ALIXIRS

I'm fairly new to the liquid lipstick game, and decided to try out Hourglass' based on the beautiful shade "Icon" which is a blue-toned red, shown here on the right. Since i'm new to the game, I picked up the travel size of Canvas and Icon.

These travel size liquid lipsticks are teeny tiny. They're probably to bigger than my thumb. Each tube contains 0.03oz or 1g of product for $12 CAD.

The texture is a soft lip creme that tries down quickly but doesn't feel drying on the lips. Both of these colours applied smoothly but Icon was more liquidy and opaque. Unfortunately for me, Canvas, which is a dusty pink, showed up rather bright and slightly clownish on my skin. 

Both of these shades lasted 4+ hours on me with minimal drinking and eating. My lips felt comfortable throughout and not dry at all. I would definitely be keeping Icon, but Canvas is a shade I might be returning as it simply doesn't work with my complexion. 

xoxo,

alixirs

Laura Mercier Matte Radiance Baked Powder in Highlight 01 comes with 7.5g or 0.26oz of product. On the skin it's a warmish champaign colour which adds a little drama to your everyday highlight. It's very finely milled and applies beautifully with a finger or brush.

The Sleek Face Contour Kit in Light comes with a highlight and contour. The highlight is the one I use more. It's the most intense highlighter out of these four, and probably the least finely milled. It's also the most affordable of the four, and is very close to the Laura Mercier one except more intense and on the white-pinkish side. This product comes with 14g of product (highlight+contour).

MAC MSF in Perfect Topping was a limited edition shade. The veining in the product makes each one unique. Perfect Topping is the warmest of the four with a peachy undertone which works well as an everyday highlighter. Similar shades in the range include Lightscapade, which is lighter and whiter, and Soft and Gentle, which is more of a golden champagne.

MAC MSF comes with  10 g or 0.35 oz of product. 

Hourglass recently launched their Ambient Strobing Lighting powders and I was delighted to see Incandescent light among them. (shown above in the middle of the Ambient Lighting Palette). When this palette first launched this shade immediately became a favourite, though I had to use it sparingly as the palette itself cost $67 CAD at the time and each shade of powder inside was only 3.3g. This powder is my favourite for every day. It's one of those highlighting shades that has little to no sparkle, but just brightens up the skin. It's definitely appropriate for wearing at work, even in the most conservative of offices.

Above and below are some swatches, from top to bottom: Laura Mercier Matte Radiance, Hourglass Ambient Strobe Lighting powder in Incandescent, Sleek Contour highlight in Light, and MAC Mineralized Skinfinish in Perfect Topping

xoxo,

alixirs

(B40 on the left and BR20 on the right)

I first bought this foundation in a Beijing airport in the shade BR20. Unfortunately, it was too light and pink for my skin (NC20 in MAC). For some reason the packaging on that bottle had a black band of color on the bottom glass portion, as shown. The bottle on the left was bought at Sephora recently in the shade B40. Ideally, my colour would be somewhere in between, like B30. I usually take 1 full pump of B40 and mix in half a pump of BR20.

The packaging is definitely one of its selling points, the glass  bottle with gold cap looks timeless and luxurious. The pump makes it very easy to control the amount of product you dispense.

Swatched here are BR20 on the bottom and B40 on the top. They don't look too different here but you can definitely see the differences in the pictures below. 

The coverage is about light-medium, more towards the medium size. It's definitely not matte. On my dry skin it gives a dewey, skin-like finish. It lasts a decent amount of time, about 6-8 hours on me.

This is a great everyday foundation for me. It has good coverage and decent lasting power. The price tag is pretty high at $62CAD, so i'd only repurchase when there's a sale at Sephora.