The Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blushes were my first official panic buys of the year LOL! Think I either saw on Twitter or MakeupAlley that someone had posted Sephora VIB's could get a preview (and purchase) before they were made available to everyone else. Yep, my panic hit HIGH and I hit buy!
***All items purchased by me.***
Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush in Diffused Heat, Mood Exposure, Radiant Magenta $35/.15oz
Essentially this product mixes the Ambient Lighting Powders with blush colors, and no 2 look identical. This aims to take all the best qualities of the Ambient Lighting Powders to create a blush that's not flat, and instead is multidimensional.
After 5 days, I'm on the fence with these blushes!! Unlike, say Chanel Accent where I instantly knew I loved it!
Applied over foundation A, these lasted all day and had a very pretty color. But the color was flat and didn't have any ooompf - it just kind of sat there.
Applied over foundation B, I started seeing some fading about midday but the color had a nice little luminescence that made it seem much more natural looking.
Diffused Heat and Radiant Magenta have a bit of shimmer in the pan, but didn't transfer much once applied except when I wore foundation B. I've read some reviews that mention these might kick up some powder when brush hits the product, but I didn't find that at all with the 2 brushes I used…then again I generally just dab my brush into the pan and I don't sweep across. However, I did use my finger to do arm swatches and noticed a bit of powder come up.
One thing is for sure, this formula isn't nearly as nice as my beloved Burberry or Rouge Bunny Rouge blushes! Those meld into the skin so beautifully - this one does not. And I'm not sure I like having to wear a specific foundation to make these look nice…and if you get them to look nice, are they as revolutionary as the product description would make it seem?!!! I'm thinking probably not. Soooooo…nice but not amazing???
Return?? Or keep trying??? What do you think???
EDIT 2/12/2014: Thank you for all the comments!! Everyone gave me the nudge I needed to return these blushes. Sometimes we just need a bit of help, even when we know what we should be doing :-)
Diffused Heat
Mood Exposure
Radiant Magenta
Daylight bulbs.
Outdoor sunlight. Here you can see the faint shimmer on Diffused Heat, and can barely make out a shimmer or 2 on Radiant Magenta. I'd show more pictures outside, but this was the only angle where you couldn't see crazy cold chicken skin that messed up the swatches ha ha :-) And yes that is snow up in the corner!!
EDITED: I ended up returning all 3 colors.