There are a lot of traditions at Christmas; the ones you have with your friends and family, the ones you have at work and even the smallest aspect of the festive season can hold some form of routine. Even beauty brands seem to have created a tradition within some of the products they launch year after year. It seems to be that once a brand has found a formula for a popular Christmas product you tend to see it year in, year out and Hourglass are definitely guilty of doing this.
The Ambient Lighting Palette has been part of the Hourglass Christmas collection for years now and every year it still gets glowing reviews. I have always wanted one of the palettes as it seemed like a great way to try some of their powder products all in one palette. However who the hell is looking to spend around £80 on a palette just before Christmas?
Black Friday
Black Friday does throw up some good deals but this year's Black Friday brought one of the best Hourglass discounts I have seen. Early doors
Cult Beauty had 30% off selected products and the
Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette had 30% off, making it £57 instead of £81 which is quite a saving. When I saw this discount I knew it was finally time for me to treat myself to one of these palettes, also this year's shade range seemed the best for my pale complexion.
The Ambient Lighting Palette has been part of the Christmas collection for years but they have added a smaller palette. The smaller palette, which only has 4 shades, is £57 so I basically bought the full size for the price of the smaller palette. I was considering buying the smaller one but preferred the shades in the larger one but could not justify it so this truly worked out for me.
Ambient Lighting Palette
The large Ambient Lighting Palette contains: 2x Setting Powders, a highlight, a bronzer and 2 blushes so you have a full range of base makeup powders in this palette. I have been using these powders for the past couple of weeks and honestly I now see what all the hype is about with these powders. Even though they are a powder product, they do not make you look powdery or overdone at all. The powders are so finely milled yet beautifully pigmented so you get a beautiful, natural looking colour.
Setting Powders
The Ambient Lighting Powders truly kicked off the craze with Hourglass powders, I feel like these were the first powders in the family and they appealed to the people who wanted to set their makeup but didn't want to use a completely matte powder. Not only do these powders provide a setting quality but they also have a technology that blurs the skin which is what makes these powders so beautiful.
There are now 6 different shades and each shade is supposed to mimic a different light setting whether it is the glowing light at dawn or the blinding beam of the sun during Summer, each powder copies the light created whilst blur imperfections in turn making your skin look smoother. In this palette you get two shades Dim Light and Diffused Light which I believe are two of the original shades. To be honest when I use them I can't see a massive amount of difference to my skin so I just apply both to my t-zone and call it a day.
You can definitely see a brightness added to the area where you apply these powders, especially when you use Diffused Light which is incredibly brightening thanks to its yellow tones. Dim Light is a slightly more pinky tone which I think is gorgeous, it is so subtle but you still get that incredible blurring quality.
Even though I have continued to call this a setting powder, it isn't, I have to use another powder (a more matte powder) underneath on my T-Zone so that I do not get oily but I use these powders over the top to finish off my face. These powders are beautiful and are basically the icing on the cake but they are really expensive for a finishing powder. I like them and will use them but I cannot say I would buy the full size.
Highlight
The only Hourglass powder product I had tried prior to getting this palette were the Strobe Highlighting Powders as they used to sell them in a store that I worked in so I would apply it to my cheeks in the morning before the store opened. This was literally when the powders launched and the highlighting craze was at its peak but these powders didn't quite cut it for the blinding highlight that was popular at the time. Instead these highlighting powders were subtle which might not have worked for me then but I absolutely love it now.
I still love a strong highlight but some days you do want something a little bit more natural which is just going to add a soft glow to your cheeks and this highlight is perfect for that. The shade in this palette is new and exclusive to this palette and it is called Glistening Strobe Light. It is a very light nude highlight that sort of borders on being neutral. It looks quite pink when you look at it in the palette but there is definitely an element of warmth. However it just adds a soft, almost colourless glow to your skin. It is actually really pretty and seems like it would adapt to suit most skin tones.
