Undereye concealer may be dead, but blush is still having its best summer ever. In particular, cream and liquid formulas seem to be reigning supreme. The latest launch to join that royal court is Hourglass Unreal Liquid Blush, and, folks? I am pledging my loyalty to its crown.
If I’m being honest, this wasn’t a hard sell. Liquid is my preferred blush format and Hourglass remains one of my favorite luxury makeup brands. But the product far exceeded my already-high expectations.
There are, in my opinion, two intertwined “best parts” of this blush: the sheer formula and the unique packaging. It comes in seven shades—Scene (warm pink), Whim (bright pink), Vision (rose), Moment (a peachy beige), Future (coral), Imagine (terracotta), and Craft (a deep berry)— and, as promised by the press release, this stuff is truly buildable. The first swipe of color (I’m partial to Whim) goes on so sheer that it truly looks like I just stepped out into the sun for a minute and got a little flushed. By swipe two, the color is much more concentrated. There’s no question that I’m wearing blush, but it still blends seamlessly into the rest of my makeup.
“This formula is incredible,” says New York City-based makeup artist Karol Rodriguez. “The finish is similar to the texture of a blurred lip; it’s soft and velvety.” They were also impressed with how evenly the formula goes on, despite being “such a pigmented and liquidy blush.”
The packaging plays a huge role in why this blush is so easy to layer. The small glass bottle—almost the shape of a diner salt shaker—it comes in has a soft bottom that you press to dispense the blush a single drop at a time. Rodriguez concurs that the component makes this extra special. “Rare Beauty’s blushes have been criticized for being too hard to use because they’re ‘too pigmented,’ when in actuality it’s the amount of product that the doe-foot dispenses,” they tell me. “Consumers tend to over-apply so it’s super smart to have a liquid blush that dispenses such a small amount to begin with. You’d have to intentionally press and hold down on that soft bottom to release more than a face worth of blush, which is perfect for those who tend to be heavy-handed.”