Hourglass Ambient Lighting Bronzer

In the last couple of months I have become completely besotted by Hourglass makeup, it is a brand that has been popping up a lot lately on my blog. Their products continue to blow me away and my latest Hourglass love comes in the form of their brand new Ambient Bronzer. I have been waiting patiently for the release of these for what seems like ages now and I finally got my hands on one Friday, which you may have already spotted in yesterday's haul. Today I am going to be doing a first impressions type post and the shade I picked up was Luminous Bronze Light.

Summer Beauty Haul | Real Techniques, Hourglass, John Frieda & more

All of a sudden we find ourselves in the middle of May (!) and bloody hell, summers right on the doorstep now. I went shopping yesterday intending to buy only one thing and ended up coming home with a few more bits than I expected to, but lets just call it getting ready for summer...

Hourglass Immaculate Foundation Review

I've been looking forward to doing this review on my blog for a while now, but I knew that I wanted to take my time and collect all my thoughts on it carefully before writing them down. But basically the Hourglass Immaculate Liquid to Powder Foundation has been an enormous game changer for me. I had never even heard of this foundation but as I explained in my recent haul a lady working on the Hourglass counter introduced me to it and I sort of haven't looked back since.

Immaculate is a liquid foundation but as the name suggests it does turn to powder making it a matte foundation. I've never owned a matte foundation but I was willing to give this a go as its supposedly great for acne prone skin because it absorbs your skin's natural oils which as a result gives you this fantastically long wearing foundation, two big ticks already. When you apply this foundation it feels lovely and silky, not what I expected from something claiming to be matte - however because it does turn to powder you don't want to hang around buffing this into the skin as it sort of sets relatively quickly.

Once buffed into the skin (recommended with a brush) this foundation becomes what I can only describe as weightless, it literally feels like I'm not wearing a scrap of makeup which for a medium to full coverage foundation is amazing. This tackles redness, covers blemishes well and gives my skin an effortlessly flawless finish. I was expecting the finish to be somewhat flat because it is a matte foundation however it makes your skin look so vibrant and healthy.

One thing that I would say is that properly moisturizing your face and neck ahead of using this is essential because of its matte tendencies or it will highlight any dryness. But as long as you apply a moisturizer beforehand you should be fine. My skin type is normal so I can get away with wearing this however if you are dry then I'm not sure how well this foundation would work, however for all the oily skinned girls out there this would be fabulous.

I was matched to the shade porcelain which is an absolutely perfect match to my skin tone. Since using this my skin has seemed a lot calmer, I haven't had any crazy out of control breakouts. My skin just seems to agree with this foundation, I can wear it on a daily basis and it doesn't cause any breakouts which is another bonus as I find so many foundations upset my skin.

I cannot even begin to explain what this foundation has done for me in terms of confidence and for that alone it has been worth every penny for me.  Which brings me on to the price tag, yes this is probably one of the heftiest priced foundations on the market at a steep £50 but the quality is 100% reflected in the price. To me it has no downfalls at all which makes it worth the money, it honestly lasts on your face all day so you don't need to make touch ups meaning what you apply in the morning will still be looking as good by the time you go to take it off. It comes in a glass bottle with a pump which feels quite luxurious but I suppose you would expect that from such a high end product.

Before Immaculate I had lost a bit of love and trust in my foundations as none of them were cutting it either the shades weren't right or the coverage wasn't there. Basically I wasn't very satisfied but now I actually look forward to putting on my makeup each morning as I know I am going to get gorgeous results every time. Definitely the best makeup purchase I've made this year.

Wearing Hourglass Immaculate Foundation

QOTD: Have you tried Immaculate? What's your favourite high end foundation?

Things Got Spendy: An Hourglass Haul

Hourglass is one of those luxury brands that I have admired from afar. When a counter opened at my nearest John Lewis department store last summer I managed to stay away with just one purchase which was their Arch Sculpting Brow Pencil which if you've read my review was a bit of a hit and miss product for me. I think that my mixed feelings on the brow pencil kept me away for a while, however a couple of weeks ago I happened to make a detour and pass the Hourglass counter. I was stood absentmindedly looking at all the beautiful products - I mean honestly I think their items are some of the most beautiful products out there - I must have been looking like a lost puppy as I was approached by the makeup artist.

I happened to be having a bit of a makeup free day - just an eye makeup/lipstick kind of thing going on, and I have to say my skin was looking dreadfully sorry for itself. The lady on the counter didn't miss out on my bare blemished skin either, as she began pointing me in the direction of the foundations. She was chatting away to me about one of their foundations: Immaculate Liquid to Powder and was basically telling me how amazing it was. Admittedly I'd never heard of it before but I listened with interested anyway.

At the time I wasn't really looking for a new foundation, I was just having an innocent, casual browse, but the girl really did seem pretty passionate and seriously knew her stuff about this foundation. I was offered a colour match and so I thought, why not it can't hurt? The girl told me to take a seat at the counter while she found my colour, she tried two on my jawline: one was a bit too pink toned for me however the second was literally the closest colour match to my skin that I have ever seen in a foundation. And it felt so... weightless.

