The Holidays are coming! Today I’m kick starting the Christmas beauty releases by sharing my thoughts on the new Hourglass Ghost palettes; the Ambient Lighting Edit and the Blush Quad.
Confession time: While I adore Hourglass so much, this is the first year I’ve bought the Christmas palettes! I have a bug bear with Hourglass and it’s that pretty much every year they put existing blush shades in the palettes. One year, I had almost every shade in the palette, so it would have been pointless for me to buy it.
This year though? You get existing shades for the finishing powders and highlighter, but the bronzers and blushes are all new shades, bar one in the blush quad which I don’t own, so they’re all new to me.
I think the Hourglass blushes are one of the best formulas on the market, so when I have the opportunity to get 5 new shades, I’m doing it haha!! Let’s get into my review and swatches.
COST
Hourglass Ghost Ambient Lighting Edit – £75 for 6 shades.
Each powder is 1.4g for a total of 8.4g of product.
Cost per gram is £8.90
Hourglass Ghost Blush Quad – £45 for 4 shades
Each powder is 1.4g for a total of 5.6g of product
Cost per gram is £8.03
These palettes are limited edition, but you can still currently get them at John Lewis, Cult Beauty, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, Space NK and Liberty London – AS OF 10/10/19
PACKAGING
Each palette is heavy duty plastic, they feel nice and weighty. The base is clear plastic and the top is silver. Both palettes have a mirror in the top.
This year, I think the packaging is like marmite, you either love it or hate it. I don’t love it. I think the clear plastic looks a little cheap, especially as you can see the lines down the side of each pan. I wish they had done all silver or all clear. But I do understand that this year’s theme is ghost, so it does fit the theme.
SWATCHES
Ambient Lighting Edit:
Blush Quad:
REVIEW
Hourglass Ghost Ambient Lighting Palette:
This palette really is the perfect travel palette as you’ve got finishing powder which you can use to set your face, bronzer, blush and highlighter. I don’t bronze as I’m so pale, so I would use the bronzer on my eyes and you could use any of the other shades on your eyes too.
If I was going away for a couple of nights, I would just take this palette instead of any singles. All the powders are beautifully soft and pigmented, they blend like a dream. The highlighter is a little glittery, but when it’s on the skin it’s not noticeabley chunky with lumps of glitter.
This really is the perfect everyday palette, it’s just beautiful and I’m so happy to have it in my collection!
This palette is gorgeous, all the blushes are buildable, smooth, pigmented and easy to blend. I love the variety of shades, Brilliant nude is a little glittery, but the others aren’t. I feel like you get every type of blush you could need in here, a pink, nude, peach/coral and mauve blush. Again another great travel palette.
This palette is also more inclusive than the Lighting Edit as the shades are darker; you can totally sheer them out, but also build them up if you have darker skin than me (not difficult since I’m a ghost!!).
FINAL THOUGHTS
Whilst these are expensive for what you get, Hourglass is an expensive brand so I wasn’t expecting them to be great value. However, if you’re an Hourglass blush lover like me then you will love the fact that 5/6 of the shades are new. The packaging is sturdy and great for travel and they have great mirrors for makeup on the go too.
A few cons: the Ambient Lighting Palette is only really suitable for fair skin. Great for me, but not very inclusive. I think it would be great if they did a fair/light palette and then a medium/deep one. If you are darker than an NC35/NC40 I think half the palette probably won’t show up on you. You’d have more success with the blush quad as the shades are darker and you can build them up, but I still don’t think they are that inclusive.
The silver top may look smart… but only for about 5 seconds because it shows fingerprints like a bitch!! Before I’d even used the palette on my face the top was completely covered in marks. I tried cleaing it, but it’s pointless because as soon as you open it, it’s covered again! Just something to note.
I am so happy to have these in my collection, Hourglass have not let us down this year; new shades and great quality as always. I would definitely recommend you try these if they’re in your budget! They’re beautiful and useable, so I don’t think they would be the type of palette you buy, use once and then forget about!
DISCLAIMER: John Lewis link are affiliate, no others are, all products purchased by me.
Annie is a self-taught baker, recipe developer and food photographer, who has an obsession with dessert and beauty! 
