Man, What Is It With Hourglass Eyeshadows?

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A quick peek into my makeup drawers would prove to you that I’ve been a big fan of Hourglass Cosmetics for a long time now, but seriously guys, what is up with the constant changes in eyeshadow formula & packaging? First we had the duos, which  were nice, but on the pricey side and discontinued almost before I even got my hands on any of them. Then came the Modernist palettes. I love mine, but I know a lot of people weren’t fans of the extremely soft texture or the $58 price tag. Well, it seems those are going by the wayside too – there are only two colors left in stock at Sephora and they aren’t showing up on any of their other stockists, including the Hourglass website.

Now, instead, we’ve got the brand new Graphik eyeshadow palettes, which I only happened upon by chance. At this point I’m just really fascinated by the constant changeups, so I ordered the Expose palette from the brand’s website. As a side note on that – I was not impressed with the purchasing process from them. I made my order on 1/4, got an order confirmation email and then… not a peep. I finally emailed customer service on 1/9 (3 business days, or five actual days later) to see what was going on. Only then did I get a shipping notice. These are in stock on Beautylish now, so I highly recommend ordering from them if you’re going to, since their turn around on shipping has always been much faster – usually the same or next business day.

Anyhow, onto the actual eyeshadow palette since that’s the part we all care about. The palette casing is similar to the Modernist palettes, but instead of the wavy sand dune texture you get five individual rectangular pans. Also worth noting, this iteration of Hourglass eyeshadows comes with .05oz/1.4g of each color, which is more in line with other brands. At the same $58, that means you get a little more for your money. I rarely use up an entire eyeshadow, so I don’t dwell too much on price per ounce.

Expose is a cool plums palette, and I have to say, it’s one of the better ones I’ve seen. There are enough variations in the tones to keep it from looking bland, and enough contrast to avoid muddiness. I especially like that they’ve included a couple of different mid-tone shades that can work as lid or crease colors. This particular palette is all shimmers, but they’re more of a pearl finish with no chunky glitter. BTW, there is one (Myth) that’s all mattes, which I’m also very interested to try.

But what’s the texture like? They’re still soft, finely milled and easy to pick up on a brush. If you weren’t a fan of the dryness & powder kick-up from the Modernist palettes, rejoice! This one feels significantly less dry, and it’s very forgiving of skin that’s not perfectly smooth. Wear time is solid, making it through a full work day and then some with no fading and only very minor creasing after about 9 hours.

In Short: Hourglass has done a nice job improving on the formula here, and I love these colors. Here’s hoping these palettes stick around for a while.

Hourglass Graphik Eyeshadow Palettes ($58) are currently available at Hourglass and Beautylish.