Right away it had my attention. And so I let the girl apply the foundation to my entire face while she continued to talk about the ingredients inside the product and some of the science behind it. The result of the makeup was seriously impressive. My imperfect skin was transformed to, well almost what you would call perfection. When she was finished the girl handed me a sample to take home and try myself which I was really pleased about, too often I think I have bought foundations on a whim without actually giving them a trial before purchasing. Plus there was no way I was going to go out and buy such an expensive luxurious product without doing a bit of my own research.

You can see where the story ends here. I fell head over heels. And so once I had saved many pennies up I headed back to Hourglass, unable to be without the foundation once my sample had run out. I won't say a lot more because I am going to do a full review on this soon. But I will say for now its been worth every penny. And while I was feeling ridiculously high on my splurge to Hourglass I went all out and picked up one of the Ambient Lighting Powders in Diffused Light. Now these I had heard plenty about and I thought there was no better time than to add one to my makeup collection as they are truly stunning. I most certainly am loving Hourglass as a brand at the moment and I also got a handful of free goodies to try with my purchase including a mascara, lipstick and some of their famous veil primer!

QOTD: What beauty products have you splurged on lately?

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush Palette

Towards the end of last year Hourglass released its limited edition three shade blush palette and it was safe to admit that the beauty loving world swooned at its loveliness. At the time of its release around Christmas I knew that a hefty £50 splurge on a blusher palette was the last thing I needed however much I coveted after this gorgeous temptation from Hourglass. Now I know that I might be a bit of a tease in writing this post as generally speaking it is now unavailable to buy because it was limited edition. However my local counter at a John Lewis department store miraculously had a few left over.

Last month when I saw that they still had some of the limited edition stock left I was extremely tempted but walked away and told myself if it was still there the next time I happen to go past I would get it. When I went back earlier this week, a palette still remained. And so I could resist the temptation no longer. The moral of this story is that if you didn't get your hands on this palette at the time and you are still after it, it may be worth a scope around your nearest counters! You never know.

This is undoubtedly the most beautiful item of makeup that I own to date, visually everything from the packaging to the three shades of deliciously pigmented powders are just a dream to look at. What I like about the palette is that each of the three shades, Luminous Flash, Incandescent Electra and Mood Exposure offer something slightly different meaning I will probably never need to buy another blusher again! Luminous Flash is a gorgeous rosy pink, while Incandescent Elecrta has a peachy tone to it and Mood Exposure is more on the plum side of things also meaning that this palette will see you perfectly through all the seasons.

Not a cheap investment to say the least, however to buy the blushers individually these cost £28 and although you get less product as the trio it does works out cheaper per blusher plus they are all in one convenient palette. I do believe that Incandescent Elecrta is limited only to this palette, so you can't buy that on its own - this also happens to be my favourite in the palette as I do love me a peachy hued blush. Needless to say all three look stunning when applied, they create a gorgeous natural glow that catches the light making them really illuminating without making you look overdone. I am besotted with this beautiful palette, it was well worth my patient waiting to get my hands on it!

QOTD: Did you manage to get hold of the Hourglass Ambient Blush Palette?

Hourglass Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil (Blonde)

Today I'm finally doing a review on the Hourglass Arch Pencil which you may have seen that I picked up well over a month ago as I popped it in a haul. However there were a few reasons that I took my time writing this post as I wanted to make sure I gave it a completely fair and honest trial, and so just as a warning now you may want to grab a cup of tea and get comfortable as this is going to be a long one.

As I'm sure you already know The Hourglass Arch pencil is one of those brow products that always gets compared to as being one of the best on the market, alongside the Anastasia Brow Wiz pencil, but it comes at a price. I put off buying it in hope that I would find a cheaper alternative that I enjoyed and this quest was met with little luck, Mac and Sleek to name just a few that I've reviewed on the blog and I've tried plenty more that I haven't bothered talking about on here for similar reason. Last month an Hourglass counter opened at my local John Lewis department store and I finally gave in to temptation and picked up the arch brow sculpting pencil in blonde.

Spoken about by so many as 'the best' and a 'holy grail' product. I had high hopes to say the least. With its undeniably dreamy packaging that both looks and feels exquisite, at one end comes a lovely firm spoolie brush and a retractable pencil at the other, on the outside it certainly looks like it fits the bill. I couldn't wait to get home and use it, I was barely through the door before I had a bottle of makeup remover in hand ready to take off my existing eyebrow product so I could play with the Hourglass pencil. Yep - this is it, I thought, I've finally found an eyebrow product I'm going to love. It was like the first few days of a new relationship - exciting and full of hope that something special will become.

The colour choice was perfect for me. The texture of the pencil was a dream to work with. The packaging was totally luxurious. I was besotted.

However, on about the third or fourth day after buying this disaster struck. Half way through doing my eyebrows the retractable end completely stopped working. The entire pencil section plopped out of the packaging and thankfully I do my makeup standing over my worktop and so I managed to catch it in time. This was so completely unexpected, like what the heck!? I've never heard of anything like this happening even with a drugstore product let alone a high end brow product. I managed to carefully distribute the fragile looking pencil back in its casing but the retractable bit had completely given up the ghost and wasn't going up and down at all. I was not impressed to say the least and was straight back to my Hourglass counter within the week where they did let me change it for a new one.

