Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush Diffused Heat Review, Swatch

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush – Diffused Heat Review

There’s been a lot of hype surrounding this product, which I tried to resist, but my curiosity and love (obsession?) for blush got the better of me. Diffused Heat was the shade I wanted most among the six offered, and I was lucky when I chanced upon it still in stock on the website when Sephora had their sale earlier this year.

Price: 35 USD

The Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush is beautiful to look at. It’s in a reflective, bronze compact that looks pretty impressive, but it’s the pan of baked blush inside that’s beautiful. The marbling of the colors looks sooo lovely…
But I’ll cut this reverie to talk about the compact. Upon handling it I realized it’s actually made of plastic and not metal, and seems a bit flimsy. It’s got a mirror inside and is a handy size. The surface of the compact easily attracts fingerprints and it’s already got some minor scratches.

Now back to that beautiful pan of blush. Diffused Heat is described by Hourglass as a vibrant poppy blush combined with their Diffused Light finishing powder, which is a warm, pale yellow powder according to their website. That’s just how the pan looks like—pinkish red swirled with pale, golden yellow.

Hourglass recommends swirling the entire compact with a brush to get a balanced amount of each pigment, but I really don’t find that necessary. Doing that kicks up a lot of powder, and results to an excessive amount of powder on my brush! Instead I like to pat my brush on two separate areas, one with a lot of the pale yellow and one with a lot of pink-red.

The result, on my cheeks, is a medium peach-pink with red undertones. My skin tone is medium with yellow undertones, NC 35 at MAC. Diffused Heat also has some visible shimmer on my skin, which at first I was a bit dismayed by, because I wanted and expected a subtle sheen instead of obvious shimmer, but I’ve decided that it’s not too shimmery for me and that it’s okay for daytime

I’ll tell the truth: the color of this is not unique or remarkable, though it is pretty. But I like this blush a lot, because I’ve come to realize that my own personal hallmark of a good blush is not intense pigmentation or long wear time, but being easily blendable and having fine texture. It has to be silky, apply smoothly and blend beautifully into the skin. The color has to look like it’s part of the skin, not like it’s sitting on top of the skin. Set aside the shimmer in this, and Diffused Heat is like that. That’s why I like it a lot.

As for pigmentation, I’ve read mixed reviews, but I find this blush quite pigmented and buildable. It may look light and sheer in the swatch, but it really is nicely pigmented. I need to build it up slowly on my skin or it might end up looking too bright. It does not oxidize or turn patchy on me, and wear time for me is over several hours.

Swatch:

Pros:
• It blends so nicely, so smoothly on the skin.
• The color is pretty and flattering on my skin tone.
• It’s pigmented; color is buildable.
• It’s beautiful to look at.
• The compact looks sleek, has a mirror.
• Unscented.
• Doesn’t oxidize or turn patchy on me
• Wears quite long on my skin.

Cons:
• Expensive.
• Not easily available outside the US.
• May be too shimmery for some.
• The compact shows fingerprints.

Would I repurchase? Yes.

Rating: 4.5/5

Overall: It lives up to the hype—because it suits my preferences. It may be more shimmery than I expected, but it blends so very nicely into the skin, is pigmented, wears long, and it’s pretty (the product itself and when worn). It’s worth a look!

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