My only makeup purchase from 2018 holiday collection is this Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit ‘Unlocked’ palette. I love the Hourglass formula. Be it a blush or a bronzer, the formula is so finely milled that it never look heavy or cakey on skin. The time I placed this order, Ambient Lighting Edit 4 was already released. The reason I decided I choose this one is that all the 6 shades in the Unlocked Palette are new. 

Hourglass Cosmetics are moving towards being 100% vegan by 2020 and the new bunny symbol on the palette indicates that it is 100% vegan. Five percent of profits from this 100-percent vegan and cruelty-free palette will go to support the Nonhuman Rights Project. In this post I’d be featuring the ‘Unlocked’ Palette.

This multitasking, vegan palette features six all-new, exclusive shades of Ambient Lighting Powder, Bronzer, Blush, and Metallic Strobe Lighting Powder.

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit Unlocked Palette – $80

It’s a beautiful palette and the moment I saw it online I knew, I wanted it. Being an Hourglass cosmetics fan plus this being a limited edition palette – There was nothing else to reconsider about buying this beauty.

First thing I noticed upon opening the palette is – It doesn’t have that sort of golden sheen kind of a look as how it’s shown in the online pictures. All 6 shades are unique and beautiful. 

Love the beautiful reflective plastic rose gold palette with a full-sized mirror inside. Though the packaging is attractive, it attracts fingerprints. The ‘H’ embossing on the palette front has a little bunny on it which indicates it as brand’s first fully vegan product. Palette is quite sturdy. But, I would still pack it in a sponge case to avoid any damage when I am taking it while travelling.

One thing which I want to point out – Don’t expect the pans to full size powders.  I am not going-in too much detail on this part. You might have a slight trouble while picking product using bigger brushes. Like for eg- powder brush. You might sweep away some of the other shades while picking your intended shades. That’s totally ok for me. You can still easily work with a tapered brush or a pointed highlighter brush and then after putting the color on. You can blend it perfectly. I like to use my double ended Pixi Beauty brush which looks pretty similar to the Hourglass one.

‘Unlocked’ Palette  the perfect holiday gift for yourself or your loved ones. What make this palette unique than previous versions is that all of the shades are brand new and exclusive to this palette, not sold individually. The previous versions of Hourglass Edit palettes included one or more shades from permanent line. Unlocked Palette is going to be an add-on palette for people like me who already own a lot of Hourglass products. I don’t like palettes with repeated shades. When the palette itself cost a lot of money – I would prefer it to contain new and exclusive shades and in that way this is a huge plus for me.

In the below picture you can see a close-up of the shades. 

Shades in detail (L-R, clockwise)

Each pan contains 0.04 oz/ 1.13 g of powder.

– Ambient Lighting Powder in Soft Light (soft, subtle peach), Filtered Light (cool, medium tone)
– Ambient Lighting Bronzer in Golden Bronze Light (neutral, golden bronze)
– Ambient Lighting Blush in Nude Glow (shimmering light amber), Mood Flush (soft plum)
– Metallic Strobe Lighting Powder in Champagne Strobe Light (true champagne)

According to Hourglass, All six powders in this set are formulated with pure Photoluminescent Technology to capture, diffuse, and soften surrounding light for skin that appears softer, younger, and lit from within. 

If you look at the overall look of this palette, First thing you will notice is how warm toned it is. Which means – it’s going to look gorgeous on medium-warmer skintones. Some of you might think – It’s not worth spending so much for a palette when the shades look like they are easily dupable. But, the catch is – It’s formula.

The formula is so unique and that’s what which make me addicted to Hourglass – It looks beautiful on skin and it blends easily without settling into fine lines, nor do they emphasize pores. I have a combination skin and none of these powders appear cakey or dry on my skin. It wears beautifully and when it catches light it gives that really natural looking glow on your skin. Perfect for any kind of looks. They last all day long. 

Here’s a picture with flash

In the first swatch picture, you can see the shades in natural daylight without flash. Swatches are double swipes. Softly swatched

• FINISH: Apply Soft Light or Filtered Light all over the face 
• BRONZE: Contour along the temples, hollows of the cheeks, and jawline with Golden Light 
• BLUSH: Apply Nude Glow or Mood Flush to the apples of the cheeks 
• HIGHLIGHT: Apply Champagne Strobe Light to the high points of the face – tops of cheeks, bridge of nose, brow bone and cupid’s bow

Soft Light and Filtered Light ambient lighting powders have a satin finish, No noticeable shimmers to them. Gives the best natural finish. Beautiful powders that blend well to the skin. Doesn’t appear chalky at all. Gives a beautiful finish. I love Soft light to set my under eyes and use a mix of soft light and filtered light as a overall finishing powder for my face. It reflects light beautifully.

Golden Bronze Light is a beautiful bronzer.  Adds warmth to face giving the perfect sunkissed glow. It has a satin finish too. The shimmers in it are so perfectly blended and it looks lovely on skin.

Nude Glow is a peachy-nude blush; A peachy version of famous NARS orgasm blush or Sleek Rosegold blush. It looks like it has a lot of glitters on the pan and also when swatched. On the face, the glitters are not chunky kind at all. It gives a shimmer glow kind of a look.

Mood Flush is a mauve blush with a satin finish and has no particular shimmers. It’s a good blush for warmer skin tones.

Champagne Strobe is the only highlighter in this palette. It wears beautifully too.

Overall, its a good palette with all new shades from Hourglass. The formula is excellent, very finely milled; blends beautifully. One, con I found is – Since each pan is small, You might find it difficult to pick a single color using brushes. Use small tip brushes instead. I use tapered highlighter brush. The Strobe and Sculpt brush from Pixi Beauty works well with this or Sigma Beauty F35 Tapered Highlighter Brush works well too.

You get to work with six brand new exclusive shades of highlighter, 2 blushes, bronzer, and 2 finishing powders. Also, Unlocked Palette is the brand’s first 100% vegan palette.  Hourglass has to become the first 100% vegan, cruelty-free luxury beauty brand by 2020. If that all doesn’t sound good enough, 5% of all profits from the palette will go to the Nonhuman Rights Project, an organization that works to secure legally recognized fundamental rights for animals. Another good thing about this palette is that you can mix and match any of the powders together to create a custom blend. I can’t recommend this palette enough. The shades live upto its claims. Gives you that diffused glow look, airbrushed effect, beautifully blends, no emphasizing of pores, diffuse beautifully leaving the natural glow. Total love! Also, a great way to try so many different shades in one palette! How cool is that!

Availability – Hourglass Ambient Lighting Unlocked retails for $80 is available on Sephora.com and HourglassCosmetics.com ; It’s a limited edition palette.

Do you like Hourglass products, What are your favorites ?