I’ve been wishing desperately for Hourglass to make their Ambient Edit palettes fully customizable. And now they finally are…if you live in the United States!

In this post, I’d like to share what my curated palette options would look like based on what is currently available, in addition to sharing some swatches and face demos. At the end of this post, I will also explain why anti-hauling this launch might be the best thing for me!

For those who don’t know, I’ve done in-depth Hourglass posts every holiday for several years. The list with links to them all can be found HERE.
I have also depotted and rearranged some of my Hourglass palettes, so I have experience creating my own custom palettes already!

What I Wanted to Buy

This first photo shows what I would have purchased if given the chance. Oasis Glow is technically a blush for someone with a lighter skin tone than mine, but I am extremely curious how this would look as a highlighter and I want to use it for that purpose. Lucid Glow is a color I wish to get even more than Oasis Glow because there is a higher potential for me to be able to use it as a blush, something to mix with darker blushes, a blush topper, or a highlighter.
At Night is my favorite blush from Hourglass, but I only have it as a full-size single. So, getting it in a size to fit into my Ambient Edit palettes is very important to me and something I’ve been waiting years for specifically. When I get a smaller size of that blush, it will become possible to create my true “perfect” Hourglass palette, even if I need to depot it myself.
And then finally, Iridescent Coral is another blush that I’m not completely sure if I can use or not, but I’d like to find out.

This custom option would give me 3 products I don’t already own and 1 product that I wanted a duplicate of anyway. It would cost a lot more money if I had to buy other palettes in order to acquire them. If I like all 4 colors, I could keep them in this quad. If I don’t, I can depot them and put them in other palettes using magnetic sheets and metal stickers, but the packaging would be warped on the bottom if this is made of plastic. Based on videos I’ve seen, I do believe it’s plastic which tends to be much harder to depot than when Hourglass has these powders in their metal packaging.

Best of Each Category

This second palette is the best possible combination I can create for myself out of what’s available on the Hourglass website, and it’s still not perfect. Dim Light only works for me as a brightening powder under my eyes. The lightest finishing powder I can use from Hourglass is Radiant Light, which was not a custom option. Soft Light is too light for me and Transcendent Light only works for me as a bronzer because it’s too deep. At Night was of course chosen because I want it in the Ambient Edit palette size. Infinite Strobe Light looks better or worse on me depending on the time of year. I assume Beaming Strobe Light and Opal Strobe Light would be too light for me, and I already own Celestial Strobe Light, which is a little too pearly for my liking.
Solar Bronze is the darkest available bronzer option, if we don’t count Transcendent Light, but it’s the shade that fits me best from Hourglass anyway. The only deeper color Hourglass has created is Bronze Heat from the Lotus palette.

I would not purchase this second palette because I own all of these shades already, and it still would not be my perfect palette out of all the Ambient Edit powders that have existed.

My “Perfect” Custom Quad

What I’m showing above is the best selection of colors for me out of everything that Hourglass has ever made.
Eternal Light (without the larger random shimmer particles) is the best finishing powder option despite it being a little darker than my skintone, so I just use it sparingly.
For bronzer, I would stick to my favorite Solar Bronze.
I put At Night as the perfect blush, but I also really like Diffused Heat (with more of the colored marbling), Mood Flush, Mood Exposure (to tone down vibrant blushes), and Sunset Glow more than the rest.
Gilded Strobe Light is the second darkest highlighter I’ve seen from Hourglass, with Prismatic Strobe Light being the darkest.

I noticed Diffused Heat and Prismatic Strobe Light were not part of the lineup. In general, quite a few of Hourglass’ darkest powders didn’t make the cut. I have a hunch it’s because they will make a reappearance in this year’s holiday palettes.

Since 2 of the 4 shades I would want to put in my ultimate Hourglass Edit Palette aren’t options, it doesn’t really make sense for me to order one at this point. The benefit, had they been available, would be that I wouldn’t have to depot what I currently own and rearrange them myself (sans the mini of At Night). As it stands, the first variation I came up with that had all blushes is all that would have been worth getting.

In my eyes, buying the Dusk and Sunset curated quads to get 3 of the 4 blushes I want isn’t a good option either. For starters, that would leave me with too many repeat shades and the whole point of wanting to customize palettes is to avoid owning more duplicates. The shades I’ve depotted that I didn’t want, I have put together and sold on the Mercari app a few times, but I don’t have my Z-Potter with me and I can’t use Mercari where I live either. I will not be in the US again until close to a year and a half from now, so buying a custom one so far in advance doesn’t make sense for me.

The more I think about it, the more I realize having a quad isn’t necessarily what I want. A palette with one finishing powder, one highlighter, one bronzer, and three blushes sounds like heaven! These custom and curated palettes have a beautiful, but basic design. Hourglass hooked me with their marbled palettes and Katie Scott’s animal designs. There is a possibility that if the brand continues their streak of launching limited edition holiday packaging at the end of the year, and if they make it customizable, I would want that way more! What if they release additional new shades? What if I want more than one packaging design? That happened the last two years when I had to decide between Lotus or Dragon and then Leopard or Owl (though I ended up buying both). In the same year as I’m doing a Project Pan, to end up potentially buying 1-2 quads and then 1-2 palettes (if customizing remains exclusive to the US) would feel wasteful. Especially when I barely used my Hourglass palettes this year because I set them aside to prioritize the makeup in my Project Pan.

I don’t believe Hourglass would introduce customizable quads for them to be just a limited time option. Especially not after the success of all 5 curated quads selling out. I’m also convinced that custom 6-pan palettes will be available in the future. So, there isn’t any rush for me to buy new powders now. It’s not as though I’m lacking in powder products. Waiting to see what comes during the holiday season is probably the smartest move for me.

My mother loves to say, “Every disappointment is a blessing.”
When Hourglass made the announcement, I had my mock palette ready so I would know exactly which shades to buy and which color arrangement would look most aesthetically pleasing. Being forced to wait could be that blessing in disguise.

Well, that was me trying to talk myself out of buying extra Hourglass powders! I hope this conversation was helpful to anyone else on a low-buy, living outside of the US, or even just to see my comparison swatches to help someone decide what shades they might or might not want.

Thanks for reading! I don’t think I’ll have to time to do additional bonus posts for a while, so we will return to our regular Monday-only posting schedule.

-Lili ❤