Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush- Diffused Heat

Don't ever think I'm not thinking of you, dear readers. Here's a post I'd planned to run on Tuesday (yes, I pre-write on the weekends and when I can), but even I am getting tired with all of the lippies.  Lips and nails, lips and nails. Wash, rinse, repeat.  How about a vibrant blush to break the monotony? 

After my first successful encounter with Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush in Ethereal Glow (reviewed here), I decided to go back for seconds. While my natural instincts were to look for the next lightest shade, I decided to go out on a limb and order Diffused Heat. (And a couple of other shades.)

The basics: Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush is a new, permanent line for Spring 2014.  There are six shades in the range.  They are available for purchase via Sephora, Space NK, and Hourglass's website.  They retail for $35 each and contain 0.15oz of product. Each blush contains 50% blush and 50% Ambient Lighting Powder, and each pan looks completely different.

Diffused Heat is described as "vibrant poppy."  The surprising aspect of this shade to me was the visible sparkle.  It's certainly not unpleasant, but it was rather unexpected given my experience with Ethereal Glow.  I can't get it to photograph but it's visible in the pan if you see this shade in person. 

This is by far and away the brightest blush in my stash, and even so it's manageable.  I have been playing with it, and think it's a great flush on my checks- albeit one that I'm afraid to wear at work yet.

However, for the purposes of swatching, I used a heavy hand and a brush that I would not recommend for this blush: MAC 130SE. Its dense head grabs the pigment well though.

(Sorry, this is quite dark!)

Lets talk swatches...

Outside, without flash:

Outside, with flash:

Inside, with flash:

In contrast with the appropriately named Ethereal Glow, Diffused Heat packs a punch in terms of pigmentation.  On my very pale skin and with a very light hand, it looks like my natural flush, just amplified a bit.  It's a lovely look that I'll enjoy for evenings and weekends.  I'm not brave enough to try it at the office, especially since my default shade if warm/cool/tired/annoyed/almost anything is red.  I prefer not to look like a clown.

This was stepping outside my box in a big way. However, I'm glad that I did- this might be the only poppy blush I can ever pull off. I'm looking forward to trying this once the summer heats up (and I've got some self-tanner). This has an amazing finish- silky and natural, not chalky at all.  I highly recommend stepping outside of the box and trying these out.  Don't trust the fingertip swatch- you'll want to see this blended out.