When the Tom Ford Fall 2013 collection was available, the only things I really had my eyes on were the shadow palettes. But one of the SA's convinced me to try the eye primer, saying that he doesn't usually like eye primers but loves this one. Ok, ok...so he got me!

**All items purchased by me. Affiliate links included.**

Tom Ford Eye Primer Duo, $45/.31oz (.31oz is cream base + powder topper) @ Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom

The packaging is beautiful of course, though I do wish it had some sort of pouch to protect the rather large upper lid/powder compartment from scratches. For traveling I also find this a bit bulky...it would have been nice to see some sort of side by side contraption rather than the products being stacked. Minor things though, because this is still lovely to look at!!

The lower container houses the cream portion of the duo. It is flesh colored and pretty light at that...I'm not sure how it would turn out on darker skin tones? Anyone out there have any experience or can weigh in on this? It's slightly more silicone-y in feel and does even out my lid color somewhat. You don't need much.

The upper compartment houses the powder portion of the duo and is embossed with the TF beauty logo. I think this is supposed to be translucent but I find it is oh-so-slightly whitening...but only whitening enough to counteract the faint bit of color the cream has...the net effect of the cream + powder is that it doesn't look like I have anything on at all. Did that make sense or was I completely rambling?!!

So how did this stack up? I compared it to my favorite NARS eyeshadow base. For a few days I wore NARS on one eye and TF on the other. In terms of performance I couldn't tell a difference between the two. They both performed equally well, and I already love NARS!!

What makes TF different is in the application. Applying eye product over the TF was so so smooth, even over my one lid that's kind of bumpy!!! Every once in awhile NARS catches somewhat and isn't as smooth to apply over as the TF. Also, sometimes I feel NARS changes the color of my shadow just a tad...not a huge difference to where anyone else would notice, but I do. TF doesn't do that.

For the first couple of weeks, I was really excited about the TF Eye Primer Duo and thought I had found the perfect companion to my eye collection. As time wore on, I started getting annoyed at the 2-step process...which may not seem like a big deal, but when you are running late and very short on time (or just lazy like I often am) then 2 steps is 1 step too many!!! AND I ran into another problem in this last week. A couple of times I forgot to apply the powder, and one time I forgot to put powder over my entire lid...not so pretty when you look in the mirror an hour later and wonder where the creases in your eye makeup came from!!! UGH!! Took me awhile to figure out what had happened until it finally dawned on me...oh...yeah...powder...eeeesh...

In the end I think the TF is a really great product that performs fantastically and makes applying eye products a joy because it is so smooth. That said, this product isn't for me. I don't like having to do 2 steps, and if I forget the powder then it completely negates having primer on in the first place. Back to NARS it is!!

Ingredient list below, click on the image to enlarge.