Bella Liberté: Hourglass Illume - Creme to Powder Bronze Duo

Hourglass Illume - Creme to Powder Bronze Duo - My feelings??? Indifferent

I don't mind telling you, I got caught up in the sleek, shinny packaging and the great feel of this creme-to-powder bronzer when I swatched it, but didn't really think through this purchase well. The packaging, along with the luxurious creme to powder feel had me at Hello :) The packaging is absolutely beautiful and the way the compact swivels 360 degrees is one of the better designs I've seen. The best way to describe the swivel aspect is to think of a nail clipper. It operates mechanically the same way. This swivel design allows the mirror to actually stand up (see picture below) while using it.

The bonzer/highlighter is truly a creme-to-powder. It feels ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL on the skin. It goes on silky smooth and looks this way on the skin as well.

I gotta tell you though, I've been using this for several days now and honestly, while the packaging is nice and the the "feel" of the product is fabulous, both the highlighter and bronzer have to be good for me to say this is a "must buy". The highlighter is definitely the better part of the product. Its a pretty decent highlighter and doesn't have a real sparkled effect which I light a lot. It's very natural looking on the skin. It also allows for a buildable shade. However, the bronzer is a little different story for me and this is half the product so both really need to work well. The bronzer is really a bit too orange. I thought maybe the bronzer just might be looking too orange for my skin tone so I tried it out on a few of my friends and I'm finding that its really not a great shade for most skin tones because of the orangish tone.

One gripe I do have about the packaging: Hourglass lines the bronzer and highlighter with a sheer, thin piece of protective plastic coating over it and when I initially slid the lid to the right to open it, the plastic got caught and scraped my bronzer and highlighter. Now, it didn't destroy the product but no one wants to start off using a new make up of any kind that has a gauge in it :) I tried to smooth over the gauges before taking the pics, but unfortunately they are still noticeable...sorry! :)

With all this being said: I am glad I purchased this product, because I have never bought any of the Hourglass products thus far and so I got a feel for the quality and that is definitely there. In this particular case, I think they just need to work on the shades a bit. I would most definitely buy another Hourglass product, potentially their foundations because the feel of this bronzer/highlighter on the skin is absolutely wonderful and so now I'm curious about their foundations.

I have to apologize for my pictures. The packaging has such a shiny finish that I really struggled with getting a clear picture without glare.