One Week, One Palette: Tom Ford Nude Dip

For the seventeenth week of my one week, one palette challenge, I decided to put a halt on the project. I had grown a little tired of using just one palette for an entire week and ignoring everything else in my collection. But what most surprised me was that I returned to a quad four times in the week where I was letting myself play with anything I wanted. And the quad was Tom Ford's Nude Dip. 

Clockwise: 1, 2, 3, and 4. 

This is the third Tom Ford quad I have purchased and the only one still left in my collection. I've heard many people criticize this quad for being way too much money for what you get, but I honestly feel that's true with any Tom Ford quad. Tom Ford shimmers have such a beautiful shine to them that I don't see in other shadows, so my personal thought is that the brand's best shadows are the simpler ones. 

Since the quad is all shimmer shadows, I needed to pull in some matte colors. I used Pur Soul Mattes:

MAC C'Est Chic:

And Maybelline Color Tattoo in Creamy Beige:

Photo: Musing of a Muse

Below are three looks I did last week.

Look 1:

4 on the lid, MAC Choc-ful blended into the crease, 3 padded onto the outer corner, 1 on the inner corner, and MAC Drawing a Blanc on the brow bone. 3 on the lower lash line. 

Look 2:

2 on the lid, Pur Better Half blended into the crease, Pur Alter Ego padded onto the outer corner, 1 on the inner corner, and Pur Sweetheart on the brow bone. Pur Alter Ego on the lower lash line. 

Look 3:

Maybelline Creamy Beige as a base on the lid, 1 and 4 blended together over Creamy Beige, MAC Choc-ful blended into the crease, 3 on the outer corner, 1 on the inner corner, and MAC Drawing a Blanc on the brow bone. 3 on the lower lash line. 

I really enjoyed using this quad and am glad that I have it. I find it curious that some people have criticized Nude Dip specifically over other Tom Ford quads. I think the current makeup culture is to have insane pigmentation, especially delivered through a finger swatch, and therefore shadows that are a little more subdued are considered poor quality. I think there is absolutely a difference between poor pigmentation and a soft, subtle shadow. What I loved most about wearing these shadows all week was that I never felt like I overdid it for work while also not feeling like I compromised on wearing something that I wanted. 

My favorite look was look 2 because I really love the pink/rosy shade, but I truly loved each look I did with this quad. I wasn't expecting to do a one week, one palette this week, and certainly not with this quad, but as soon as I used it, I wanted to keep using it throughout the week. 

All of the shades are truly beautiful, and I think they complement each other incredibly well. I used to own Tom Ford Golden Mink and really disliked it. There were two glitter topper shades that felt entirely wasteful and unnecessary, and if I didn't want to top my look with glitter, there really wasn't much of a point in wearing them. I also owned Cocoa Mirage, and while I didn't dislike it, I felt it was far too unspecial to warrant its huge price tag. The mattes were pretty, of course, but not prettier than the shadows in my Kat Von D Shade and Light Eye or Viseart palettes. But I do think there is a little something special about Nude Dip that I didn't see in the other two eye quads. 

Now, I don't think there is any need to rush out and buy this quad if you're interested in these tones. I think there are likely plenty of alternatives from other brands. For me, however, the specialness of these shadows is in the amount of shine they give without compromising on pigment or quality. I think they are really lovely shadows, and I'm happy that I have them. 

To end this post, I have a few thoughts on my one week, one palette project. It has been an incredibly fun project and I have learned a lot about myself. The biggest thing that I learned is that I LOVE color! And that's not anything I ever would have thought before starting this project. And because of that, I would buy the same palette with gold and bronze and copper shadows over and over and over again. And now, those shadows kind of bore me for the most part. But I would have never known that about myself had I not pushed to use every color in the Juvia's Place Nubian 2 palette very early in this project. Because of that, I now have a lot more color in my life. 

