Hourglass Ambient Lightning Edit - Unlocked Swan Palette

First experience with the Hourglass Ambient Lighting powders. This release is part of their holiday launch for 2025 and was one of four special edition palettes with limited-edition packaging by Ukrainian tattoo artist Sasha Unisex, cool hu?

Value Breakdown

Unlocked Palette - $15.60 per shade 1.4 gram per pan = $11.14g

Single Blush is $48 for 4.25g = $11.29g

Single Bronzer $58 for 11g= $5.25g

Single Finishing Powder $30 for 1.4g = $21.42g

If you are purchasing these shades individually, you do get larger pans but, this is actually the most cost effective way to try multiple shades and still get a decent amount of product that will last a long time. The prices are all over the place between product types when looking at regular full sized products, these prices and weights are pulled from the Sephora website.

Hourglass being a more high-end luxury brand can present a financial barrier to entry with a price point of $94 USD. There are absolutely comparable lower priced alternatives but, in this case we are paying for collectable artwork packaging, brand reputation, and Italian cosmetic factories for the baked formulas.

Another contributing factor to cost is the charity aspect. This palette gives 5% of profits to the Nonhuman Rights Foundation a U.S. organization working to secure fundamental rights for animals. 

Color Ways

With there being so many great options and flexibility between palettes I ended up choosing the Swan because I felt it had the most pigmented shades. The Deer offered two finishing powders but I'm not even sure what those are for so it seemed like a wasted pan.

In my opinion:

Horse: Most "universal" but the marbled shades read quite light.

Deer: Fair skin tones would be best suited for this. Think more etherial vibes. This has two finishing powders.

Swan: Light to Medium skin tones are best suited to this palette. I also feel this had some of the most vivid colors.

Fox: Medium to Deep skin tones would do best with this, but lighter skin tones might enjoy the high pigment for eye shadows or more dramatic looks.

This was a hard choice!

Performance

As a long time makeup user I only started to experiment with complexion (bronzer, blush, foundation, powders) as an adult around 30 years old. So my technique is not the best. I’m telling you this because face palettes are intimidating as heck and I want to encourage people to try new things.

Remember that makeup is art and as long as you feel good, it’s right. That being said I always looking to learn more to fine tune my technique and understanding so I can better transmute knowledge to others.

In the below images I’ll be showing each type of powered included in the palette. Note I’m using Hourglass Veil Hydrating Skin Tint Foundation in shade 8 as a base. I'm showing the brushes I used but I'll note what I should have used instead.

Natural Bronze - I found this shade to be a bit more cool toned than I'm used to for bronzer so my first impressions were, concerning. I used a medium density angled brush but this would probably be better applied with a round fluffy brush. For placements I use this along/ under my cheek bones, and around the upper perimeter of my face. It adds a gentle warms without leaning orange, which maybe is good for me.

Luminous Coral is a a red orange blush with gentle shimmer. I would maybe use a smaller fluffy brush for this because I found myself over powering the bronzer. For placement I went a little crazy and brought this up along the side of my face and onto the outer corners of my eyes to incorporate into my eye look. Typically one would just use this on the apples of the cheeks or cheek bone area. I love an over-warmed look.

Golden Hour was startling, I was so impressed by this shade. It delivered a high impact light reflecting finish. Typically I pack on highlighter for a blinding look, but this was too much, even for me. I would in the future use a less densely packed brush, maybe even dig out my old fan brush. This is so powerful but extremely gorgeous. This is placed on the highest parts of my cheek bones.

Dim Light Finishing Powder is meant to be used all over the face, which makes this smaller pan a bit frustrating. This should be applied with a loosely packed fluffy brush to lightly diffuse the complexion and blend together your other shades. I saw a slight difference but I need practice with the idea of a finishing powder.

Here's my final look after doing my eyes with the Question Beauty Fable of Spice and Bloom palette.

Ingredients

These have literal diamond powder in them! I guess that's why they are so expensive. I didn't see a whole lot of filler ingredients in this list and the mica is synthetic which removes concerns of child labor and ethical mining practices. Not sure of the diamond powder but, after some research it looks like it's most likely a lab grown diamond situation.

These were the most concerning ingredients found in the INCI list

• Bismuth Oxychloride — most likely to cause irritation or small breakouts if your skin is acneic or sensitive.
• Phenoxyethanol — if you react easily to preservatives.
• Iron Oxides / Titanium Dioxide — safe, but some people dislike Titanium Dioxide due to potential inhalation concerns in loose powders (not an issue in pressed formats).

Overall Thoughts

I love this palette and I am tickled with the performance. Would I buy another one? I mean, if they come out with a new series with more cool artwork, maybe! You can also customize the shade you get in a palette on the Hourglass website. I'm really looking forward to using this more. It's also the perfect size for travel so this palette is sure to be accompanying me on my next trip.