.

I love this product. It's uniqueness makes it well worth the spend. Do I recommend the whole line? Absolutely not (especially the eyeshadows, they are quite powdery and crease really fast), but this product in particular is a plus. I also find their brush line to be quite incredible. I will be reviewing one tomorrow as a matter of fact!

This product can be found at  Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue or any of these retailers online.