Monday 15 November 2010

Hourglass Illume Sunset:

Summer seems a long time ago, but the beachy glow can still stay...

Well, we got our wonderful faking-tools these days.

I always fake my glow in summer, however, in winter I feel more at ease making my own, slightly light skin shine through.

But you know, I live in a quintessential western country with those 'wonderful' beauty standards of tan-is-beautiful', so sometimes I fake my glow to face my family, who otherwise would tell me "aww, why don't you go to a tanning bed?" (oh, and tanning beds are evil in my opinion, but somehow I cannot manage to convince them of that idea so I just nod my head and leave it like that, not going to tanning beds...of course...dah).

I got myself a new faker....ehm, beauty enhancer ;D

After reading lots of glowing reviews, and the mandatory celebrity-X-uses-this stories, I decided to venture on a new brand, for me at least, Hourglass.

I think Hourglass is an American brand. I use American brands every now and then. They have lots of $$$ to put into research so I am bound to receive a product that has been put through millions of tests and is marketed for a large audience. I really like some Tarte products, by the way, and L'oreal can have some good items.

Hourglass has finally been made available for the curious Europeans (who had to go through great lenghts to get anything Hourglass before) on Zuneta.com. I had to wait for a while for the Illume in Sunset to get into stock again, but when it finally was....

 The box of Hourglass is in a sleek, black colour with platina-esque letters.

The back of the box has the instruction list and the ingredients:

 Wonderful, they have listed the ingredients for both the brown, bronzer colour as for the Sunset (peachy) colour:


 Instuctions: They listed them in French as well. That could mean that they target for an Canadian audience...


Out of the box: it is a sleek, dark silver-esque colour in a metallic case. The logo and packaging reminds me of a more conventional sister of Illamasqua.


After struggling to open it for the first couple of times, I found out that you have to slide it to the sides.


 Inside are two equal amounts of a bronze and peach-like colour
 Two gorgeous shades that are bordering on the warm side of neutral:

 Swatches:
In this picture you can see that they have a lustry, glowy quality upon them. The left side is the two colours blended:
Tarte Illume Sunset swatches: Left: Sunset&bronze blended; middle: sunset; right: bronze
 Another swatch picture in different light.
Tarte Illume Sunset swatches: Left: Sunset&bronze blended; middle: sunset; right: bronze
I have to say that I am incredibly amazed by the level of pigmentation. The pigmentation is really strong when you apply it on. Those swatch pictures were only one swipe! I almost reminds me of a professional makeup-artist product like Joe Blasco or Graftobian. 

However, it is still normal-consumer friendly as it blends quite easily into the skin. Also, if the first application looks a bit done, wait for a couple of minutes and the fierceness of the colour have blended into the skin as a natural glow.

I believe it is suitable for colours that are darker, going on to NW/C 40. I know that Karen from makeupbeautyblog reviewed and swatched this and it looks really vivid on her NW 40 (?) skin. Actually, the Sunset colour looks really pink on her skin, while it looks like a peachy orange on mine. See, how different people wear their products differently?

After all these raves, I do believe that the colours in the blush palette have a warmer quality, especially the bronzer colour has some red hints in it. 

So, although it is such a lovely and convienient compact for both blush, bronzer or both, I do believe that people with cool skintones will find the bronzer shade a bit too warm. I myself am a neutral bordering on cool, and you can already see the difference with someone like Karen from Makeupbeautyblog of how the colours would show up.

However, I love the two colours in the mix and the quality of this product is just fantastic. Another plus for me: no glitters and shimmers are in the two colours! That makes it a more convincing faker for me.

I bought my palette at British site zuneta.com. It was my second order and they were as fast as ever (just a couple of days).

1 comment:

Unknown said...

That does look realy nice, I could probably get away with the Sunset colour but the bronze might be a bit too much on me as I'm a bit lighter than a NW15. Thanks for the review.