I approach any new arrival from Hourglass with trepidation. While the Ambient Lighting Powders, Blushes and Bronzers, Lipsticks and Brow Pencils amongst my holy grail beauty products, the Strobe Lighting Powders and Modernist Eyeshadows aren’t on my list of favourites. While the brand, in my opinion, has a far greater hit streak than misses, given that two of their newest arrivals were highlighters and eyeshadows I lowered my expectations accordingly.
I’ve been forced to say it twice on here in the last month- I was wrong.
The Hourglass Vanish Flash Highlighting Sticks are VERY good. I’d seen a few swatches online and they appeared to be not all that pigmented, but they came up an absolute treat on my skin. There are five shades-Bronze, Rose Gold, Gold, Pink and Champagne (the names speak for themselves as far as hue descriptions). From what I can gather it can be difficult to find an appropriately toned highlighter for women of colour, but being the inclusive brand that they are Hourglass have delivered with the Bronze here. I tried all five shades and found them to perform equally well, with the least pigmented being Pink Flash. I assumed these would more or less be a cream version of the Strobe Powders, which I find to be too glittery to meet my highlighting needs, however the shimmer in these is beautiful and subtle (more dew than sparkle).
These highlighters are designed to be worn in two ways- applied directly onto the skin and blended with foundation for an “underglow,” or applied over the foundation as a regular highlight or more obvious “overglow.” I was tentative to apply these directly from the stick over my foundation as the texture reminded me very much of a Nars Multiple which always moves my base if I apply straight from the tube. I tried applying these using my fingers at first but the pigment barely transferred, so I bit the bullet (pun intended) and applied direct. My foundation did not budge AT ALL, even when I really worked to build up the colour of the highlight. When applied underneath foundation, the Vanish Flash Highlighting Sticks did deliver a “lit from within” glow however I still feel the highlighter-mixed-with-foundation combo is better suited to a liquid highlighter- perhaps this would work better with a stick foundation as demonstrated across Hourglass’ marketing.
The Hourglass Arch Brow Volumizing Fibre Gel is another new arrival and after two weeks of use has become one of my new favourite brow gels, conveniently as I approach the end of my beloved Glossier Brow Gel. This tinted gel hold everything in place, delivers the perfect amount of colour and doesn’t become stiff like many brow gels do. The brush is unlike any I’ve seen, with long bristles on one and short on the other so you can really control the depth of colour as you work along the brow. The Hourglass 1.5mm Mechanical Gel Liner is equally impressive. I am no good at applying eyeliner (most likely as I’m too heavily caffeinated so I tend to wiggle with the pencil) and this was fairly foolproof to use. I have the shade Bronze and it’s very beautiful- I find true black liners look too harsh on my eyes. I’m sure gel liners in pencil form do exist, but I’ve never used one before. This is lovely and thin so you can build up the width of the line as you work rather than going too hard too soon and having to pare it back.
The Graphik Eyeshadow Palette is fine. It’s fine. I have the palette in Myth, which I was very excited about because an entirely matte palette is such a lovely novelty, however I didn’t find these colours to be super pigmented. They’re very buildable though which is important to note. My mum has been giving this a crack too and she LOVES it because of how buildable it is (she doesn’t love an intensely smokey eye and prefers to have control over the colour), so this really does come down to personal preference.
Hourglass’ newest arrivals are available now via Mecca Cosmetica and Mecca Maxima.
These products have been gifted courtesy of Mecca Brands however all views are, as always, entirely my own.