Another thing I learned is that I have a TON of eyeshadow palettes. As I've said many times, I routinely go through my entire collection and declutter products that I'm lukewarm about, haven't used in a while, or just am not crazy about. And right now, I really love everything in my collection. I don't necessarily love every shadow in every palette, but I am not a person who really wants to depot all of my shadows from various palettes and make one or two monster ones with the best shades from each. So, while I have really loved using my palettes and getting to know them so well, I simply have too many to do a realistic one week, one palette rotation on an ongoing basis. It has taken me four months just to get to the point where I can use my singles, and I didn't even use every palette in my collection! 

With that said, I think one week, one palette is a really great project for those who don't have a crazy number of palettes. It really helps you get to know your palettes, be creative, and discover new things that you didn't know about yourself and your preferences. Maybe you even find out that you don't love that palette as much as you thought you did. Or maybe you find out that even though you don't have the name or exact color configuration of a new palette, you already have all of the shadows inside it and you realize you don't need to buy anything new because you already have exactly what you love and need. 

One Week, One Palette: Morphe 35OS

For the sixteenth week of my one week, one palette project, I decided to use my Frankenstein's monster Morphe 35OS palette. So, this is actually a combination of the Morphe 35OS, one Make Up For Ever shadow, and select shadows from the Zoeva Cocoa Blend palette. 

The 35OS palette originally looked like this:

And, frankly, that is just too much damn shadow for one palette. Not only is it ridiculous in terms of size, but there are so many shadows that are repetitive in shade and the quality is not equal across the board. 

I've shared my Morphe story before, but essentially, I bought the 35T palette and wasn't as disappointed in the quality as I thought I would be. I had only seen super sponsored and affiliate link–filled reviews of these palettes that promised quality that was out of this world. And obviously I knew that was a bunch of crap (and I still largely think that), but when I swatched the palette in-store (there is a retailer in NYC that sells Morphe), I was impressed with the shimmer shadows. The mattes, however, were complete garbage. I ended up throwing most of the 35T palette in the trash (though I did save some of the shadows), and swore I would never buy Morphe again. 

But then I found out that they took the 35O palette and made an entire shimmer version of it. Since I actually quite liked a lot of the Morphe shimmer shadows, I decided to buy the 35OS. But, as I found with the 35T, only about half of the palette was actually good. So I decided to take all the good shades and combine them with depotted shades from my Zoeva Cocoa Blend palette. 

Top, from left: 1 (Zoeva), 2 (Make Up For Ever Pink Ivory), 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7

Second: 8 (Zoeva), 9, 10, 11 (Zoeva) 12, 13, and 14 (Zoeva)

Third: 15 (Zoeva), 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 (Zoeva)

Bottom: 22 (Zoeva), 23, 24, 25, 26, and 27

I did not use every shadow in this palette last week as there were just too many. But I did use a good amount of them. 

Below are six look I did last week. 

Look 1:

9 on the lid, 8 blended into the crease, 19 padded onto the outer corner, 2 on the inner corner, and 1 on the brow bone. 19 on the lower lash line. 

Look 2:

16 on the lid, 14 blended into the crease, 8 blended above the crease, 17 and 23 padded onto the outer corner, 3 on the inner corner, and 1 on the brow bone. 17 on the lower lash line. 

Look 3:

4 on the inner and middle lid, 6 on the outer lid, 8 blended into the crease, 2 on the inner corner, and 1 on the brow bone. 14 on the lower lash line. 

Look 4:

7 on the lid, 6 blended into the crease, 2 on the inner corner, and 1 on the brow bone. 21 on the lower lash line. 

Look 5:

13 on the lid, 8 blended into the crease, 20 padded onto the outer corner, 2 on the inner corner, and 1 on the brow bone. 20 on the lower lash line. 

Look 6:

17 on the lid, 7 blended into the crease, 25 padded onto the outer corner, 3 on the inner corner, and 1 on the brow bone. 25 on the lower lash line. 

So, I actually really enjoyed this this palette last week in terms of pigmentation and performance, but I'm not really in an orange shadow mood at the moment, and I found myself wanting to use some of my other shadows. I'll get to that in a moment. 

As I mentioned above, I do really enjoy some of the Morphe shimmer shadows. The best are the foiled finishes, and I actually don't think I kept any shadows that didn't have that finish. I felt these shadows performed just as nicely as my Makeup Geek foiled shadows or even my Make Up For Ever artist shadows. It should be noted, however, that the Makeup Geek shadows have better ingredients.

