Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Diffused Review

This is a review covering Hourglass' Ambient Lighting Powder in Diffused Light. I know just about everyone has reviewed these but I had been sighing over this for years and now I feel I have to add my voice to the chorus.

Close-up of the powder in Diffused

The ambient lighting powders are supposed to be finishing powders that mimic different lights upon your skin giving your complexion the best possible appearance. There are six in total in the main line (there are some in palettes that were limited edition or only available in the palette) each representing a different light. Diffused the one I have is the second palest of the collection, and a very pale yellow supposed to represent clean morning light.

What the powder is said to do is not only slightly combat redness due to the slight yellow tone, but also add a glow to the skin and blur imperfections including pores and fine lines.

The packaging is light-weight plastic but it looks more expensive with the lovely bronze mirrored shade and sturdy design. That said I've tried to be very careful in the handling of my powder as it comes with a warning that the powder itself is fragile- which for me makes this something I won't be traveling with.

Hourglass description of the powder along with the ingredients list

In Canada these powders retail for $55 CND, and don't include a brush. The brush is sold separately and although it looks lovely I couldn't justify another $45 CND on a brush just for a powder. 

When I use this powder I actually find that I prefer to use this with a puff, rather than a brush. Personally I find that this gives the most product per area on my face but it easily can be used with a brush too if that is your preference for a less glowy look. One thing to make note of though is that this product is powdery, so either make sure you have a moisturizer on underneath, or blend well.

For the powder itself I broke down it's performance into four sections: the ability to blur pores, glow, colour-correcting ability, and longevity on my face.

First however here is the powder applied on my face where the only other makeup is a tiny bit of concealer on my under-eye circles as this isn't supposed to have an effect on them. I even left my acne and acne-scarring uncovered except for the hourglass powder so that you could really see any coverage.

Left is bare, Right is covered with Diffused light.

As you can see there is a slight difference when comparing the two sides, but it is subtle. It's not something you're going to be able to pick up really unless your looking for it. 

For it's ability to blur pores and fine lines I think is the weakest point for this powder. It does blur them the tiniest amount but not enough that if someone were talking to you they would be able to truly see a difference. As this was what I was hoping would be it's biggest strength I disappointed in this aspect.

I do think this product has fairly good colour-correcting abilities however, especially for a mostly translucent powder. If you look around the base of my nose you can see the redness I get on the left where it's much reduced on the right. Not perfect for acne by any means but for basic redness I do think it's decent.

As for glow this is another subtle one. I do like the subtle glow that this gives, and there definetly isn't a glitter problem which I know some people complained about, at least not with this shade. It does have a subtle brightening effect for the whole face, like you drank that water you were supposed to.

However the real kicker for me has to be the longevity of this powder. I'm still playing around with it but this stuff seems to disappear within about an hour for me. Yes, an hour. Granted this is with my combination-oily skin, but as I usually layer a foundation underneath this and concealer, I expect it to last at least three hours. It honestly just seems to disappear, it is very frustrating. 

I'm actually kind of broken-up about this powder. I want to love it. It was a gift from a loved one and the packaging is gorgeous. I like that it colour-corrects and adds a subtle glow. The fine-milled powder makes me feel decadent and special when I apply it with the puff. But it just doesn't hold up and the effect is so subtle I feel let down. Especially as you can't travel with it anywhere due to it's fragile nature, plus the price is so high. Overall I might have to return this.

Sprite Rating: 5/10

It lost two points for longevity, and a point each for minimal blur, fragility, and price (which I wouldn't have minded paying if the product lived up to it's claims).

Disclaimer: I received this product as a gift from a family member.

Stila Magnificent Metals Eyeshadows~ Swatches and First Impressions

The last time I was at Sephora I was instantly drawn to the new display for the Stila Magnificent Metals Eyeshadows. These are an insanely metallic and shiny eyeshadow formula with a sort of flake texture that is sort of sponge/cream finish. Very unique and unlike anything I've ever experienced before! I knew immediately that I needed to do swatches of the entire line for you all.

