i saved these ones for a separate post, although they came as part of my aforementioned sephora haul. i'd been curious about this brand for a while, since it's still fairly new and unknown. offering a mix of luxury-level colour cosmetics and a small number of accessories, their range is narrow but classic. you won't find hot pinks or chartreuse greens in their offering, but their fans appreciate their muted, understated palette and rave about the brand's quality.quality in this case is important, because the brand is priced on a level with prestige names like chanel and yves st. laurent. that's a ballsy move for a small company less than a decade old, but word of mouth had it that they warranted the hype, so i decided to give them a try.
SEE HOW MY HOURGLASS GAMBLE PAID OFF...
i ordered two items, one of their eyeshadow duos [they only sell shadows in pairs- six of them, to be exact] and one of their femme rouge lipsticks [available in twelve shades total].
visionaire shadow duo "prism" :: well i almost forgot to start looking at the product in the package because the package itself was so very cute. housed in a signature bronze case with a magnetic closure [i adore the neatness of magnetic closures on anything short of clothing] and a decent size mirror that swivels on a little ball pedestal. i'm not sure why i'd need the mirror to swivel, but i have a feeling i'll figure that out later on [although it did make it easy to photograph the product itself!].of any of the duos, this one really called my name because of its obvious smoky eye potential. it's a combination of a very shimmery cool grey and a rich black with a lot of silver sparkle. these are the sorts of colours that i can wear [well, not just me, anyone can wear them, really] anywhere, and which can be made fairly subtle or quite intense. the colour payoff on both shades was impressive. just touching them with a brush picked up a lot of product but i found that i could work pretty quickly and sheer out the colour if i found it too heavy.
because of the shimmery quality of both shadows, i found it easier to work with a slightly damp brush
[damp not wet] to keep any fallout from occurring. both shades were very smooth and easy to work with and made a perfect smoky-eyed combo. i found the black in particular seemed to apply perfectly with a couple of taps and really stayed put [enough that i basically used it as a liner as well]. the silvery shade was cool, but not too blue on me- i think that it will be fun pairing it with other shades to see how it "interacts" with them. there's a surprising depth to the colour and i think that the light, adjacent colours, and other factors would subtly shift how it appears.$38usd/ $44cad [medium on the currency gouging index]
available at sephora internationally or direct from www.hourglasscosmetics.com in the united states
femme rouge lipstick "raven" :: someone is going to have to explain to me how this ended up getting named "raven", because i can imagine very little that reminds me less of a glossy raven's feather than this fiery orange-red lipstick. i'm not complaining, just a little curious.the texture of this lipstick is described by the company as "velvet crème" [i'd also like to know at what point the word "cream" was banned in cosmetics marketing, forcing everyone to start saying it in french], which immediately brings to mind something rich, thick, intensely saturated with colour... which is about as good a description as i can give. it takes very little product to get completely opaque coverage and the lipstick feels incredibly plush with even a single swipe. dry lips will love the moisturising feeling it imparts and the fact that it does not settle into lip lines at all. i found it made my lips look instantly perfect and, of course, incredibly dramatic.
if you're not a big fan of lipstick, or prefer a lighter lipstick, this may not be the formula for you. what seems rich and luxurious to some is going to seem heavy to others, so take the description as being a pretty good indicator of what you're going to end up with. [note- this is a very intense colour, so lighter shades may not feel as heavy.]about the only thing that i didn't like about the lipstick is an unfortunate side effect of many moisturising lipsticks- it feathered around the edges after a few hours of wear. i wouldn't say the feathering was very bad, but there was definitely some blurriness. i'd recommend using a lip liner [mac's "redd" would be an almost dead-on match] to get the best results.
other than that, the wear time seemed good- it faded noticeably after a few hours, but any colour this deep is going to leave a nice stain, even when it fades [slightly shyer maidens might actually prefer to wear it blotted, as a stain, in order to mute its awesome power]. the quality on these product definitely puts it in line with equivalently priced product. in fact, i'd say that they're as good or better than what i've seen from a lot of prestige brands. as i mentioned, the colour selections are limited but thoroughly classy. these are shades that give a feeling of luxury which, after all, is what you want from a luxury item.
$30usd/ $35cad [medium on the c.g.i.]- once you've purchased the lipstick, you can buy refills for about $5 less when you run out
available at sephora internationally or direct from www.hourglasscosmetics.com in the united states
and here's a look i did incorporating both products on a bright summer day. because i wanted to "pull" the blue tones in the grey shade, i layered mac's "siahi" fluidline as a base on the lower part of my lids. i feel it's worth noting that, skipping that step [which is a little finicky], this look can be done easily in five minutes. no fooling. i felt that the look was glamourous enough that i needed a really glamourous sidekick to pull it off...
face ::
nars sheer glow foundation "mont blanc"
lush colour supplement "jackie oates" [used as a kind of highlighter]
diorskin nude hydrating concealer "001"
eyes ::hourglass visionaire e/s duo "prism"
mac e/s "vanilla"
mac fluidline eye liner "siahi"
mac pearlglide eye liner "black swan"
ysl faux cils mascara
cheeks ::
nars blush "new order"
mac highlight powder "honey light"
mac blush "darkly, my dear"lips ::
hourglass l/s "raven"
and if you'd like to see something different, you can check out this beautiful look on "red lips, black hair" that features hourglass "raven" as well.