Every year Hourglass Cosmetics comes out with a limited edition palette with their best selling powders. They release the palette before the Holidays so you can either treat yourself or buy it as a gift.
This year they did something different, they came out with the Ambient Lighting Edit palette which contains six powders. The two palettes from previous years were only with three, the first one, the Ambient Lighting Palette (which is now part of the permanent line) contains three shades of the Ambient Lighting Powders and the second one was a blush palette with three shades.
The Ambient Lighting Edit has three Ambient Lighting Powders, two Ambient Lighting Blushes and one Ambient Lighting Bronzer.
The top row shades are: Dim Light ( neutral peach beige powder that blurs imperfections and highlights the complexion), Strobe Lighting Powder in Iridescent Strobe Light (rose pearl powder that gives a refined glow to the complexion) and Diffused Light (soft, warm, pale yellow powder that conceals redness and gives skin clarity).
Dim Light is a great all over the face powder for my light to medium skin tone. I use it as a finishing powder over my setting powder but sometimes I even use it to set my makeup since my skin has been on the normal side. It just gives a soft look to your face and a subtle glow.
Iridescent Strobe Light is a nice pinky subtle highlighter. It’s a nice switch from your regular gold highlighter and I think will suit most skin tones. When swatches on the hand you can see some shimmer particles but they don’t transfer on the skin.
Diffused Light will probably be a favorite to a lot of people because it’s an awesome brightening powder. I use it to set my under eye concealer and brighten that area but also on my chin and forehead if I like to bring light to that area.
The bottom row of the palette has: Mood Exposure (soft plum blush fused with mood light to brighten the complexion), Luminous Flush (champagne rose blush fused with luminous light to evoke a candlelit glimmer) and Luminous Bronze Light (medium tan shade fused with luminous light for a softer, candlelit warmth).
Both Mood Exposure and Luminous Flush are beautiful! The Hourglass blush formula is pretty unique to me, they’re one of the only blushes that give a glowy look to your cheeks without any shimmer.
Luminous Bronze Light is a great summer bronzer because it gives a sun kissed look to the skin. I have the darker version of the bronzer and I love both. The bronzer also gives that glowy look like the blushes without any shimmer.
Now for the size comparison, you can see by the photo above that the pans of the Ambient Lighting Edit are smaller than the previous palettes. You can’t really use a big powder brush with this palette or an oversized blush brush, I use the Nars Yachiyo brush for both the powders and blushes and bronzer and it works really well.
Swatches of the Ambient Lighting Edit L to R: Dim Ligh, Iridescent Strobe Light, Diffused Light, Mood Exposure, Luminous Flush, Luminous Bronze Light
If you own the previous two palettes there are some repeats in this palette, Dim Light is in the Ambient Lighting Palette and Mood Exposure was in the Ambient Lighting Blush palette. So if you own the previous two palettes it’s just up to the point if you like the other shade that are included in the palette. You can find all the shades as singles in the regular line except of Iridescent Strobe Light which is limited edition and exclusive to this palette.
Some people might think that the pans are too small for the price but I think that you get a pretty good variety considering if you want to buy a full size product it will cost you from $35-$50. You get the same quality and pigmentation as the full size products and the palette is pretty compact so it is great for travel.
My advice is, if you haven’t tried anything from Hourglass and you want to start somewhere I would say get the palette, but if you own most of the powders that are included in this palette you can skip on this one. Or if you’re like me and love the brand run and get the palette before it sells out!
