Sephora Hourglass Reward & Hourglass Opague Rouge Lipstick - Icon: Swatch and Review

I recently traded in 500 Sephora points for the Hourglass set. 

It was quite a good deal, came with 3 foundation foils and 4 deluxe sample sized products below. 

I was most interested in the mascara and the 2 lip products, as I already have the primer (previously reviewed here).  Unfortunately the lipstick was not a good shade for me as I don't do well with more skin-toned nudes (they make me look ill). However I tried it on my mom and it looked much better on her.

What I adored though, is the liquid lipstick in the shade Icon, described as a "blue red".

 These lip swatch photos really do not do this shade justice... if you ever have a chance to try this in store I highly recommend you do so. It is the most deep, rich, and sophisticated red I have ever worn. In person, it has this depth to the redness that is difficult to capture on film.

with bounced flash

My best description, a bit morbid...(stop reading here if you're queasy)...is that this reminds me of the color of arterial blood. I don't mean the blood that you see when you cut your finger (that's venous blood), which is less oxygenated and thus runs more purple/brown-red.

natural sunlight

This reminds me of the blood that would come out a big artery, fully oxygenated, alive, and a rich bright, blue-toned red.


My morbid color description aside, this matte shade is gorgeous and eye-catching, and had incredible staying power throughout the day. It barely faded after 2 meals and required a remover to take off (which I rarely need with lipsticks as they're mostly worn off by end of the night). It isn't entirely transfer-proof unfortunately, as I pecked my hubby on the cheek and it did leave a slight stain.

 Some downsides... the rich pigment means this is a very unforgiving product to use. As you can see in the swatch I didn't draw my lip lines very well with just using the soft applicator, which is hard to control. I recommend using a lip pencil first to outline the lips properly. 

It also emphasized my lip lines (you can see that more clearly in the natural sunlight photo where I'm not smiling). Note that this is different from a product that catches in the lip lines (ie. deposits more pigment in the lip lines), as the pigmentation is very even here (probably the most even I've ever seen).  I did try this with a gloss which mitigated that (although destroyed the point of having a matte product).

Overall, if you got the time to spend on your lips and love a statement lip, you're going to LOVE this. If you like more MLBB/no-fuss lips and don't have more than a few seconds to put on lipcolor, this isn't your friend, not even close.  For me, this is going to be special occasion only.

Did you get this set? Let me know what you thought of it, or share with me your favorite statement red lip product!