Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Mood Light

I picked up the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Diffused Light when the line first launched and I was not impressed at all.  It was a translucent powder.  A fine powder, but nothing special and certainly not special enough to justify the $45 price tag.  I eventually got rid of my Diffused powder and wasn't interested in learning more.

Then I saw Dustin Hunter's video overview of the line.  Like me, Dustin is on the pastier side of pale and he mentioned that he liked Mood Light as a blush.  I swatched it in Sephora one day and it swatched dark enough on my skin that I was intrigued.

In the pan, Mood Light looks like a very gray purple color.  Like Diffused Light, it doesn't have any detectable shimmer.

The pictures here do not do this product justice.  It definitely has a color.  A subtle color, but still noticeable on my skintone.  I could see deeper skintones using this as an all over setting powder.  That wouldn't work for me at all.  I'd look crazy.

On my skintone, this works as a blush, subtle and natural looking, but with enough oomph to provide definition.  It has good wear time.  I get a good six hours out of it before it faded at all and nine hours before it was gone.

Like the other Ambient Lighting Powders, Mood Light contains 10 grams of product and retails for $45.  It's a baked powder, so it does require gentle handling as it is easy to break off a piece of the product.  Mood Light is available wherever Hourglass is sold.  I picked mine up at Sephora.

Overall:  8/10

Hourglass Illume Creme-to-Powder Bronzer Duo in Sunset

Hourglass cosmetics describes their new Illume Creme-to-Powder Bronzer Duo as:

A multi-purpose crème-to-powder duo featuring a bronzer paired with a blush or highlighter. The bronze shade imparts a natural golden glow, subtly defining and contouring the face. Accent colors of sheer rose (Sunset duo) or champagne beige (Bronze Light duo) warm and illuminate the complexion. Illume’s luxurious vitamin-enriched formula blends seamlessly onto skin without blotching or streaking.

So, the bronzer duo comes in two shades, Sunset, which I have, is a duo of bronzer and a warm pink blush.  The Bronze Light duo contains the bronzer (same shade as the Sunset duo) and a champagne beige highlighter.

Originally I picked up the Bronze Light duo because those were the product reviews (and raves) I'd seen.  I glanced at the Sunset duo, but I mistakenly thought it was just a deeper version of the Bronze Light.  When I got home and realized that the Sunset duo actually contained a blush as opposed to the Bronze Light's highlighter, I immediately exchanged Bronze Light for Sunset.

Let's face it, I'm going to get way more use out of a blush than a highlighter. Sunset is it. ;)

I will admit up front that my expectations for this product were high.  I had seen several YouTube gurus whose opinions I respect and generally agree with, rave about this product.  (Though both of them did review the Bronze Light duo.  You can see GossMakeupArtist's review here and Josh Collier's review here.)

I also felt like I had a good handle on how this product should perform.  I already have the Chanel Soleil Tan de Chanel gel bronzer, which I love.  Like the Hourglass creme-to-powder bronzer, the Chanel bronzer isn't great for contouring.  I think it leans too orange on my skintone for that.  But for that summer, sun-kissed glow without the sun damage, it's great, even on my pasty pale skin.

(sunlight)

(daybulb)

As for the cream blush, I feel like I've seen a hundred different cream blush formulations and I was curious to see Hourglass's take.  I really like the formula a lot.  It is incredibly pigmented and while it goes on smooth and creamy, it dries down to a powder finish very quickly and has fantastic staying time.  I got a solid 8 hours out of it before it started to fade at all.

(sunlight)

(daybulb)

Overall, I really, really like this product.  As usual, the hourglass packaging is so sleek and luxurious feeling.  There is a lot of product.  The product performs fantastically well and it's paraben and cruelty free.  It's a total win, even at this price point.

Hourglass also touts the following benefits for the Illume line:

• Shades illuminate the skin while delivering year-round bronze color
• Stays fresh on skin all day without blotching or streaking
• Vitamins A and E provide moisturizing and antioxidant benefits
• Compact features a mirror that swivels 360°
• Free of oil, wax, parabens, phthalates, sulfates and fragrance

The Illume Creme-to-Powder Bronzer Duo contains 11 grams of product and retails for $40 wherever Hourglass Cosmetics are sold.  (I got mine at Sephora).

Overall: 10/10

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Diffused Light

I had heard people raving about the new Hourglass Ambient Lighting powders, so I decided to pick one up in Diffused Light.  Hourglass describes the powder as "a soft, warm, pale yellow powder that reduces redness and gives skin clarity – like a soft ray of morning light".

This is indeed a beautiful finishing powder.  It is super finely milled, applies like a dream.  It sets makeup beautifully without making you look like a disco ball.  In fact, I really couldn't find any detectable shimmer at all to the powder, though once the whole face was powdered, there was a bit of a ... I guess you could call it a luminosity (nothing terribly glowy and definitely not shiny or oily looking ... just nice).

I'm more than a little skeptical about the yellow powder neutralizing redness.  I really don't think there's enough pigmentation in the powder to really do that.  In fact, it was hard for me to even tell the powder was supposed to be yellow.  It looked like a translucent pressed powder to me.

As I said, this is a beautiful product.  And I am intrigued about the rest of the line.  However, after a week of use, I was soft of left feeling flat.  I really didn't feel like I got incredibly different results from this product than I get from my MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural or even my Sleek Luminous Pressed Powder (both of which have better price points.)  Don't get me wrong, this product is discernibly more higher end than either MAC or Sleek.  But for me, the results were not dramatic enough to warrant the price difference.

Other colors in the range are supposed to have more obvious effects and are intended to be used more as highlighters or even bronzers.  I am much more interested in the colors Dim (neutral peach beige) or Luminous (champagne pearl).

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powders contain 10 grams of product and retail for $45 wherever Hourglass is sold.  I got mine at Sephora.

Overall:  7/10