little white truths

I own three of these Hourglass palettes and while I do understand why some people don't like them, I love my three and I always look forward to using them.

Indeed, I've owned and loved Monochrome for years (I've reviewed that here), so I went and bought this one in Obscura and also Exposure perhaps a year ago now, and unfortunately I've been sitting on those too long because they've recently been discontinued so there's no point reviewing them now.

Hoh well. I can still talk about them via Project Dent I suppose.

Despite having owned Obscura and Exposure for around a year now, I haven't used either of them that much for the simple reason that I've been too busy panning other products. This is one of the reasons why I've been questioning my panning projects lately.

While initially I'd intended on denting both quints at the same time, I'm currently denting a bright orange Marc Jacobs blush and I'm not sure how the purple Exposure would go with that on a daily basis, so I've opted to stick with Obscura for now and I'll bring in the other one at a later date.

I guess it's also worth mentioning now that the main reason I like these eyeshadow palettes is because they do what no other eyeshadow formula has done for me before: that is, they make my eyelids look younger.

That's right. For someone with dry, 37yo skin who's used to eyeshadow ageing their eye area (particularly badly formulated shimmers and metallics), finding a formula that airbrushes the skin and takes a few years off my eyes is quite incredible. Yes I've found formulas before that don't age my eye area, but this is the first one I've found that makes my eyes look smoother and more youthful. Some feat.

Having said this, it's not a perfect formula. While I don't experience the fall-out or lack of pigmentation that others have complained of (quite the reverse where the pigmentation is concerned), I have found that these don't last well on the eyes. No matter how good my primer is, they crease on me after a few hours' wear. Apparently that's because they're designed to mix with the oils in your skin. Whatever the reason, this means I can't wear them to all-day events so I've generally limited wearing them to dinner (which is all we really do these days anyway, given we have two toddlers).

Anyhoo. Here's how my palette is looking today, 4 May 2018:

Same shot, enhanced for clarity:

And again in different light: 

Same shot, enhanced:

I'm pleased to be denting this product, I must say. Yes I'm annoyed with myself that I never got around to reviewing the formula before Hourglass discontinued it, but oh well. Such is life.

Actually, part of me is hoping that Mecca will have these on sale at the end of the year (Mecca sometimes does this with discontinued products) because I'm not averse to buying the three palettes I don't own. I would certainly use and enjoy them.

My aim over the denting period is to get some visible progress happening in all five shades. It won't be a lot of progress because I don't wear strong eye looks and I'll also be pairing these with some of the shadows from my Pan that Palette challenge, but at least I'll be able to say that this quint has had some good use at the end of the denting period.

Hope all's well with you, and speak soon x