Hourglass Aura Sheer Cheek Stain Review & Swatches

Being generally obsessed with cheek stain anything has taken me down the road to youthful, playfully pretty looks for most of makeup life. I’ve always gone the cheek stain route versus powders and creams because of the long wear time and the lovely little pop of color they give my cheeks and face.

In recent years, I started to use more and more powder blush which isn’t particularly forgiving on drier skin. Why oh, why did I ever stop using cheek stains?

Hourglass Aura Sheer Cheek Stain is the Cadillac of stains, seriously, this is gorgeous stuff although the near $50 price tag hurts my feelings a fair bit.

This is a water-based stain that gives cheeks a subtle flush of color that can only be described as gorgeous. Housed in a chunky twist tube with a “sponge-like” applicator you can swipe directly onto cheeks for natural color that literally lasts all day.

The joy is obviously the wear time here as like most cheek stains Hourglass Aura Sheer has the ability to work its way through a warm day, a rainy one, tackle humidity, sweat, a day at the pool, and most anything else you throw at it. The wear is great here so if its long wearing blush you seek this brings it.

The texture is a cool, soothing water based gel which blends very easily for a stain. The color builds easily but no matter how much you put on it never looks over done and never has a clown cheek finish. The color blends seamlessly into skin producing a very natural blushing color.

I know some of you are sitting there all fidgety about the sponge applicator and bacteria…it isn’t really a sponge, it’s kinda a screened material over over a domed applicator of some sort. It has a squishy feel but needless to say it is still touching your face daily so it might be a bit too much for the anal folks out there, I’m anal, I know.

(Swatched: Flush)

I actually don’t use the applicator on my face as I feel fingers are the best method. The applicator fits the contour of cheek bones nicely and smooths product into place fairly well but I think fingers are needed to blend it fully and correctly to a perfect finish. I twist a small amount of product up and dab my fingers into it and apply directly to cheeks rather than using the applicator on my face.

There is a catch to all the wonderful though…

The $45 price tag makes me wince. I’ve never technically paid $45 for a cheek stain before. My most expensive blushers would probably be from Tom Ford which range at $55 each but those are powders.

But…

Hourglass has always had a higher price tag to go along with the quality of the products.

Overall, this is a suburb little cheek stain but I’d love to see the price shaved down to $30-$35 range. I just felt like near $50 for a cheek stain was a little too much to indulge again should I want to pick up another one of these.

Tried it?

Love it?

Do you think Hourglass Cosmetics are a suitable price range?

Any favs you’d like to tell me about?

Do share!