A couple things about application. From my experience (using my finger) these were easier to use the more liquid-like they were. The formula of these is identical between shades but as these come with a tiny vial of liquid primer it is reccommended to drop the liquid into the shadow pots. The amount you add the more liquidy they become. The easiest ones to use were the shades that people had added quite a bit of the primer too but not so much that the shadows became a runny goop. Also though it would be a pain due to the screw-top packaging I can totally see why they chose it because you wouldn't want to have the primer dry-out in the shadows between uses- it would be a huge waste of the tiny primer vial.

I didn't notice any other differences between shades other than the emerald shade stains like crazy. Which is sad because all the other shades were fine and I loved the emerald colour.

These retail for an insane $42 Canadian each (at Sephora) which includes one mini primer vial, one eyeshadow pot and one metal pan to mix in (which isn't really necessary in my opinion).

I swatched these two ways for you all, first on my fingers and then on my arm. Enjoy!

L-R: Metallic Cobalt, Metallic Emerald, Metallic Laurel

L-R: Vintage Black Gold, Comex Copper, Metallic Merlot

L-R: Comex Gold, Titanium, Comex Platinum

L-R: Metallic Lavender, Kitten, Metallic Dusty Rose

All together! T-B: Metallic Lavender, Kitten, Metallic Dusty Rose, Comex Platinum, Titanium, Comex Gold, Metallic Merlot, Comex Copper, Vintage Black Gold, Metallic Laurel, Metallic Emerald, Metallic Cobalt

B-T: Metallic Cobalt, Metallic Emerald, Metallic Laurel, Vintage Black Gold, Comex Copper, Metallic Merlot

B-T: Comex Copper, Metallic Merlot, Comex Gold, Titanium, Comex Platinum

B-T: Comex Platinum, Metallic Dusty Rose, Kitten, Metallic Lavender

L-R: Metallic Lavender, Kitten, Metallic Dusty Rose, Comex Platinum, Titanium

L-R: Comex Platinum, Titanium, Comex Gold, Metallic Merlot, Comex Copper, Vintage Black Gold

L-R: Comex Copper, Vintage Black Gold, Metallic Laurel, Metallic Emerald, Metallic Cobalt

As you can see from the swatches these are difficult to apply evenly. Like I mentioned before it was easier to apply these more evenly when they were wetter (such as with metallic merlot and comex platinum). All shades have the same sort of intense metallic finish, there truly isn't a difference I could see between shades as there sometimes is in ranges.

Overall I think these are really neat. I do think they'd take practise to use effectively as the flakes seem to go everywhere and a brush may be a better option than fingers- you may have to do some experimentation. At the price I'd put them as a luxury item to splurge on but if a shade really calls out to you I can see these making a statement look easily.

What do you all think? Are you intrigued?

Rouge Bunny Rouge Eyeshadows~ Swatches and Review Part 2

This review is going to feature Periwinkle Cardinal and Delicate Hummingbird.

To view Abyssinian Catbird and Resplendent Quetzal go to Part One!

Or there is Bashful Flamingo and Fire-Tailed Sunbird in Part Three.

Male and Female Northern Cardinals

Firstly for Periwinkle Cardinal. Gosh this name kills me. No Cardinals are Periwinkle in colour. None. There are 3 species of Cardinal, the Northern Cardinal as seen above, the Vermillion Cardinal a slightly orangey but still red cardinal and the Desert Cardinal seen below.

Desert Cardinal from E.J. Photo

As evidenced from the photos none of these birds are purple-blue (i.e. periwinkle). None of these birds are the green-blue of this eyeshadow either. WHYYYY?!!?!?
As a zoology major this bothers me. There are so many lovely birds that would fit this eyeshadow perfectly, even ones that are related to Cardinals such as the Indigo Bunting.

Indigo Bunting from Birds of Corpus Christi

Anyways, for this post we also have Delicate Hummingbird. This is also not named after a specific species of Hummingbird but I think we can all agree that Hummingbirds in general are rather delicate so I don't mind so much. Here are some photos of Hummingbirds that match the purple-taupe of this eyeshadow. See the purple-taupe bits on his belly?

Purple-Throated Mountain-Gem Hummingbird from Jim Scarff photography

Purple-throated Mountain-gem Hummingbird photo by Latafat Correa

So gorgeous!