This time when I arrived home with my 'new' (and by that I mean the second) Hourglass Arch Brow pencil I didn't get the same excitement that I felt as the first time. The whole experience of having the pencil section fall out the end really put a bit of a damper on the thrill of what is supposed to be such a high quality product. And every time I used the new replaced pencil for the first little while it felt like I was on tender hooks and I was going about it very carefully in case history repeated itself.

A few weeks passed and it seemed as though the disaster of the first pencil was all just a nasty dream. I took the Hourglass Arch Pencil away with me on my holiday without any problems, got home everything was fine then a few days later came September favourites time. I concluced that because generally speaking I really enjoy this as brow product as a whole despite the first little mishap that it would be a monthly favourite.

 On the morning I wrote my September favourites I gathered all my products together took the picutres, put the camera away to one side and went about my normal morning routine, jumped in the shower, dried my hair, went to put my makeup on - go to use the Hourglass pencil and I heard the retractable end make a bit of a funny clicky noise. And to my absolute horror I realised that the pencil part had become loose in the packaging again, and so if you were to tip the pencil all the way downwards it would completely fall out of the packaging again as it did before. Weridly the retractable part still goes up and down unlike the first time where it just seemed to stop working altogether. But it still leaves me with the problem that the pencil part of mine seems to be loose and could fling out at any minute if I'm not careful with it.

I'm completely at a loss with this product and don't really know what I should do about it. I don't think I even have the receipt to take it back for the second time plus I wouldn't even want a replacement now I think I'd rather just have my money back as in my opinion this is utterly unacceptable for a £25+ product to happen not once but twice! Plus I just feel a bit fed up keep having to faff about returning stuff that should have just worked properly in the first place for the price it is.

This has to be the most frustrating thing ever because in principal I love the product but at the same time I absolutely hate it because of what has happened with mine (twice I tell you people!) I don't know if there was a bad batch in production or if this has ever happened to anyone else's but it certainly won't be a product I can ever recommend to anyone unless they want to throw away money like I feel I have. Biggest, biggest regret ever buying this product. How did this happen and how have I had such terrible luck with such a loved beauty item? I'm bitterly disappointed.

 

QOTD: Have you tried the Hourglass Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil? How did you find it?

Tempted: Yet Another Beauty Haul

When planning yesterday's shopping trip I had every intention of being on my best behaviour (honest I did.) With my holiday at the end of the month I am trying to save all the pennies I can for that which is just around the corner. But then Nars happened. Followed by Hourglass. Yep, my prayers had been answered and my local John Lewis department store finally got their buts into gear and graced us with two beautiful new Nars and Hourglass counters. I know you can buy all these things online but its not the same when you can't see it in person or have a good old swatch away and feel the packaging in your very hands. You know what I'm getting at. And so obviously all good intention went flying out the window from there on out. Can you blame me though? I mean it would have been rude not to right?

The first item that lead me into temptation was the Nars Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturiser. I was lucky enough to receive a free sample of this product from my recent trip to Selfridges during the summer which I have since used up and it firmly earned a place on my never-ending Nars wish list. Temptation number two may have something to do with my recent obsession with red lips, say hello to Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Dragon Girl. This is a lip product that I have been eyeing up all year long, as I have apparently heard Taylor Swift uses it so naturally this is something I need in my life. One swatch on the back of my hand in store confirmed that Dragon Girl needed to be added to my collection, the colour is fierce.

As if a brand new Nars counter wasn't enough of a temptation for one day, literally next door sat another all new beauty counter: Hourglass. How dreamy are Hourglass products? I mean come on. I definitely need one of those blushes in my life in due course! However blusher wasn't on the agenda for yesterday. For a little while now I've been on the hunt, unsuccessfully for a holy grail eyebrow product and I've heard so many rave reviews about the Hourglass Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil that I simply couldn't resist a purchase.

After the excitement that was John Lewis naturally I had to have a quick whiff of the new Jo Malone cologne Wood Sage & Sea Salt  on a little tester - lets just say I can see what all the fuss is around this new fragrance. A definite new entry to the wish list... It wouldn't be a proper beauty haul without a Boots visit would it now? I finished off the shop with a skincare product that I'm going to take on holiday and that is the Origins Drink Up-Intensive Overnight Mask. This is another well loved item in the beauty world that I wanted to try out, I love that Origins do the 50ml options that are so handy when you want to try a new product but not sure if you want to spend the full amount. Lastly a bit of a impromptu purchase and that was the Sally Hansen Double Duty Base & Top Coat. I'm trying to invest in a product that will make my nails last a bit longer without chipping, so I thought I'd give this a go.

So there you have it, thats what happens when your local department store finally add two very exciting new beauty counters. Or at least thats what happens if you're me, or any other self-confessed beauty hoarder for that matter... Welcome to my life Nars and Hourglass ;)

QOTD: What beauty products have you been tempted by recently?