Looks 4 and 5 were my favorite of the week, but I really enjoyed all the looks. The pictures of look 1 don't quite do it justice. It was a gold and bronze look that was really pretty. But as you can tell, even though I used different shadows, several of my looks came out looking very similar. And that is a huge negative about Morphe palettes. They boast that they have 35 shadows, but they are not 35 unique shadows. I selected the best shadows from the Morphe palette and made sure that none were completely identical, but it is pretty obvious that there are several shadows in my palette that look the same. 

Since there are no matte shades in the palette, I figured I would pair this palette with the Kat Von D Shade and Light Eye, but when I decided to depot my Zoeva Cocoa Blend palette and put the shadows I decided to keep in this palette, I realized that I really had a perfect warm, orange-toned neutral palette. I've already written about the Zoeva palette, so I won't go into it again here, but I can say that the mattes certainly made my looks very easy to blend. Even so, for a few looks last week I put an orange shimmer in my crease, and I really loved the way the look turned out. 

I see people often asking if Morphe is worth it, and to that my response is: it depends. Do I think Morphe lives up to the hype reviewers who are affiliated with them give? Hell no. Do I think they are the biggest crap on the market? Definitely not. I think the palettes are filled with hit and miss shades, and I think there are usually (in all but the shimmer palettes) more misses than hits. If you are okay with the price knowing that you might trash some of the shadows like I did, then they may be worth a try. If you are looking to have a complete, wonderful, and high-quality palette, I would look elsewhere. 

I've mentioned for the past few weeks that I've been getting a little fatigued with this project. It's not that I don't love it—I do. It's just that my palette collection is so huge that I can't even return to palettes I loved months ago. I almost made it to the end of my collection—with one notable exception. I still haven't used my two Ciate London palettes for a solid week, but I travel with those palettes so frequently that I use them all the time. I even took one of them to Washington, DC, last weekend for the Women's March. But the one palette I haven't done—that is incredible—is the Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts palette. 

The reason I won't be doing that palette right away, and also why I am taking a bit of a break from this series, is because I wouldn't be able to wear that palette to work. Several of the looks I did with the 35OS palette were worn on the weekend since the eyeshadow would be too dramatic for my workplace. Today, one of my colleagues actually commented on my makeup and said she was so impressed that I had different "complex" eyeshadow on every day. And that has been from me toning it way down. The Queen of Hearts palette is so beautiful that it deceivers to be worn as dramatic as possible, and that's just not realistic for my life right now for a solid week. 

So, I'm just going to take a bit of a break from this series and enjoy my eyeshadow. But don't worry, some version of it will be back soon. 

One Week, One Palette: Tarte Tartelette in Bloom

For the fifteenth week of my one week, one palette project, I decided to use the Tarte Tartelette in Bloom palette. For the longest time (and maybe even now) this was the palette I recommended to people when they asked for "one palette to rule them all." While others gave recommendations of the Naked palette or the Chocolate Bar or even Modern Renaissance now (which I definitely do not think is a great palette for the casual makeup wearer), I've said Tartelette in Bloom. 

I think in a lot of ways this palette is perfectly curated. I love that it is primarily matte shades and the three shimmers it does have (unlike Modern Renaissance) are perfect shimmers. There's a classic champagne, taupe, and copper shimmer. They're perfect. I love that there's a cool row, a neutral row, and a warm/rosy row. While certainly far from perfect in terms of being wearable for all skin tones, I think different parts of the palette can be worn by most skin tones. There will never be a neutral palette that just looks amazing on all skin tones, but I think Tartelette in Bloom comes close for a basic palette. 

Top, from left: Charmer, Jetsetter, Rocker, and Smokeshow

Middle: Flower Child, Smarty Pants, Firecracker, and Activist

Bottom: Funny Girl, Sweetheart, Rebel, and Leader

I used every shadow in the palette and only occasionally brought in Make Up For Ever Pearl. 

Below are five looks I did last week. 

