Thursday 12 April 2012

Hourglass Immaculate Liquid Powder Foundation

Hourglass Immaculate Liquid Powder Foundation (US$55/£40) sounded tremendously promising for oily, blemish-prone skintypes. Available in eight shades, it is a mattifying, anti-aging foundation that transforms instantly into a soft, velvety powder finish on the skin. It promises to absorb oil, camouflage imperfections and provide a long-lasting flawless finish without the need for touch-ups.

The water-resistant formula is free of parabens, oil, fragrance, nano particles, phthlates, synthetic dyes. It also contains Lavandox (from Spanish lavender) to reduce the appearance of wrinkles and Phytostem Edelweiss (an active derived from a rare Himalayan plant) to slow collagen degradation and reduce wrinkle depth.


Housed in a sleek burnished metal pump bottle, it feels sleek and luxuriously heavy. I usually use one to 1.5 pumps for each application. If I leave the bottle untouched for several days, the pump tends to dispense the foundation in spurts instead of a smooth continuous flow, perhaps because the foundation thickens a little while sitting in the pump.

The transformation to a velvety powder finish takes place quite quickly, but with just barely enough time for blending before it sets. Hence, it is advisable to apply and blend this in sections.



It feels very light on the skin, almost like wearing face powder instead of foundation. It requires a tad more effort to blend than the usual BB creams or more emollient foundations. One has to pay attention especially to the hairline and jawline area to ensure that there are no obvious streaks. Although it helps to minimise the appearance of the pores on my T-zone area, it does not totally smooth over the larger pitted acne scars on my cheeks. A separate concealer is required if I want to camouflage the skin pigmentation and red blemishes.

Shell, the second lightest shade, isn't a perfect match for my skintone as it leans a tad beige. The most disappointing aspect was the oil control, which turned out to be less impressive than some BB creams that I've tried. My skin required blotting every two hours, despite the fact that I layered a Paul & Joe face powder on top. It doesn't perform well enough for me to want to re-purchase it but it may work better for normal to slightly oily skintypes.

For this look, I used Urban Decay 15th Anniversary Palette, which Mag kindly helped me to purchase last September.

This is my favourite Urban Decay palette of all time, thanks to the gorgeous selection of shades and the richly pigmented, silky formula which is now used for the new line of UD eyeshadow singles.

The case is also much more compact and well-crafted than the bulky cardboard packaging of the Book of Shadows palettes.

1 comment:

ashlyne said...

i love this palette too, esp the beautiful packaging!