Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow Review, Photos, Swatches

Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow
Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow

Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow ($65.00 for 0.15 oz.) is a light-medium, cotton candy pink with strong, cool blue undertones and a matte finish. There is an ombre-effect of it going from light-medium pink to medium pink. ColourPop Thumper (P, $8.00) is darker, more pigmented, better quality (95% similar). MAC Bubbles, Please (P, $29.00) is lighter (95% similar). ColourPop Mochi (DC, $8.00) is more shimmery, more pigmented, better quality (95% similar). Urban Decay X-Rated (DC, $26.00) is lighter (95% similar). Bobbi Brown Nude Pink (P, $30.00) is darker, better quality (95% similar). Urban Decay Going Native (Blush) (PiP, ) is warmer (95% similar). ColourPop Floating Lights (LE, $10.00) is less shimmery (95% similar). Anastasia Babe (PiP, ) is brighter (90% similar). Too Faced Skyline (LE, ) is darker (90% similar). ColourPop Shortcake (DC, $10.00) is less shimmery, darker, warmer (90% similar). Wet 'n' Wild Hard Being the It Girl #1 (DC, $2.29) is lighter (90% similar). Fenty Beauty Bikini Martini (P, $20.00) is more shimmery, glossier (90% similar). Flower Beauty Bubbly (P, $9.99) is less shimmery, lighter, glossier (90% similar). Dior Pink (001) (P, $37.00) is lighter (90% similar). Anastasia Sugar (PiP, ) is more shimmery, lighter (90% similar). Sleek MakeUP Pixie Pink (P, $6.99) is brighter, cooler, better quality (90% similar). Tarte Dream (LE, $29.00) is warmer (90% similar). Anastasia Spoiled (LE, ) is more shimmery, lighter (90% similar). Urban Decay Native Blush (-, ) is warmer, better quality (90% similar). NARS Thrill (P, $30.00) is less shimmery, lighter, cooler (90% similar). Top 20 dupes listed, see the rest. See comparison swatches / view dupes side-by-side.

I wish I could adequately convey what an utter disappointment this product was. Long-time readers will know that I have a deep love for Tom Ford’s Cheek Colors, and this product is nothing like that; not in a single aspect, and it is one of the worst Tom Ford products I have ever tested myself. The texture was stiff, firmly packed into the pan and yielded little to no color coverage. I had to scrape off layers to be able to provide you with a semblance of color for the swatch. They might advocate using their “specially designed applicator,” but it is useless–it doesn’t improve results one bit–and gathers color on the bristles but translates almost none onto the skin. The product is difficult to blend as it doesn’t apply evenly, and there is little color to work with. It took five layers to build-up enough color to have it photograph. It was noticeably faded after seven hours of wear on cheeks. On eyes, the color had faded after five hours of wear.

Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow
Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow

Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow
Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow

Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow
Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow

Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow
Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow

Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow
Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow

Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow
Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow

Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow
Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow

Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow
Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow (SCRAPED WITH METAL SPATULA TO GET PIGMENTATION!)

Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow
Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow

Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow
Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow

Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow
Tom Ford Pink Ombre Eye & Cheek Shadow (FIVE LAYERS!)

Makeup Look
On face:
  • Guerlain Parure Gold
  • Urban Decay Naked Loose Setting Powder
On lips:
  • Kat Von D Cathedral Lipstick

132 Comments

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Mariella Avatar

What a disappointment. While I’d never wear this as an eyeshadow, it looked like it would be such a pretty blush (though at this price, not something I’d splash out on when there are so many pink blushes like this). I would have expected it to perform a heck of a lot better.

Laura Avatar

Christine, I ordered this too (kind of like more FOMO than anything else and reading how great TF$ blushes are) from the Tom Ford website. Had to have. So cute looking etc. It was so horrible, dusty and with no color payoff. I was really bummed and returned. Agree with the F sadly.

Alex Avatar

I would honestly complain to the company in any way possible. Email, phone, facebook; this should not happen with Tom Ford. Hopefully it was a factory problem or something that they can fix… or at least refund the money from this disaster.

Katherine T. Avatar

I agree you should try to return or get your money back, even if their policy says no returns. If you bought by credit card, you can call your credit card company and ask for a chargeback or credit back for unsatisfactory goods. This is a complete and shameful disgrace! Tom Ford should take a page from BITE, issue a public apology, re-formulate or re-manufacture the blush, and ship it free to all customers who were disappointed. If a little company like BITE can do it, Tom Ford can. He charges enough for products !!

