The Review - Hourglass Stains

I am in awe of Hourglass. They are a personification of a high end brand. The packaging on all their products, albeit plastic is high quality and well designed. The products I am going to talk about are the Hourglass Aura Sheer Cheek Stain in Flush and Hourglass Aura Sheer Lip Stain in Flush. Both products have been around for a while (I think they were released in 2011) but I think they are still quite current and relevant to today's trend.

Now Hourglass is expensive. The Cheek Stain is $38 in Sephora and the Lip Stain is $26 in Sephora, a total cost of $64. However, I found a bundle on HSN here featuring both of these products for $38 and free shipping!! So you get two for the price of one.

The lip stain and the cheek stain are both housed in a pen canister type of packaging where you twist the bottom to push the product out at the top. It takes about 20 twists at first to release any project and after the first use it's a little easier. Since the products are so expensive, I actually like that dispensing the product is so easy to control and hence wastage is minimised.

Hourglass Aura Sheer Cheek Stain in Flush

Hourglass Aura Sheer Cheek Stain in Flush

Hourglass Aura Sheer Lip Stain in Flush

Hourglass Aura Sheer Lip Stain in Flush

I have swatched the stains on my arm (see below) but you have to appreciate that these are sheer stain so the swatches are not likely to be strong.

L to R - Hourglass Aura Sheer Cheek Stain in Flush and Hourglass Aura Sheer Lip Stain in Flush

I think both of these products are amazing, no wait, they are incredible!

Lets talk about the Hourglass Aura Sheer Lip Stain in Flush first. I have pretty pigmented lips so I usually avoid any lip product that claims to give a sheer wash of colour as I am worried that the colour won't show on my lips at all. But this is not the case with the Hourglass Aura Sheer Lip Stain, this Lip Stain while sheer is very buildable. The effect is a pure matte lip with a feather light weight on the lips. Nothing I have in my lip arsenal compares. I am only wearing this lip stain in the pictures below, but I found that I did need a gloss on top to hydrate my lips after wearing the Hourglass Aura Sheer Lip Stain for an hour or so. So make sure you have extremely well hydrated lips or be prepared to wear a gloss on top. The colour is stunning and the effect even under a clear gloss is superb.

The Hourglass Aura Sheer Cheek Stain in Flush is also a great product. As I have a tan skintone the effect of using the berry coloured sheer stain on my cheeks is the creation of this amazingly natural flushed cheek that is the true - "my cheeks but better" look. So natural and yet so very present. Love this blush and I will be getting a lot of use out of this, I can assure you. If I can, I will be doing my best to hunt down the other shades. I think there are 2 more colours in the line.

Have you used a cheek stain like this before? What did you think?