Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit Surreal Light Palette Review

One of the most beautiful holiday releases of the year so far has to be the new Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit Surreal Light Palette ($80).  It's visually stunning inside and out and the shades inside are all brand new, which is a big improvement over last year's Ambient Edit (which only had one new shade and the rest were from their core collection).

But it's also one of the more expensive palettes you'll come across, especially for how much product is inside. So is it worth the high price tag? Let's take a look...

The packaging is something totally different than we've seen from Hourglass in the past. Their usual packaging is a deep bronze color and attracts fingerprints like crazy. This palette looks like it's made from marble (it's a very solid, sturdy plastic) and is one of the reasons I bought it because it's so beautiful and unique.

The Surreal Light Palette contains five shades...the largest of which is .14 oz. and the rest are .04. This brings the total powder weight to .30 oz- almost identical to last year's palette which was .294 oz.
Here's how the costs break down:

• A Full size Ambient Lighting Powder is 0.35 oz. for $46.00  ($132.87/oz.)
• A Full size Ambient Lighting Blush is 0.15 oz. for $38.00 ($253.08/oz.)
• A Full size Ambient Lighting Bronzer is 0.39 oz. for $50.00 ($128.21/oz.) 

This palette works out to be $266.40/oz. so it's more expensive per oz than buying the full sizes. However, it's a cheaper option than purchasing all of the full sizes, especially if you want to try the blushes, bronzer, highlighter and Ambient powder all at the same time. 

Many people have told me that they feel that this palette is overpriced (based on the feedback I've gotten on social media), and if you look strictly at the numbers that's definitely true. I feel that this should be priced closer to $60. 

But many other people have told me that it's worth the extra cost to them between the beautiful packaging, and the ease of having all of their face products in one convenient palette. Not to mention, this is the only way to try these new shades at the moment. 

The Surreal Lighting palette contains soft, warm tones that are meant to re-create the ultra-flattering effect of the "magic hour"(the time shortly before sunrise or sunset). This gives your skin a soft, natural glow and the soft-focus technology helps to minimize the appearance of wrinkles and imperfections, while toning down discoloration.

Shades include:

• 0.14 oz Ambient Lighting Powder in Surreal Light (sheer nude) 
• 0.04 oz Ambient Lighting Bronzer in Surreal Bronze Light (neutral tan with Surreal Light) 
• 0.04 oz Ambient Lighting Blush in Surreal Glow (pale peony pink with Surreal Light),
• 0.04 oz Surreal Effect (cool, pink rose with soft, warm peach) 
• 0.04 oz Ambient Strobe Lighting Powder in Surreal Strobe Light (glimmering peach) 

In my opinion, these shades work best on fair to medium skin tones...I don't think that the blushes and bronzer would really show up on anyone who has a deeper skin tone. The shades are very light, soft and natural and the powders are silky, smooth and feel amazing on the skin.

The Ambient Powder in Surreal Light is an all-over finishing powder and is a slightly warmer version of Dim Light (which is one of my favorites because it's so subtle without a lot of "glow"). Surreal Light doesn't accentuate pores or imperfections and gives a beautiful all-over warmth to my cool-toned skin.
The Surreal Glow Blush is a soft, peachy nude that's perfect for every day, while the Surreal Effect Blush is a brighter pink that gives a little more color. They're each beautiful on their own and I also love mixing the two together for a custom shade.
The Surreal Bronze Light is the perfect bronzer for fair to light skin tones...it's not the slightest bit orange and adds just the right amount of warmth to your face.
Finally, the Surreal Strobe Light contains the most shimmer in the palette but it's not a super-intense shimmer, so it keeps in line with the soft theme of the palette. It definitely shows up on my cheekbones and creates that "pop" but you can't really overdo it.

Overall, the Hourglass Surreal Light Palette is quite a splurge but I have to say...I love it! When I wear these shades on my skin, I feel like I look more beautiful...it's kind of hard to explain, but they give my pale, cool-toned skin a healthy glow that somehow manages to look like I'm not wearing any makeup at all. I'm all about looking natural, so that's what I love best about this palette.
In the end, I really wasn't disappointed because I know I'll use every shade in this palette on a very regular basis and I hope that Hourglass will release these shades individually at some point! 

Yes it is expensive but if you have fair to light skin that needs a little pick-me-up (without looking obvious), it might be worth splurging on. 

The Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit Surreal Light Palette is available at Sephora now for VIB and VIB Rouge members, and will be available soon for everyone. 

What do you think of the new Hourglass Surreal Light Palette? Will you be getting this one? 

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