Look 1:

Firecracker on the lid, Sweetheart and Rebel blended into the crease, Leader padded onto the outer corner, Funny Girl on the inner corner, and Charmer on the brow bone. Leader on the lower lash line. 

Look 2:

Funny Girl on the lid, Sweetheart blended into the crease, Rebel padded onto the outer corner, Make Up For Ever Pearl on the inner corner, and Charmer on the brow bone. Rebel on the lower lash line. 

Look 3:

Rocker on the lid, Jetsetter blended into the crease, Flower Child blended above the crease, Smokeshow padded onto the outer corner, and Charmer on the brow bone. Jetsetter on the lower lash line. 

Look 4:

Firecracker on the lid, Smarty Pants blended into the crease, Flower Child blended above the crease, Activist padded onto the outer corner, Funny Girl on the inner corner, and Charmer on the brow bone. Rebel and Leader on the lower lash line. 

Look 5:

Rocker on the lid, Sweetheart and Rebel blended into the crease, Leader padded onto the outer corner, Make Up For Ever Pearl on the inner corner, and Charmer on the brow bone. Leader on the lower lash line. 

It might be considered pathetic, but this is probably the palette in my collection that shows the most use. When I first bought it, I actually ignored everything else in my collection for a solid chunk of time. And even then, I only really did one look, which was the one on day 1. Firecracker is one of my favorite shades of all time, and I really contribute falling for rose tones in the crease to my use on this palette. 

With that said, I now have other rosy shades that I prefer for the crease, and I found myself wanting to grab for those throughout the week instead of using the tones in this palette. Furthermore, on camera, the rose shades don't even look rose. They look like a warm brown, which is a little disappointing. 

I  had a fine time using this palette all week. I enjoyed the looks starring Firecracker more than any others, but that's to be expected since it's one of my favorite shades. I also felt like my makeup was very work-appropriate all week, which was nice considering that I used the palette to its full potential. I didn't do six looks this week like I've done in the past simply because I felt like the looks were already more of the same, and I wanted to have a "free" day in my week to wear whatever eyeshadow I wanted. 

Since I had never really used the palette outside of the copper/rosy combination, I decided it could be fun to do a look each day that used the colors the way Tarte/the palette suggests. Meaning, I put the shimmer color on the lid and then created a look using all the shadows in its row. The top row was look 3; the middle row was look 4; and the bottom row was look 2. It's probably not a surprise that my favorite look when using this method was look 2, since it incorporated the rosy tones. For the other two looks, I felt they were fine and nothing was wrong with them, but they were a little boring for my taste. It's probably also not surprising that I really enjoyed look 5 as well, combining the cool-toned taupe shade with the warm-toned rosy shades. 

I'll be honest in that I seriously considered decluttering this palette last week, and though I ultimately decided to keep the palette, it would not surprise me if I decided to declutter it at a later date. The biggest reason I had for decluttering it was that the majority of shadows in the palette are not unique whatsoever. They are incredibly basic, and there is not a ton of difference between a few of the shades. Rows one and two felt essentially interchangeable to me, and I don't find that to be valuable. 

The reason I decided to keep it, however, is that the palette is really a great neutral workhorse. I didn't have to think about creating a look on three of the five days, and while I felt the looks were a little simple, they were pretty and appropriate for work. That's a valuable trait for many people. I also kept it because Firecracker is one of my favorite shadows and I can't buy it as a single. I also love the rosy shades, and even though I have ones I like better in my collection, I will still use the ones in this palette. And finally, it makes an incredible travel palette. I don't have one designated travel palette, but I most often use my Ciate London Pretty palette with In Bloom as a close second. 

Overall, I do think this is a workhorse palette, and I mainly stand by my recommendation as an easy go-to palette for makeup novices or people who only want one solid neutral palette. If you are like me and have an obscene number of palettes, however, I would say this one is probably easy to skip. I love having the powerhouse neutrals all in one place, but that is just a convenience more than anything. I'm also growing increasingly unimpressed (to say the least) with Tarte's marketing tactics, so I hesitate to fully recommend the brand. With that said, of Tarte's eyeshadow palette offerings, this is my favorite.