Sunny Avatar

Oh thank you for the review! I have heard they are not the same with the regular blushes, but I didn’t know/expect them to be that bad! Definitely skipping. Tom, you disappointed me!

A Avatar

…wow. I didn’t think this would be that good but what a complete failure.
The all caps bits made me laugh though.
Poor you for that you having to waste your money on this, though hopefully the review will deter others from doing the same.

Evelyn Avatar

If the press sample that should be perfect is that bad, I can’t imagine the product that goes out to the stores. I was thinking of buying one of these but I went for the illuminating duo. Thankfully that is beautiful. 🙂

Mariella Avatar

It’s because they “can” – some companies are counting more and more on people buying their stuff simply because of the prestige name and the LE urgency and, really, they should be ashamed. If their products are so wonderful, they should stand behind them. It’d serve them right if they were faced with a massive boycott – that’d make them think twice about the products they offer and how they treat their customers. This is just inexcusable but it’s one of the reasons I will not order anything online – I won’t buy without trying first and that’s even in situations where I can return a product.

Nicole Avatar

It is such a coincidence that you are reviewing this today! If you haven’t tested Peach or Plum yet, I’m going to ahead and tell you not to waste your time. They are not any better. I have mine sitting ready to be returned today. I waited for as long as I could thinking perhaps I got a bad batch and I should exchange them. Last night I thought, These are $65. I shouldn’t be making excuses for them because of the name on them and boxed them up. So sad because like you I adore TF blushes. I tried every brush I own, scraped the top layer. Idk why there are no reviews on the internet except Really Ree’s introductory. She showed plum and she is fair and it shows a bit on her. I pulled out Peach Pop and Fig Pop by Clinique and they gave me the look I had HOPED to get from those two with one sweep. I knew then, I had to return them.

Nicole Avatar

My pleasure. Stay far away from these! I’m interested to see Christine’s review of Plum. It was a tad more pigmented than peach for me. Nothing like on the model in the ad and suposedly that is the one she is wearing. The wear time was so short too! I’m still in shock.

Nicole Avatar

I bought these from Nordstrom. The only time I’ll buy from TF’s site is if the item has been reviewed by Christine and absolutely unavailable anywhere else. Return policy is scary. I think I have purchased 1 thing directly. I returned both today, no questions asked. 🙂

Katherine T. Avatar

Whew! So glad you were able to return. For $ 130, you could get a Viseart palette and a Rouge G. Yeah, I’m with you. I usually avoid sites where you can’t return anything (or return in-store) unless there’s no other choice.

UF Gurl Avatar

Thanks for your thoughts Nicole. I really wish I would have known anyone’s true thoughts before forking over a nice chunk of change.l for these. I bought them all as retail therapy. I, too, looked for reviews, but without much success. I didn’t get a bad vibe from Really Ree’s blog, but did I get any true opinions. So I took the plunge, luckily buying mine from Nordstroms. I’m going to give them a shot, hopefully at the very least 1 will be great. Appreciate ya’!

Nicole Avatar

I bought them the two I got immediately upon release because a SA from TF had told me they were going to be awesome. Really tends to stay neutral I’ve noticed when she doesn’t like it. One reason why I prefer Christine’s honesty.I wrote the first customer review on Nordstrom’s site. It was driving me nuts that people were not speaking up!

Katherine T. Avatar

My jaws dropped when I saw the F on a Tom Ford product. Wow, stunned. I’m wondering if there’s a QC issue as I see other swatches online, and some look very sheer while others look fine. But for $65, there shouldn’t be any issues. And even if this blush performed great, I don’t see anything special about this color, as it’s been done a thousand times before. Just save your money and get the $8 Colour Pop dupes

xamyx Avatar

I find the $65 price tag offensive enough for a well-performing product (again, just a personal opinion, given talc is listed as the first ingredient), but to be this bad…? Coming from someone who prefers blushes that have to be “built up” in layers, no matter the shade, I draw the line at scraping with a spatula!

Nancy T Avatar

Oh my goodness, this is BEYOND bad!!! 5. FIVE layers. How this one got past QC is utterly beyond me, and they ought to be ashamed of themselves! When we makeup lover’s buy HE/ Luxury items, they need to do 1000% better than try to sell us this crap!

