Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit - Surreal Light

The Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit in Surreal Light was one of those instant purchases for me. I love Hourglass powders and think that the quality is amazing. The palette is housed in a marble printed case and contains 5 pans of product. Although the marble is pretty (and, let's face it, Instagram worthy), I think I would have preferred to keep the metal packaging. To me, the metal seems more luxe than a marble printed plastic case and is also in keeping with the overall aesthetic of the brand, but that is more personal preference than anything else and does not affect the quality of the product inside.

I have to say, I think this palette is better suited to the lighter side of the skin tone spectrum. I am light-medium and the only items that show up really well on my skin are the Surreal Effect Blush and the Surreal Strobe Light. The Finishing Powder that takes up the left side of the palette is meant to blend into skin, but if you have a darker complexion, this may make you look ashy (I would definitely recommend trying in store). The middle column sort of blends into my skin and is hard to see. All of the powders blend well and are buttery soft. They each lasted all day on me when tested.

I definitely take exception to them labeling/marketing this palette as universally flattering - the bronzer is too light for my skin, and I am on the lighter side. What would someone with medium to dark skintones use it for? One thing I have noticed is that Hourglass has not seemed to put out a palette for medium-dark complexions, and I really think that they need to. Their powder products are, to me, the highest quality on the market and it is a shame that they are under-serving such a large part of the market.

As with the palette from last year, the pan sizes are really small. I wish they would go back to the trios or use this size palette and make it a quad. It is really difficult to dip a brush into this and not pickup the adjacent powders. The size would not be as much of an issue for a different product, but bronzer, blush, and highlighter fan brushes all tend to be larger. You basically have to squeeze your brush to dip it in the pans, which I am not a fan of doing.

One thing that is a bit odd to me is how they labeled/numbered the palette. I would think that normally you would start at the left, which they did, and do the top row first, then bottom. They did not do that. The far left pan is 1, which makes sense, but then 2 is actually the bottom middle shade, then it goes up to the top middle shade, over to the top right shade, and down again to the bottom right shade. See diagram below. Most people that I have seen swatch it did not do it in that order. I did not either, which is why I labeled the swatches below with the numbers. That is something they should probably think about for next time, as it can make it confusing for people who are trying to look at swatches.

Palette Swatches. All swatches in order of first photo.

Outdoors in full sunlight:



Outdoors in shade:



Indoors (no flash):

I pulled some of my other Hourglass Palettes and individual items so you can see how the new palette compares to some existing products. First, the blushes. I swatched two blushes from the new palette, an individual blush in Radiant Magenta, and two of the blushes from the Ambient Lighting Blush Palette, Luminous Flush and Incandescent Electra. In case you are looking for dupes, if Radiant Magenta and Incandescent Electra had a baby, it would be the Surreal Effect blush. 

Blush swatches. All swatches are in the order of the first photo.

Outdoors:



Indoors (no flash):

For the bronzer, I pulled the Hourglass Luminous Bronze Light (reviewed here). Surreal Bronze Light is noticeably lighter than the Luminous Bronze Light bronzer, which was already made for lighter skin tones. It really does not show up on my skin tone very well as a bronzer. For me, it acts more as a nude blush, but even then it is very hard to see. See swatches outdoors in full sunlight:

I used the Ambient Lighting Palette highlighters as comparison shades for the highlighters/finishing powder in the Ambient Lighting Edit. See swatches below:

Overall, this palette is very pretty, and the quality, as always, is incredible. I do wish the pan sizes were larger and would love to see Hourglass put out a new trio or a quad, instead of trying to cram 5-6 powders into one palette. I probably should have waited to see this in store because I most likely would not have purchased it, as a lot of the colors are really hard to see on my skin tone. If you have a lighter skin tone, run out and buy this - you will not regret it. I would absolutely love this if the colors showed up on my skin better. Medium to darker skin tones really should test in store to see how the colors work on your skin.

The palette retails for $80 and is sold at Sephora and Hourglass. What are your thoughts on this palette?

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit - Surreal Light - Sneak Peak

I thought I would give everyone a quick peak at the new Hourglass Palette. I just received it, so I will be testing each of the items separately to see how they wear and will provide a full review next week. I will make sure to include some comparison swatches with other Hourglass powders in the full review so you can see if you already have Hourglass items that are similar. For now, I am previewing some swatches of the palette. Initial swatches seem to be of the usual Hourglass quality, as their highlighters are on the more subtle side of the spectrum. 

Reverse of the palette:

See swatches below.

Outdoors in sunlight:

After just the initial swatching, I think that if you have more of a fair complexion, you will most likely find this very flattering. I think it may wash out or look ashy on darker skin tones. Stay tuned for the full review. 

Natasha Denona All Over Glow Face and Body Shimmer Powder in Light

I have heard so many good things about the Natasha Denona line and decided to try something out for myself. I chose the All Over Glow Face and Body Shimmer Powder in the shade 01 Light. The powder comes in a gold metal case that is a decent size for a highlighter. My case did come with a small imperfection on the front that you can see above, but since I will probably scratch it anyway, I decided it was not a big deal for me.