L: Periwinkle Cardinal, R: Delicate Hummingbird

Periwinkle Cardinal is interesting as depending on the light it can look medium pine green with blue undertones, or blue with silver undertones. On the lid it's semi-sheer meaning it looks like your skin shows through the shadow at certain angles but not when you change the way the light hits it. If you build it up you can get a more intense look but it never quite covers your skin colour entirely. This allows it to be very wearable of course but is something to keep in mind if you like a more pigmented eyeshadow look. Personally for the depth of colour I was expecting something more pigmented as this semi-sheer consistency is better for a highlighter shade in my opinion. Delicate Hummingbird is similar in that sometimes it looks distinctly purple whereas other times it looks quite silver-taupe.

Left pair is over bare skin, middle is over Too Faced Shadow Insurance, Right is over Pixie Epoxy

As you can tell Delicate Hummingbird is the more pigmented shade. It's easy to build up and almost creamy in texture. It's also the longer lasting one, actually living up to the claim of long lasting. As with Abyssinian Catbird in the first part it seems to do best over bare skin for the long-lasting claim. Periwinkle Cardinal seems to fade over time, but lasts slightly more than Resplendent Quetzal from part one. It doesn't however last all day and it doesn't seem to do well over primer either. 

T-B: Urban Decay Flipside, Hi-Fi Slime and Snails, Barry M Kingfisher, Rouge Bunny Rouge Periwinkle Cardinal, Too Faced Rich Bitch duo blue side, Wet n' Wild dark green from Snow Sprite palette, Urban Decay Misdemenor

As you can see none of these really comes close to Rouge Bunny Rouge's Periwinkle Cardinal. Too Faced Rich Bitch has no green tones and has a gold highlight, whereas Hi-Fi's Slime and snails isn't as deep has a duochrome and mini glitter as well as lacking green undertones. They all seem to lack the silvered sage look that Periwinkle Cardinal has too.

Top: Rouge Bunny Rouge Periwinkle Cardinal, Bottom: Darling Girl Serenity

Then thinking I was finished of course I found a closer shadow match for Periwinkle Cardinal. Darling Girl's Serenity is very close in tone and just a tad bluer. It's also sparklier whereas the Rouge Bunny Rouge shadow is more satin-metallic in finish. Honestly on the eye I think either would work.

T-B: Urban Decay AC/DC, Urban Decay Mushroom, Rouge Bunny Rouge Delicate Hummingbird, Scaredy Cat Cosmetics Arctic Royal, Almay Green Eyes Trio purple shade

Delicate Hummingbird I actually found a very close dupe for as well. Surprisingly it was in one of my old Almay trio palettes called Trio for Green Eyes. The purple shade (if you can get ahold of that palette, I think it was discontinued but may still be avaiable online in some places) is a satin, less silvered version of Delicate Hummingbird. Delicate Hummingbird has better pigmentation and is a tad more complex but they are very close.

Would I buy these shades again? Though I have a dupe of the Delicate Hummingbird I would purchase this shade again due to the lovely pigmentation it has the neutral but still fun shade of it and the decent wear-time. The Periwinkle Cardinal I would not purchase again however due to the strange semi-sheer consistency of it. If I wanted that it would be great but I was hoping for a richer more true to pan colour, as it is a lovely unique shade. The only way I can see myself wearing this shade is over Pixie Epoxy whereas at least with Delicate Hummingbird I can wear it without extra prep.

Sprite Rating: 8.5/10 for Delicate Hummingbird, 6.5/10 for Periwinkle Cardinal

What does everyone think? Do you like either shade?

Rouge Bunny Rouge Eyeshadows~ Review and Swatches Part 1

This will be my first foray into designer high end cosmetics. Which basically means very expensive but luxury products. I had heard so much about Rouge Bunny Rouge being a wonderful brand and that their eyeshadows were noteworthy that I decided to take advantage of their summer sale one night when I was feeling especially crappy. I did research the heck out of these before purchase though due to their expense. I read a ton of reviews, looked up a bunch of swatches and even chatted with some people on a makeup forum board (Make-up Alley these peoples are the best!).
(This is Part one, you can see Part Two of the review Here!)

I did purchase six eyeshadows and one liquid blush/ gloss duo which will be divided into four reviews so you can really get an idea. As I spent over a certain amount I also received a free metal keychain too.

