Tom Ford Cognac Sable: The Non-Neutral Brown Palette
Sometime ago, I came to the conclusion that brown and warm colors just don’t look good on my eyes. Shocking revelation considering how browns are seen as “neutrals” and a staple in so many people’s wardrobe. But sadly, I found overly warm shades, and the murk in browns tend to make my hooded lids look even heavier, and age me by about 10 years if not more. That was before I found Cognac Sable, with which I fell irrevocably in love.
For all intents and purposes, Cognac Sable is a “brown” palette… but “neutral” it most definitely is not.
The shades in clockwise direction from top left are:
- Light shimmery champagne beige
- Sheer medium copper with gold and light orange glitters
- Dark plumy brown with some shimmers
- Medium chestnut brown with metallic finish
And here they are swatched correspondingly from left to right:
Even though these colors tend towards warm, the shimmers / glitters help to brighten things up substantially, and in combination with the plumy-brown shade, almost feels cool against my NC20 skin tone.
On my eye, applied lightly for a day-appropriate look, Cognac Sable is still a force to reckon with.
I absolutely adore the medium chestnut brown for a gentle smokey edge, further deepened with a plum-brown wing, and just a dab of the copper glitter in the middle. Aahh… this brings ordinarily drab brown to a whole different dimension!
Whilst studying the magic of Cognac Sable, I noticed a similar thread in Charlotte Tilbury’s Dolce Vita palette (reviewed here) which is also a fave.
Between the 2, Cognac Sable leans cooler whilst Dolce Vita is warmer. The light shimmery beige and copper glitter shades are very similar; but the darker defining shades are very difference – Dolce Vita goes the full-blown brown way with russet brown and dark bronze.
Cognac Sable is my favorite Tom Ford Eye Color Quad to date, and the classy shimmers / glitters bring a pop to my aging lids. It is a brown palette that is much more interesting and flattering than traditional neutrals. If you don’t already own this, I would strongly recommend that you check it out.
xoxo
Cognac Sable is my all time favorite quad. Nothing has ever eclipsed it. I was at a department store beauty event when one of the celebrity MA’s (not a Tom Ford artist) came up to me and said, “You’re wearing Cognac Sable, aren’t you? You should never be without it.” And, I agree :-). It is so versatile and the quality of the shadows is exceptional-smooth, easy to blend, color true, and long-lasting-and you get a lot of product for the price so it is relly very cost effective. I love this quad!
LOL! You must have Cognac Sable on in power style ma’am!! I have a terrible problem of not being very faithful to my eyeshadow palettes, but Cognac Sable will always have a place in my vanity! I love it to bits!
This looks so beautiful.
Thank you, Nikki!
Dear Linda thank you so much for the comparison swatched between CT and TF, I have cognac sable too and was thinking of getting dolce vita or golden goddess. Since DV looks quite similar to CS I’ll probably get GG instead. Btw I love your eye look, it looks very good.
Dear Jacqueline, thank you for your sweetness…it never ceases to touch me! On the CT palettes, get ’em all!!! I have both DV and Cognac Sable, and i dont think they are all that similar… get DV too!!! I love it so much!