More Meow Cosmetics Reviews! Eyeshadow and Glow Powder swatches.

After my disappointing shade mismatch with Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder (review here), I rekindled my love for Meow Cosmetics. I have reviewed them to some extent here and here, but I still had a bunch of samples that never got swatched.

Problem solved! Here are the remaining swatches, in case anyone was interested in seeing more of the product lineup on a person with really fair skin.

First, eyeshadows:

L-R: Duplex, Platinum Mine, Indecency, Melpomene, Depravity, Kisses, Plague.

Closer views:

L-R: Duplex, Platinum Mine, Indecency, Melpomene.

Duplex, Platinum Mine and Kisses are all from the Santa Baby collection, which is only available around Christmas. I know that doesn’t help anyone now, but I figured I’d swatch it for future reference. The rest of the shades are all from the Pandora’s Box collection, which is still available.

Most of these shades are what you would expect, but Plague and Duplex took me by surprise. Plague in person is both green and tarnished gold at the same time, so it would make a really pretty lid color OR definer shade. Duplex looked a little more grey online, but in person it was much warmer with a rosy-plum-grey-taupe base and a golden pink highlight. Very pretty, definitely great if you’re into the rose gold Naked3 look. It’s kind of like a pearlized version of Nooner from UDN3.

These shadows also all feel good and are very pigmented (except for Platinum Mine, but I think that’s intentional). I only used a tiny dot of product on the tip of my pinky finger to make these swatches! Considering how I never use up any of my shadows, these sample baggies contain all the product I need.

 

Next, let’s talk about the Crystalline Cat Tinted Glow Powders ($9.95-$13.95) I mentioned in the Hourglass post. Here are swatches of a few of the finishing powders:

L-R: Topaz, Opal, Quartz, Moonstone, Original Untinted.

You can see that they vary in opacity, and that any of them could work as a highlight or a blush depending on your skin tone. These are just samples obviously, but the full ones are a pretty good size, about the same size as a typical Bare Minerals Mineral Veil jar but for only $9.95 instead of $20. If you’re really into them you can get twice as much glow powder in the large size for only $3 more.

Speaking of Bare Minerals/Escentuals, there’s also a pretty big size/cost difference between Meow’s regular foundation and Bare Minerals foundation. Here’s a comparison of the jars side-by-side (and yes, those are both full sized containers).

Be sure to check out where the product has settled in each container to get an even clearer picture of the size difference. I tapped each jar a few times to try to level the products out. These have both been used, but neither of these have been used a ton. As I mentioned earlier, I never manage to use my products up.

Depending on the formula you choose (medium coverage, sensitive skin, or full coverage), the large Meow jars cost $23.45-$28.95 and contain 22-30g net weight of product. The small size costs $12.75-$16.75 depending on which formula you choose and the jar contains 6-8g net weight. The standard size bareMinerals foundation jar contains 8.5 g of product for $27, although I’m not sure if that is net or if that’s just the jar size. Regardless, you can get the “small” size of Meow Cosmetics standard coverage foundation and get almost as much product as in a regular Bare jar for less than half the price. I mean, the pictures above speak for themselves.

And in case you want a refresher on how the products apply, see this post, or check out the picture below, wearing  Purrrfect Puss Mineral Powder Foundation in Frisky Chartreux ($23.45) and untinted Meow Cosmetics Crystalline Cat Glow Powder ($12.95) all over.

P.S. Meow Cosmetics has never paid me or provided me with free products and none of the Meow links are affiliate links, so don’t think this is a biased sales pitch!

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Dim Light Review and Swatches

I have a weird review of the cult-classic Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Dim Light ($45). I like it, I think it’s a good product for most people, and I think it’s not for me. Here’s why:

I bought this on a random trip to Sephora where I was determined to use my VIB 15% off promo on something. I’ve checked out this product range before, but this time was for real. I swatched all of the lighter shades and liked Dim Light the best because it’s the most subtle. The others have teeny, tiny microglitter, but this shade had a totally glitter-free, luminous shimmer that I loved. I bought it, and then found out as soon as I got home that Hourglass was re-releasing the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette ($58) with three total shades. I probably would have preferred that, but I decided to stick with the full sized Dim Light.

As you can see above and below, it looks a little different depending on the light.

The shade seemed ok under the harsh lights at Sephora, but when I applied it at home, something seemed off. I had read about how this worked as an all over setting powder, so I slathered as much as I could on my mug. Before I knew it, my face was a little too dark, super pink, and awkwardly mismatched with my neck. I had just tried a new foundation routine, so I was convinced it was the mix of foundation products. It couldn’t be the Hourglass powder, could it?

Unfortunately, it was. Since I am weirdly colored, this highlighting powder was too dark for me. And even though it’s pretty neutral, on my skin it skews pink. Here it is swatched on my arm (heavy on the right, blended out on the left):

I can really only use this as a blush, and I have enough blush, plus $45 is a lot for me right now. Based on what I’ve seen online, maybe Diffused light would have been a better all over Ambient Lighting shade for me? Ethereal Light is also very pale, but might be too pink-y based for me. Incandescent light from the re-released palette is probably my best bet, but I don’t know if I want to shell out $60 for what I’d essentially use as a very subtle, shimmery contour palette. I might swatch it when the palette shows up in stores and see. In the meantime, I’m returning Dim Light.

 

So what’s my overall impression? I think this is really great product… for the right skintone. The shimmer is so great, and the finish looks very natural on cheeks. It just works best on medium skin tones (darker skinned ladies have complained about it being too light for all over use). Yes, Hourglass makes other shades that would probably match different tones better, but they all have the microglitter. Super subtle microglitter, but glitter nevertheless. Microglitter is fine, but the reason I was willing to shell out $45 was for the non-glittery finish that would look completely natural, which is only on the Dim Light shade. So keep that in mind, depending on your skin tone and what finish you like.

 

That said, I do have a cheap alternative for ghostly girls (and sometimes boys) like me. Meow Cosmetics Crystalline Cat Glow Powder ($12.95) is a loose powder with the same non-glitter shimmer and natural finish, but it is white, so this is definitely more useful for pale people. Swatched heavy on the right, blended out on the left:

If you’re super pale, it works great as a glow-y setting powder. It’s very, very finely-milled and it looks great on. I use it all the time (so who knows why I even went for the Hourglass powder at all). If you’re darker toned it would only work as a highlighter, but Meow also makes some different shades of tinted glow powders. The online shades don’t translate super well and are also fairly pigmented, so I would recommend stocking up on samples before buying full sized. The tinted samples I tried ended up being better as luminous blushes and not the subtle all-over flush I expected. You can see it in action here in my previous Meow review, where I wore Crystalline Cat Glow Powder in Quartz ($9.95) as a blush.

And here’s what I did with my face today. Obviously I didn’t do anything with my eyes or lips, but I’m wearing Purrrfect Puss Mineral Powder Foundation in Frisky Chartreux ($23.45), Meow Cosmetics Crystalline Cat Glow Powder ($12.95) all over as a setting powder, and  Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Dim Light ($45) as a blush.