Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit - Surreal Light Review and Swatches

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I've heard the hype for a long time. Those Hourglass Ambient Highlighters... amazing! My friends (mostly beauty bloggers) have been raving about them, snapping them up as soon as new ones are released, discussing in Facebook groups when the next version will be released... it goes on and on. And I've been over here in the corner going... really? Is it really that special? And refusing to buy. Because really, those shimmer powders seem expensive, and they're always sold out so...

But, yes, they're always sold out. Is there maybe a reason?

So, when this new palette was released on Sephora's website recently, I snapped it up. I was finally going to try this stuff out, and this palette had enough different types of the Ambient Lighting powders, that I kind of felt like I was getting an ok deal.

Read on to see what I thought!





The idea behind this palette is that it "recreate the coveted lighting of magic hour" of photography, that time just before sunset when everything is golden and everyone looks great in a picture. Hence, slightly golden powders that offer a bit of shimmer to bounce light off of your face.

Included in this palette:
• Ambient Lighting Powder in Surreal Light: sheer nude
• Ambient Lighting Bronzer in Surreal Bronze Light: neutral tan with Surreal Light
• Ambient Lighting Blush in Surreal Glow: pale peony pink with Surreal Light
• Ambient Lighting Blush in Surreal Effect: cool, pink rose with soft, warm peach
• Ambient Strobe Lighting Powder in Surreal Strobe Light: glimmering peach



The idea is that you can use the powder over your entire face, the bronzer can be used either to contour or give you a sunkissed look, while the blushes are used together. Finally, the strobe powder is the most shimmery, and should be used in the more traditional places for highlighting. You can see it all come together a bit more in this video from Sephora's website




The shimmer doesn't really show up in my images, but you can see that the powders are on the golden side. All of them are a bit shimmery, but the shimmer picks up in the strobe powder.



I do think that the powders are pretty, but they do look shimmery. I'm not a fan of shimmer everywhere, and while the golden tones are pretty, the powders are a bit too dark for my skin, so I don't use them all over. Instead, I've been using pretty much all of the powders as a highlighter or shimmery bronzer. I use a large brush for a very light dusting, and apply to my t-zone, the cheekbone and a little to my chin, the locations that light naturally hits.

I love the look the palette creates, but it isn't something I've been doing every day. Instead, I'm using the palette on days that I'm wearing a bit less makeup, it seems to work best when the focus is on my skin, rather than a smokey eye for example.


You can find this palette exclusively at Sephora

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