Following on from Part I, another beautiful shade from Tom Ford which failed to win my texturally persnickity heart: Narcissist blush.
Narcissist is a highly pigmented cool-toned hot pink (oh, you know what I mean), with a tightly-packed texture and smooth frost finish. The softness and high fine shimmer content means that it's very easy to overload a brush -- even with the lightest tap of a fluffy brush, a lot of frantic dabbing into clean tissue might be needed before application to cheek -- and also that even the softest squirrel brushes tend to kick up quite a bit of powder...enough that I would end up with shimmery pink elbows after resting my arm on my vanity to finish an eyeliner flick.
As mentioned in a previous review, my skin tends to show textures and colours true, and shimmer is usually highly unforgiving on the especially dry, thin skin on my cheeks. In the swatch above, you can see the dry 'skipping' at the edge of the heavy swatch and every pore highlighted in the sheer one, even on my relatively smooth inner arm.
As further illustration, here's Narcissist swatched between Sleek Pink Ice (left, from the Pink Sprint trio) and Suqqu EX-02Mizumomo (right, deeper pan only).
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All three blushes were applied very lightly and blended out with an Illamasqua Highlighter Brush (ahem, holy grail cream blush brush, two backups are totally reasonable, shush). Sleek Pink Ice (£10 for trio) is a matte, and despite its unprepossessingly dry texture, it like all Sleek blushes is so pigmented that a tiny dab deposits even pigment without worsening the appearance of my skin, if not improving it. Suqqu Mizumomo (£38 for duo, LE), despite being a satin (with almost as much sheen in the pan as Narcissist) actively blurs and flatters any bumpy skin, even when swatched along the tricky veiny/bony bit of my wrist. Narcissist, much like the equally popular Chanel Notorious, makes visible a bazillionty bumps I didn't even know were there. Lurking.
On my cheeks, in real life....it aint pretty. Even my blush-eating camera can pick up on the bumpiness, translating it as blotchiness (and I swear I blended properly), which makes Narcissist exactly the kind of cool pink rash I get from a mild rosacea flare, for free.
Yeah, it's out.
But neatly, it's yet another colour family I'm fairly well equipped to comp-swatch ;)
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Sleek Pink Ice (from Pink Sprint trio) -- the most pigmented, and coolest of the bunch
Suqqu EX-02 Mizumomo (right pan only) -- cooler than TF, without its warmer shimmer
Tom Ford Narcissist
Becca Lychee Beach Tint -- more candied, lighter
Addiction Amazing Cheek Stick -- tonally closest to Suqqu, but it's a totally different texture, yeah? And doubles as a matte lipstick *hoards*
Tom Ford blushes retail for £45 each.
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| sunlight |
Swatch, applied with Suqqu Cheek brush (left) and sponge applicator (right)
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| as always, bare arm / natural light |
As mentioned in a previous review, my skin tends to show textures and colours true, and shimmer is usually highly unforgiving on the especially dry, thin skin on my cheeks. In the swatch above, you can see the dry 'skipping' at the edge of the heavy swatch and every pore highlighted in the sheer one, even on my relatively smooth inner arm.
As further illustration, here's Narcissist swatched between Sleek Pink Ice (left, from the Pink Sprint trio) and Suqqu EX-02Mizumomo (right, deeper pan only).
All three blushes were applied very lightly and blended out with an Illamasqua Highlighter Brush (ahem, holy grail cream blush brush, two backups are totally reasonable, shush). Sleek Pink Ice (£10 for trio) is a matte, and despite its unprepossessingly dry texture, it like all Sleek blushes is so pigmented that a tiny dab deposits even pigment without worsening the appearance of my skin, if not improving it. Suqqu Mizumomo (£38 for duo, LE), despite being a satin (with almost as much sheen in the pan as Narcissist) actively blurs and flatters any bumpy skin, even when swatched along the tricky veiny/bony bit of my wrist. Narcissist, much like the equally popular Chanel Notorious, makes visible a bazillionty bumps I didn't even know were there. Lurking.
On my cheeks, in real life....it aint pretty. Even my blush-eating camera can pick up on the bumpiness, translating it as blotchiness (and I swear I blended properly), which makes Narcissist exactly the kind of cool pink rash I get from a mild rosacea flare, for free.
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| Tom Ford Cognac Sable quad, Wet'n'Wild Cherry Bomb lipstick |
Yeah, it's out.
But neatly, it's yet another colour family I'm fairly well equipped to comp-swatch ;)
Suqqu EX-02 Mizumomo (right pan only) -- cooler than TF, without its warmer shimmer
Tom Ford Narcissist
Becca Lychee Beach Tint -- more candied, lighter
Addiction Amazing Cheek Stick -- tonally closest to Suqqu, but it's a totally different texture, yeah? And doubles as a matte lipstick *hoards*
Tom Ford blushes retail for £45 each.