Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
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G’morning and happy hump day, lovebugs. 🙂 Some of your comments on Monday got me even MORE interested in the Hourglass Femme Rouge Velvet Creme Lipsticks (click here for the review), so I stopped by Sephora yesterday to get an even closer look.
I took swatches of the whole shebang collection (for reference, I’m an NC35). Take a gander, and let me know what you think.
From left: Fresco, Icon, Muse, Raven, Nocturnal, Fever
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Before El Hub I kissed quite a few frogs, and truth be told a few of those kisses were…awkward, like the one with Mr. Sharp Tooth (it was like a single vampire fang!), or the one with Señor Saliva (like kissing a slobbery puppy), or Mr. Mannequin (the dude never bent his elbows).
The first time I tried on the new Hourglass Femme Rouge Velvet Creme Lipstick ($30, available in 12 shades), I was reminded of those frog kisses, because, well, something felt…off.
The alley grew darker the deeper she went, but she knew he came this way, the cat with the tabby fur.
She sped around a corner and almost tripped on something metal and loud, a trash can maybe. She didn’t stop. It was dark, so dark. Out of breath, her heart racing, she barely made out the silhouettes of two dogs playing cards under a fire escape before she passed them.
“Which way’d he go?” she barked, pivoting on three-inch heels.
No answer. Damn scamps. She didn’t stop, couldn’t stop, just kept running, arms flailing wildly in the dark.
“Hello!” she cried out, to nowhere, to everywhere, to him. “Please, wait!”
Still nothing. So she kept running, deeper into the night. He was here. She knew it, somewhere, the cat with the tabby fur…
At $28 the new Hourglass Film Noir Mascara is priced more like a big budget Hollywood blockbuster than art house film noir.
Available in a single shade, Onyx, a deep, dark jet black, it borrows a page (or two) from Chanel’s new $30 Inimitable Intense Mascara — sleek, sophisticated packaging, similar lash lengthening prowess and volume plumping powers; all that, and it lifts curls, keeps them lifted all day long and resists smudging, too.
What Hourglass says about Film Noir…
- That it conditions and hydrates lashes with pro-vitamin B5
- That polymers in the formula help it adhere to lashes while also resisting smudging and fading
- The triple-cut, hourglass-shaped brush distributes the product across lashes while creating volume, lift and length
- It’s free of parabens, sulfates and pthalates
While similar, Inimitable’s spiky lash look limits its flexibility. It’s also not the easiest product to layer (gets clumpy and messy after one layer).
Film Noir has the smoother formula (how smooth is it?). It’s smoother than that sweet talking ex-boyfriend who kept making excuses for not returning your Notorious B.I.G. CDs…
I’m not bitter. 🙂
And it doesn’t clump at all, not even after three (or more!) layers, delivering beautiful definition.
Girls who wear warm colors well may like this year’s summer collection from Hourglass Cosmetics. It’s a tiny collection (just two pieces), and they aren’t the least expensive kids on the block.
What do we mean by “warm” or “cool” colors?
- Colors that lean toward red, orange or yellow, or contain their undertones (many browns, yellowish greens and orangey reds), are generally considered warm shades.
- Colors that lean blue or green (or bluish pink, purple, blueish green, magenta or blueish red) are typically called cool.
These two siblings hover in Chanel price airspace…Creme-to-Powder Bronzer Duo in Sunset will set you back $40, and Extreme Sheen High Shine Lip Gloss in Fortune clocks in at $28, but Hourglass makes sure you get good stuff for your money.
Fortune on the lips; Creme-to-Powder Bronzer Duo on cheeks
Creme-to-Powder-Bronzer Duo in Sunset houses a creamy, warm pink blush and a warm golden brown bronzer in a snazzy swivel-top compact. Both the blush and bronzer have all-day staying power, resist streaking and dry to a natural-looking matte finish.
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Illumine Sunset Creme-to-Powder Bronzer Duo ($40) and Extreme Sheen Gloss in Fortune ($28), available next month at Sephora and Barneys New York.
Full review in two shakes!
“Like sands through the hourglass, so are the ________________.”
There’s a new kid in town, and she’s a regular child prodigy — an Hourglass Prodigy, to be exact.
Prodigy, a new line of pocket-friendly lip glosses from luxury brand Hourglass, slides into Sephora stores later this month (Feb. 18), and small clutches everywhere are going wild! 🙂
But seriously, the six slick glosses cost $26 apiece, so they aren’t as cheap as their diminutive size might lead one to believe.
Still, their flat tubes seem kinda cool, don’t they? They’re designed to fit snugly into tight spaces like pockets or a tiny clutch.
I love it when companies push (or in this case squish) the envelope when it comes to design.
The top snaps off (took me a minute to figure it out) to reveal the angled applicator tip, and squeezing the body of the tube dispenses the product.
I just wish I could get Hourglass to tweak one thing…
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Well, hello, pigment! When it comes to color, Hourglass Cosmetics’ Extreme Sheen Lipgloss in Siren ($28), a shimmery reddish copper, does NOT mess around.
It’s like a technicolor dream in tube form! Super rich, right?
And opaque color isn’t the only thing this gloss has going for it…
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Heya, ladies! I’m having one of those days again…
My brain feels stretched in 10 different directions!
Concentration much? I’m so jumbled up right now that I’m not even gonna attempt to form a cohesive thought.
Whenever I have days like these, I like to just braindump my thoughts into a list.
I’ve seen the line carried at my nearby Sephora for a while, but I only just got around to giving it a try. The prices aren’t fantastic (products in the $25-65 range), but I like the texture, pigmentation and packaging of what I’ve seen so far.
Visionaire Eye Shadow Duo in Exhibition (left) and Lagoon (right), each $38
Primer Set in Veil/Solar Tan $56
Shade Eyeshadow in Petal (I have a feeling this might be discontinued; I’ve only found it online at eBay)
I’m digging the eyeshadows — super smooth with saturated color — and the Extreme Sheen Lipglosses look like standouts in the line.
Check out how opaque Siren is… YOWZA!
First row: Visionaire Eyeshadow Duo in Lagoon; Second row: Visionaire Eyeshadow duo in Exhibition; Third Row: Calligraphy Liquid Eye Liner in Ebony, Extreme Sheen Lipgloss in Siren, Shade Eyeshadow in Petal
Oh, I almost forgot. Hourglass is hosting a friends (LOL, I almost typed “fiends”) and family sale good through December 14. Enter promo code HGFRIEND at checkout to get 20% off. 🙂