A couple things that I always look for in a highlighter are that I can wear it to work and that it looks natural in the day. I love a good highlight, but many are so shimmery that it looks unprofessional or, in my opinion, a little much for daytime (as pretty as they are, I find the Becca highlighters to be too much most of the time). The Natasha Denona is one of the prettiest, subtle highlighters I have seen and I really love the finish. Will it replace the Hourglass Ambient Lighting powders as my holy grail highlighter? Most likely not, but it is a really close second and I do love that it is the most understated highlighter that I have next to Hourglass. The powder lasted all day for me with no migration. I find that it is not frosty and does not overemphasize pores (for me all highlighters emphasize them slightly because I tend to have larger pores).

Here is an extreme close up so you can see all of the different shimmer colors:

I pulled a few other highlighters out to see how the Natasha Denona compares. Below clockwise from left: Natasha Denona in Light, Benefit Watt's Up, Cover FX Custom Enhancer Drops in Moonlight, Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Dim Light, and the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette.

Below are some comparison swatches so you can see the difference. The most subtle are the Hourglass powders, the Natasha Denona is more in the middle, and the Benefit and Cover FX have a higher shimmer. The swatches are all in the order of the first photo.

Outdoors:




Direct Sun:




Indoors (no flash):




Below is a list of ingredients:

Talc, Mica, Octyldodecyl Stearoyl Stearate, Aluminum Starch Octenylsuccinate, Isopropyl Lanolate, Cetyl Acetate, Caprylyl Glycol, C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Acetylated Lanolin Alcohol, Dimethicone, Lauroyl Lysine, Parfum [Fragrance] (+/-) May Contain: CI 77491 [Iron Oxides], CI 77891 [Titanium Dioxide], CI 77492 [Iron Oxides], CI 77499 [Iron Oxides]

I have to say I am really happy with this purchase and am glad that I decided to get into the Natasha Denona line. I also bought an eyeshadow palette to be reviewed soon. This is one of the prettiest highlighters I own and I am most likely going to get the Medium shade to possibly use as a blush or bronzer. The ND blushes look beautiful as well. I purchased the powder from Beautylish and it retails for $38 for 10g/0.35 oz. Have you tried anything from Natasha Denona? Any recommendations for other products/colors from her line?

COVER FX Custom Enhancer Drops - Moonlight and Sunkissed

The Cover FX Custom Enhancer Drops were launched recently and I purchased one of the highlight shades, Moonlight, and one of the bronzers, Sunkissed. The Drops work much like other products from Cover FX, wherein you can use them to customize to your liking. You can use the drops on their own or you can mix them into existing products that you have.

I have used the bronzer shade to add depth to some of my winter foundation colors that are now too light and have also used the highlight shade to add some shimmer to matte foundation formulas. They also work wonderfully on their own as a highlighter or bronzer. Lisa Eldridge did a beautiful video recently that used the Moonlight shade as a highlight and I highly recommend you check it out (mostly because I am obsessed with her and think she is fab). See swatches below of the Moonlight shade:

See swatches below of the Sunkissed shade:

These drops have been such a great purchase and I have used them a lot since I got them a month ago. I love that the bronzer has enabled me to use some of the foundations that would normally be sitting in a drawer for the next few months since I do tan significantly in the summer (despite using sunscreen). The highlight shade blends so nicely over foundation and concealer without removing or budging what is underneath, which I feel that is often a problem with other liquid highlighters. If you would like to see swatches on a variety of skin tones, head over to Beauty Editer.

The drops retail for $42 for .5oz and are available at Sephora and Cover FX. Have you tried these yet? Which shade is your favorite?

Wander Beauty On-the-Glow Blush and Illuminator

Wander Beauty is a newer beauty line that recently became available at Sephora. The products are designed to be portable for travel or just carrying with you in your purse or makeup bag. I purchased the On-the-Glow Blush and Illuminator, which is a dual ended stick that contains cream blush and highlighter. It comes in 3 different shades currently, but I purchased the Coral Rose/Nude Glow option.

The color payoff on the blush is pretty buildable, which I like. I am not a fan of blushes that are too strong because I feel it is harder to sheer things out than it is to build them up. The blush is a sheer satin finish without any sparkle to it. The highlighter definitely has shimmer, but it is not overly frosty. See swatches below.

In direct sunlight:



Indoor lighting (no flash):

I really like having something full size that takes the place of two products, especially for travel. Performance on the blush is average, but the highlighter definitely has longer staying power. I did not use a setting powder with these, as I wanted to keep more of the glow. I am sure setting it would help with longevity, but I opted to just add a little touchup of the blush and keep the glowiness.

Overall, this was a winner for me and I look forward to trying other items from the line. The dual ended lipsticks look very promising and may be my next purchase from Wander. The On-the-Glow Blush and Illuminator retails for $42 and is available at Sephora and Wander Beauty. Have you tried anything from Wander yet? What are some of your on-the-go favorites?