TheOtherHelen Avatar

I had exactly the same experience with this and the peach one. Almost zero color payoff. I tried everything. The cute little brush it came with,TF cheek brush, goat hair, synthetic, coarse, dense…too much work to get product to transfer from brush to skin. Like you, I ended up scraping off a layer with a paper towel. That shouldn’t even be necessary for $65.00. I’m so disappointed. I absolutely hate returning makeup but these are such dismal failures especially at this price point. I can appreciate that they intended for this to be sheer. I love sheer blush. But I feel like something went very wrong with this formula.

Claire L Avatar

Maybe it hasn’t actually been tested before being released?! Otherwise why release such a poorly executed product? The idea and look is gorgeous but why bother if you can barely use it?! And for a high price point too.

Celia Avatar

It is never okay when a luxury brand puts on an F. I mean, no one should be putting out Fs when so many great As exist across the pricing spectrum but this is ridiculous. They should not have put this out, especially as a multi-product, when it can’t even perform one of its supposed dual-functions. Very icky, TF. And even with your five, scraped off, studiously applied layers I would completely believe you if you said, “I’m not wearing anything on my cheeks.” At any price point that’s absurd, but at 65 it’s an insult to the customer.

Celia Avatar

So odd. The usual blush formula is so great and plenty of the shadows are lovely. And loads of options for dual eye/cheek use exist all over the pricing spectrum so it’s just totally unacceptable. Sorry you had to dig through it.

xamyx Avatar

Estee Lauder released a similar product a few years ago, and from what I could tell, they were actually pretty good blushes. Being that EL is also the parent company, and because it has been done, these really should be spectacular!

Kate Avatar

I just swatched these in store and very disappointing. The SA managed to get some colour payoff on my lids with the Plum Ombre (best of a bad lot) and the Peach also showed up but very underwhelmed by all of them. At this price point it’s a disgrace, Tom Ford should be ashamed to put out such a poor performing product. However, I am happy to save my wonga!

Eileen Avatar

I adore Tom Ford’s quads and his cream eyeshadows. I’m crazy about his blushers. But these new eye/cheek products? Ugh! I swatched them at the counter and just shook my head. Even the SA had a hard time being enthusiastic about them. They look pretty, but didn’t even begin to meet my expectations. Oh well, just left me with more money to spend on other products 🙂

Sonia Avatar

wow! This is why I blindly trust your reviews. Deep respect for you Christine. I also admire companies that continue to provide you with samples to review in spite of not getting favorable reviews from you.

Erica Avatar

Christine, do you realize how awesome you are? No, really. I’m not interested in this product or the color, but among other reasons, I read your reviews to get an understanding of the product, it’s purpose and how it appears on the ( your) skin. I still perform my own personal product “evaluation” but I welcome your opinions on a product. You could easily succumb to social media pressure and give a product a great review due to the company’s status/prestige or the product’s popularity with bloggers, YT, IG and the like. Yet you hold your own and deal (and read ) unsolicited, withering remarks sometimes. I just want you to know I appreciate and value you and the Temptalia crew.

Now back to the business at hand – I love Tom Ford (I also think he’s gorgeous) but he should be ashamed of himself for putting his name on such a lackluster product. I also liked how you noted Colourpop’s dupe is a better product re: quality (lol).

Christine Avatar

I get really worked up when I come across a higher priced product that performs utterly dismally. It’s one thing if we’re talking a “sheer” lipstick that turns opaque, but when a product barely functions in any capacity as it should (e.g. blush or eyeshadow), I get livid, and because I have been so impressed by TF’s blushes, personally disappointed in these. It’s even more disappointing given that the TF line, as a whole, is consistently good with few duds!

Thank you, Erica! 🙂

Jan K Avatar

I ordered the pink as a gift and the bronze. Both were terrific disappointments. Both were sent back. As much as I love Tom Ford, what was he thinking? Can we all spell junk?

J Avatar

I pre-ordered the highlighter duo from the fall collection but held off on this product because I thought they looked too light to show up on my NC 30 skin. When I finally swatched them, I was so glad I didn’t pre-order any of them. They are so weakly pigmented, sheer and light I don’t know who would get really good use out of them. You could get the same results (maybe even better) from drugstore blushes. It baffles my mind how Tom Ford can release something so sub par.

