Face, Reviews

Review: Tom Ford Cheek Color in Flush & Love Lust

[cf-shortcode plugin=”acf” field=”affiliate_link”]

Tom Ford Blush Love Lust & Flushed

Soooo, I am the queen of procrastination (which should come as a surprise to no one who knows me). I’ve had both of these blushes for over a year, and I’m just now reviewing them :-/ Luckily they’re both permanent shades, so I have that going for me. I’ve never quite worked up the nerve to buy a Tom Ford blush at full price before because it’s so easy to find similar colors. But – I received Love Lust as a gift from a friend, and got Flush at an outlet store (Cosmetics Company Outlet, I think?) for something like 30% off. That soothes my conscience a little bit, at least. Are they worth the designer price tag?

Packaging

Tom Ford Blush Love Lust & Flushed

Tom Ford Blush Love Lust & Flushed

This is packaging done right. It’s simple yet distinctive, and doesn’t try to do more than it needs to. Notice the lack of space to store a mini applicator. That’s because it doesn’t come with one, because f’real if you’re buying this stuff you already own brushes. I’m glad this entirely unnecessary step was skipped. Like the TF eyeshadow quads, the lids of the blushes use a magnetic closure that’s in no danger of popping open randomly. The mirror is an ok size if you just really really need one, but not terribly useful other than for quick touchups. Clearly we’re limited by the size of the actual compact though, and I’ll take a smaller compact over a larger mirror every single time.

Color

 

Tom Ford Blush Love Lust & Flushed

Tom Ford Blush Love Lust & Flushed Comparison Swatches

Tom Ford Blush Love Lust & Flushed Comparison Swatches

I love these colors because even if they look very intense in the pan, they end up looking pretty natural on the cheeks. Flush (left in the top picture) is a bright, warm, not-quite-coral pink and Love Lust (right) is somewhere between orange sherbet and pumpkin. If they had pumpkin sherbet, I think it would be this color. Ok, I had to stop and google that – it turns out there are lots of recipes out there for it, and I wasn’t too far off the mark.

I wouldn’t say either of the shades is un-dupeable (really tho, is anything?) but they’re fairly unique in my own personal blush stash. From left to right, the comparison swatches are:

  • Chanel Creme Blush in Affinite
  • Tom Ford Flush
  • Tom Ford Love Lust
  • NARS Deep Throat

Chanel Affinite is a bit darker and more orange-toned than Flush. Love Lust is definitely the most orangey shade I own, apparently – I didn’t find anything truly close to it, so instead you get a fairly common blush (NARS Deep Throat) just for reference.

Texture, application & wear

Tom Ford Blush Love Lust

Tom Ford Blush Flushed

(Top: Love Lust; Bottom: Flush)

I’ll come right out and say it – this is not quite what I expected from Tom Ford. The eyeshadow quads had me spoiled, I guess. These aren’t bad, by any means, but come on, you’re paying a premium and it shouldn’t be just for the name.

The good –

  • Great pigmentation
  • Blends easily
  • Due to the texture (see below) it’s buildable.

The bad –

  • The hard texture can make it difficult to pick up with soft brushes, but with stiffer brushes there’s a risk of over-doing it.
  • They have a sheen (no real shimmer particles that I noticed) that’s a little bit unforgiving on uneven skin texture.
  • After 7 hours or so it starts to look a bit waxy.

In Short: I like both, but they’re definitely not on my most-used list.

Tom Ford Cheek Color ($57) is available at nordstrom.com and neimanmarcus.com

4 Comments

  1. Mirifique Beauty

    March 15, 2015 at 4:56 pm

    I keep meaning to try out TF products but i can’t get my head around the prices and tbh, i really love my Chanel blushers. I do want to try the Silvered Topaz Eyeshadow quad out by him though. I did go into store once and swatch some of the lipsticks and i couldn’t see any difference in quality or pigmentation to my Chanel and Dior ones. I won’t pay £37 out for a lipstick. These blushers do look very nice though.

    1. Nikki

      March 15, 2015 at 5:51 pm

      IMO the eyeshadow quads are the standout of their color products. The lipsticks and blushes are very good, but you can find other things just as good at a lower price point.

  2. Rachel

    March 29, 2015 at 4:18 pm

    Great and honest review. Sometimes these high end products don’t live up to the hype or the price tag. Lovely blog btw, have been following a while.
    Rachel x

  3. Joyce (bronzerbunny)

    April 5, 2015 at 2:25 am

    hmmm good to know that they’re not total must haves. i was just looking at love lust at the counter the other day, haha! I like that sort of shade, and I think I have cream blushes that may be similar (LM canyon, chanel destiny?)

Leave a Reply to Mirifique Beauty Cancel

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.