First some general thoughts. I hated the shipping method. HATED IT. Yes it shipped surprisingly quickly but if you don't order the minimum for reduced international shipping it costs about $20. That's crazy. Plus I wasn't told when the delivery man was coming so I missed the first two times he came as I was out of town. Then I found a slip on my door saying they weren't going to deliver again and that I owed an additional $40 in delivery fees and taxes (the taxes I'm okay with, I don't like them but they are a reality. However over $20  in extra delivery fees that I supposably already paid for was just bullsh*t.) Then I had to spend over half an hour trying to contact the delivery company (DHL if you're interested) just to get them to try and re-deliver, as their main office to pick up the package was hours away. Then of course the delivery I stayed home for didn't come. I had to spend another half-hour trying to contact them again. The blithered on about how they didn't know why the package didn't come. Basically if I hadn't called they wouldn't have delivered it again despite having made an appointment. Then I had to play phone tag for a bit with a supervisor to insure my package came the next day (holding up three of us before we were supposed to leave so we were there for the stupid package). On top of that the man wasn't exactly pleasant. You can be sure I will never be doing anything with DHL again and if I buy from Rouge Bunny Rouge again it won't be through their main boutique website but through a retailer instead.

Now onto the shades I purchased. I got Abyssinian Catbird a midtone brown khaki shimmer shade in a refill pan (a much cheaper option for a tad less product and no fancy package. The pan size is that of a Mac shadow.)
I also purchased Delicate Hummingbird in the same style (refill pan). Delicate Hummingbird is a medium-dark purple taupe shimmer.
Resplendent Quetzal is a lovely soft lime green with a tad of gold. This is also a shimmer shadow and it came in the full eyeshadow packaging with the single 2.4 gram pan in the black solid compact. It has it's own small mirror and like all the eyeshadow packages the strange flower fluff silhouette on the top.
Fire-Tailed Sunbird is in the full packaging too and is a medium-light coral peach with a pink reflect.
Periwinkle Cardinal is a midtone green-aqua shimmer. It's quite unique with an almost silver-blue shimmer to it.
And finally I bought the full size matte eyeshadow in Bashful Flamingo a light peach-pink almost skin colour shade. This is also 2.4 g in size and in the same packaging as the shimmer shades.
The lip gloss liquid blush duo I purchased was in Rumba- Cubana. The lip gloss (Rumba) is a lovely cream rosewood shade that is a perfect my lips but better shade and the liquid blush is in a dark peach-pink.

This first review will be for Resplendent Quetzal and Abyssinian Catbird.

Resplendent Quetzal Photograph from Judd Patterson Photography

Abyssinian Catbird photo by Rockjumper Birding Tours

Both of these eyeshadow names are based off of real bird species. I actually adore the Resplendent Quetzal, it may be my favourite bird species. So beautiful! With Resplendent Quetzal you can easily see where the colour of the eyeshadow came from but I looked and looked at pictures of Abyssinian Catbirds and couldn't for the life of me find any khaki or bronze on them. This bothers me as there are so many bright and colourful birds out there with every colour plumage in the world and you name an eyeshadow after one that doesn't have any on it. So weird. I mean use the name, just match it to the colour, like the beautiful red-orange on the species rear. That would be a lovely shadow and fit the name.

L: Abyssinian Catbird, R: Resplendent Quetzal

Above is in the direct sunlight. As you can see Abyssinian Catbird is a rich brown-khaki and Resplendent Quetzal is a light lime with golden tones.

L: Abyssinian Catbird, R: Resplendent Quetzal

Above the same eyeshadows in indirect light.

Here are the two shadows swatched. The first pair on the far left is without any primer, just on bare skin. The middle pair is on Too Faced Shadow Insurance, and the last most intense pair is on Pixie Epoxy. As you can easily tell to get the most out of these shadows you have to layer them over Pixie Epoxy, especially the Resplendent Quetzal. As for the long lasting claim on these I've found only the Abyssinian Catbird can live up to it- and only on bare skin. For some strange reason these don't stick around over primer, so sadly these shadows need to be layered over top of Pixie Epoxy. Which is a bit of a pain for a pressed eyeshadow.