Kaye Avatar

I’m in complete agreement. I love most everything Tom Ford puts out. Even if not good colors for me, I can still appreciate the high quality gorgeousness of the item. Seeing the previews in print this seemed like a really useless, nothing product. When I finally saw them on the counter they weren’t even interesting enough to bother swatching. This was a total miss. Does he think he’s now got is so “hooked” we’ll by ANYTHING he/they pit out? I really hope this is an aberration and not a sign of not respecting his customers.

Gita Avatar

Thank for your great review and for saving me a lot of $$$ I was very interested in the peach shade, but I swatched it at Neiman Marcus and it was exactly as you described…even the TF specialist told me that it wouldn’t show up on me an to not buy it… I guess he knew it would be going back!

Trish Avatar

Eek! I had plans to gift this to a friend for her BD, but I was hoping you’d review more from the new collection before I ordered. Shame on TF for releasing something like this! My motto: I don’t buy until I read Christine’s review! Trust you 110%.

koolchicken Avatar

Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like there’s just something about ombre blushes. They just never seem to do well. I know MAC has come out with them in the past and they got only so-so ratings on here. There’s one I love (goes from pink to purple) and I think that got a C-. I almost wonder if it’s just not possible to make an ombre powdered product that could get a decent rating. To get that gradation maybe it has to be a thicker product going into the mold and once it’s sets it’s just like a rock?

Christine Avatar

I think it is more for design than anything else. The ombre here is really subtle – some are stronger and the pan is larger, so you can get a lighter or darker look by concentrating your brush in one section – I don’t think that works well here though.

Kitty Avatar

Sad. Even sadder is that there are people who are such fans of Tom Ford, that they will overlook even shoddy products like this one. They’ll likely be so desperate that they’ll even criticize your review than to admit that they are so easily fooled by the “classiness” of the Tom Ford name. I appreciate your honesty and that you thoroughly test brands like Tom Ford.

Liz Avatar

I tried the peach in store, and I loved the silky texture. I’d say it reminded me some of Illamasqua blushes. But it is a faint wash of color that’s supposed to go with that monochromatic look for the season, deeper lip color. I see what you mean as it surely isn’t pigmented. I don’t know if I’d go that low in rating, but it’s not their finest hour. The peach or plum to me are the best of this group and the pink the weakest link?

Genevieve Avatar

I think it can be a big mistake for brand to put out a product that is for both eyes and cheeks as the formulas would be quite different. It goes to show you that HE brands can deliver duds just like any other drugstore brand. A major disappointment. Besides this product is not an autumn colour at all.

Tatiana Avatar

Oh crum! Since there isn’t a Tom Ford counter nearby I ordered one of these in the Bronze Ombre from NM. Sigh. Here’s hoping the Bronze has a better texture.

Ginny Avatar

Aw I feel bad for you Christine, I can feel your disappointment. I love this kind of color as an eye shadow. I use it to blend out a dark gray smokey eye. If this had been like the regular blush formula it would have been awesome.

UF Gurl Avatar

Thank you for your review of these Christine. I’m so disappointed. I recently bought Love Lust, in addition to all of four of these. I was so excited because as a (waning) MAC fan, we all love an Ombre blush (original Ripe Peach anyone?).

Things have been less than ideal with life so my reason for splurging is the same reason I’ve yet to try these. I’ll be trying these on in the next couple days, but I’m not excited, I’m bummed! It looks good on you, but for $65 one shouldn’t have to work that hard to get these to work!

Jen Avatar

Thanks for the review, Christine! Wow…did not expect a TF product to ever perform so poorly. Thank goodness I didn’t get any of them. I was about to pre-order the Plum Ombre shade from Holt Renfrew (in Toronto) but thankfully I had a feeling from looking at early preview swatches that I wouldn’t appreciate the super light barely existent pigmentation of these eye and cheek ombre shades. Instead I ended up picking up two new permanent shades of TF lipsticks and the Titanium Smoke palette – two products with a much better track record.

Dani Avatar

This must be the most expensive product from TF beauty line. 4.5g for $65?! His private blend perfume is only around $220 for 50ml. (1 g = 1 ml). Most expensive and worst performing. What happened?! I can’t believe this. So disappointed to see such a horrible thing coming from my favorite designer. I feel sad, but I would feel sadder if I didn’t wait until your review and bought these! Dodged a major bullet!

cncx Avatar

I am glad you added the bit in the caption about five layers, because when i looked at the picture of it on your face, i was like “wow bummer it was such a pain to get the swatch but wow it looks pretty on”….then i read it was five layers. Too much work!

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