The highlight can be built up so you can get a bit more of a glow going but if you do want a bit more of a glow, this highlight looks great on top of the Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Beauty Light Wand and it helps to bring out the slightly more pink tones within the highlight. Out of all of the powders, this one is most chunky. It has a chuniker glitter within the powder and the powder does create a bit of fall out. It is nothing major and it doesn't look chunky on your face, in fact it is the complete opposite, but it is just something to be aware of. Personally I would not buy one of these highlights, they are nice when you don't want anything too much but I do not think they are anything special, certainly not at £38 each.
Blushers
In this palette you get two blushers and thankfully they are both very different shades which are both perfect for the festive season/the colder months. Both of the blushers are different formulas and one shade is an exclusive to this palette. The Blushers are highly rated so I have always wanted to try one and luckily for me one of the shades included in this palette was actually the shade I have wanted to try.
Let's start with the shade Vibrant Flush which is the exclusive shade to this palette. This is part of the Strobe Lightning Blush family. To be honest when I used the two blushers, I couldn't really tell what the difference was between the two so I had to do a little research. Bascially I think this one has illuminating properties as well as being a pigmented blush. However if I am honest, they are both pigmented and both add a glow. I think both of the formulas are lovely, it just comes down to the colour you prefer and I prefer the other shade to Vibrant Flush.
Vibrant Flush is a bold pink shade that really adds that flushed look to your cheeks. It is perfect for Winter as it gives you that 'I've just been outside for hours,' flushed look which is such a vibe but for me it is a little bit too much. To be able to use this blush I literally tap my brush into the pan and tap off the powder and even then the flushed pink is a lot on my skin tone. This is very bold whereas Mood Exposure is much more suitable for my skin tone.
Mood Exposure is the shade that I wanted to try for a long time. I remember Fleur de Force talking about it when these palettes were new and the shade looked so beautiful. I do not typically like a bold pink blush, I usually opt for something more peachy during the Summer and a more plum shade during Winter and this is perfect for me. This is a mauve shade that adds a beautiful, not too rich plum shade to your cheeks which blends in beautifully with the bronzer in this palette. Mood Exposure is my dream blush and I would definitely buy the full size of this as I can see myself getting through this mini one over the next few months.
Bronzer
The Bronzer was the item that scared me the most in this palette. I remember when the bronzers first launched and everyone said that both of the shades were quite dark. Well a dark bronzer is not going to work on my skin but turns out this is actually beautifully pigmented but most importantly it can be built up so it will suit more than just those who are pale like me.
I am not a fan of really pigmented powder products as I find them incredibly hard to work with but at the same time I want there to be a bit of colour. The shade is called Natural Bronze Light which is a new shade and is exclusive to this palette, I have to say I am surprised by how much I love this bronzer. The shade has a warm tone to it and it just adds a gorgeous tan to your skin. You look like you have been on holiday but in reality probably haven't left the house in months.
The powder is so finely milled and it does have a soft glow to it without being shimmery so it looks natural and doesn't look flat on your face like some matte bronzers can. In a way this reminds me of the sculpt shade in the Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze and Glow Compact but the powder is even more refined. If this bronzer came on it's own I would definitely buy it, no questions asked. I think this is potentially my favourite product within the palette.
Within this palette you have every powder you could ever need and it even gives you options with the type of look you want to create thanks to the inclusion of the two blushers. I have to say I am thankful to have waited to get this palette as there was a time when the palettes did not come with a highlight as they were only a recent addition to the Hourglass line up.
One thing I do think it is important to mention is the size of this palette. In all of the pictures online I feel like you are set up for this palette being quite big. Looking at the pictures online I would have assumed that this palette would have been a similar size to 3 of the normal size pans put together but that is far from the case. I had seen this in store before I bought it so I sort of knew it wasn't going to be as big as I thought it should be but even I was shocked that it was so small when it arrived. The pans are miniature which in turn makes the palette quite small so prepare yourself!
I am pleased to have finally been able to give a wide variety of the Hourglass powders a go because they are incredibly hyped within the community and it would have been really expensive to buy them all separately so getting them in this palette (and at such a discount) was a real treat. I think this palette is great and would make a stunning gift for anyone you are looking to spoil this festive season. It really does have that wow factor and anyone who is interested in beauty knows that Hourglass is a luxury brand and even if they haven't heard of the brand, the packaging alone points to the high quality of the brand.
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