Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush Review
The Insider Score
Powder blushesCheek colour and finishing powder in the same sweep.
Ambient Lighting Blush is worth the $48 when you want luminous colour with an already softened edge. Diffused Heat combines a poppy cheek shade with paler Diffused Light powder.
I like the way the cheek colour and finishing powder work together.
Insider Beauty tester- Colour and luminosity
- 4.5/5
- Brush blendability
- 4.5/5
- Value per compact
- 3.0/5
How the score adds up
Our editors awarded 83 of 100 available points across these six criteria. Divide by 20 for the five-point rating.
- Colour and luminosity
- 27 / 30 pts
- The blend of cheek pigment and finishing powder gives colour with a soft, luminous finish.
- Brush blendability
- 18 / 20 pts
- A brush that crosses both colours gives more consistent pickup than a narrow brush on one vein.
- Value per compact
- 12 / 20 pts
- At $48 for 4.2 g, it’s a premium purchase for a finish and shade you expect to wear often.
- Support for product claims
- 12 / 15 pts
- Hourglass identifies the two powder components in each shade, including Diffused Heat.
- What sets it apart
- 9 / 10 pts
- The hand-mixed marbling builds the finish into the blush instead of requiring a second product.
- Shade and formula disclosure
- 5 / 5 pts
- Hourglass describes the shade pairings, size and variation in the powder pattern.
How the marbling in Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush affects colour pickup, shade choice and the finish of the full-size 4.2 g compact.
- Rank
- Not ranked
- Current price
- $48.00
- Listed size
- 0.15 oz
- Updated
Reviewed byInsider BeautyEditorial team ·
Editor’s cut
At a glance
Diffused Heat pairs poppy pink with Diffused Light.
Sweep across both parts of the marbling to pick up the blend.
The pattern varies from compact to compact.
What the marbling adds to the cheek
The strongest reason to buy Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush is the way the colour and finishing powder arrive on the same brush. In Diffused Heat, shown here, a poppy pink runs through pale Diffused Light powder. Swirl across both and you get colour with a softer edge than a concentrated pan of just the pink would give. That’s the look I’d buy this blush for, particularly if the last thing you want is to have to soften a conspicuous dot of pigment.
The marbling is different in each compact. A product photo is a good guide to the shade family and finish, but your pan may have a different arrangement of pale and pink. The shade name tells you more about what you’re ordering than the exact pattern. That also matters when comparing shades in the Ambient range, which use different blends of cheek colour and finishing powder.
How to pick up both halves of the effect
Use a soft cheek brush wide enough to cross several veins of powder at once. Sweep it lightly over the surface, tap off the excess and apply high on the cheek. Turn towards the light before adding a second layer. The luminous part is easier to see on a moving face than it is in a flat swatch on the back of a hand.
A narrow brush can pick up mostly one colour if it lands in a particularly solid part of the pan. That’s useful for precise placement, but it gives you a different blush from the one you get by mixing the surface. If your first sweep looks brighter or paler than you expected, change where the brush lands before adding more.
When the $48 compact is worth it
The full size contains 4.2 g. I’d spend $48 on a shade I expected to wear several times a week and whose finish I liked enough to skip a separate finishing powder on the cheeks. For a single trend colour you’ll wear twice, it’s an expensive way to experiment.
Saie Dew Blush gives a different sort of glow from liquid straight on skin. Hourglass is my pick for someone who likes the precision of a powder brush and wants the colour and luminosity to build together.
Useful details
Frequently asked questions
Is every Diffused Heat compact patterned identically?
No. The handmade marbling varies. The shade name identifies the intended pairing of blush and finishing powder.
What size is the full-size Ambient Lighting Blush?
It holds 4.2 g, or 0.15 oz. Smaller travel sizes are separate listings.