The Abyssinian Catbird is really rich in pigment. I hardly have to use any at all to get the look I want. It also doesn't crease on me. The Resplendent Quetzal however needs multiple swipes to get the intensity you want from it. However because of this you can get a very wearable even office friendly look. It's a very subtle green due to it's warm tones. Unlike a bunch of other greens (even the closest of my stash shades which you can see later on in the review) it isn't in your face. They're both lovely unique shades but overall the Abyssinian Catbird is the better shadow. However both fade over eyeshadow primer relatively quickly when in comparison to over shadows and to really come alive you need them either wet or over Pixie Epoxy.

I wanted to show how unique the two shades are so I swatched them over Pixie Epoxy beside anything similar in my collection. Some were way off as you can tell!

T-B: Morgana's Crypt Mordred, Rouge Bunny Rouge Abyssinian Catbird, Urban Decay YDK, Mac Sumptuous Olive, Urban Decay Half Baked

Above is the similar shades for Abyssinian Catbird. As you can tell none of them are all that close to be considered dupes. Then of course after I finished that arm and washed it off I found another one that was closer and needed to compare it too so that's the photo below.

Top: Rouge Bunny Rouge Abyssinian Catbird, Bottom: Venomous Cosmetics Curse of the Werewolf

Curse of the Werewolf is the closest out of my collection and it isn't the same. A lovely contrasting colour I think as it's deeper than Abyssinian Catbird, but not a dupe. Curse of the Werewolf was Limited Edition but the nice think about Venomous Cosmetics is that the owner is very personable and easy to talk to, and if you ask nicely you can most likely get her to sell you the shade. (I've done this in the past with a shade no longer on the site and she generously found/mixed-up the shadow for me! How wonderful is that for customer service?)

Next of course is the closet of my stash to Resplendent Quetzal.

T-B: Venomous Cosmetics Fairytale Collection shade 4, Barry M Sparkle Dust in Emerald (72),  Nars eyeshadow duo right side in Wicked, Rouge Bunny Rouge in Resplendent Quetzal, Almay trio for Green Eyes lightest green shade, Urban Decay Homegrown

I've marked with a black circle in pencil eyeliner beside the Resplendent Quetzal swatch so you can easily move your eye back and forth between the shades without constantly trying to remember which is the real one. I know I always tend to lose the shadow in question and have to find it again. Hopefully this will help anyone else who gets easily distracted!

Top: Wet n' Wild Snow Sprite middle green, Bottom: Rouge Bunny Rouge Resplendent Quetzal

And of course like the Abyssinian Catbird shade I found a closer shade after the fact too. This one is from the old Limited Edition Wet n' Wild holiday palettes that came out in 2011. It's the second/middle of the green shades from the Snow Sprite palette. The Wet n' Wild shade actually has a green reflect you can only partially see in the shot above whereas the Resplendent Quetzal has a more golden tone. However I wouldn't say you need both.

The Rouge Bunny Rouge web boutique offers a 20% discount to established bloggers if you contact a representative. I also purchased these during their summer sale so I did get a bit off there too. However normally these are priced 20.17 Euros or approximately $26.88 USD for the larger shadow in the compact. The refil pans are 14.29 Euros or approximately $19.04 USD. No matter the currency you choose on the site you will be billed in Euros so keep that in mind.

The Resplendent Quetzal is in the full compact size and the Abyssinian Catbird is in the refill size. If you can get the refill size, do so as they are the size of a Mac eyeshadow pan and will fit into almost all refillable palettes. I don't recommend buying their refillable empty compacts due to the price of them. If you're like me you aren't ever going to get through a full one of these shadows anyways.

Hebridean Sprite Rating: Resplendent Quetzal 6.5/10, Abyssinian Catbird 8.5/10

Would I buy these shadows again? As much as I like the Resplendent Quetzal (especially the name) I wouldn't purchase the shade again as I do have the Wet n' Wild Night Elf palette. The warmth of it is wonderful and very unique but I dislike you need to use Pixie Epoxy or another sticky base to make it last all day.
As for Abyssinian Catbird due to the richness of the shade and the excellent pigmentation as well as the ability to last on the lid (even if it doesn't cooperate with primer at least it doesn't crease, though it does fade a bit) I would purchase it again, even with the crazy price of these. It's very unique and much more complex than my photos show.

There is more of the Rouge Bunny Rouge products reviewed in Part Two and Part Three.