Ambient^® Lighting Edit Unlocked: Jellyfish

I have a medium tan skin tone and originally didn’t pay this palette any mind. Then I thought hmmm this palette will really help brighten my under-eyes and the center of my face and provide more of a contouring look. I am beyond blown away of how well this palette works on my skin tone. Everyone only thinks it’s for the lighter skin tone but even the bronzer shows up incredibly well on my face. I love the blushes and loooove the lighter finishing powders. The highlighter is beautiful too, reminds me of the benefit cookie shade. Please don’t underestimate this palette for a medium tan skin tone. I definitely think this palette is best for the medium skin. The hourglass powders literally melt into your skin and this palette takes your face from basic to glam but very much skin and doesn’t look like you’re overly wearing powder. Love love love this palette. Worth every dollar

This is a hard pass for me. As an ultra-fair Scandi with cool undertones (think Nars Sheer Glow in Oslo, Hauslabs Triclone in 015), the warm-leaning Hourglass edits (not that they're by any means the only offender - I'm looking at you NARS and Charlotte Tilbury) rarely if ever cater to me. I have an older Hourglass 3-pan Ambient Lighting Edit Palette (Ethereal Edit) with a finishing powder in Ethereal Light (included in the Jellyfish palette), a blush in Diffused Heat (also included in the Jellyfish palette) and a highlighter in Incandescent Strobe Light (and they have included an even darker Strobe Light in the Jellyfish palette). In general, I have issues with the shade range being always way too warm and often too dark to work with my skin tone. First off, in terms of the Ethereal Light Finishing powder, that one is the only one in either palette (Jellyfish or my own 3-pan) that truly works with my skin tone. The performance of this powder is pretty impressive . thus I might even consider replacing it (once panned in my 3-pan) with a single powder compact from the brand as the luminous and blurring qualities of this powder are certainly nothing to sneer at. Regarding blush, for my skin to look natural and fresh, I need the coolest of the cool pinks or even lavender, which Diffused Heat certainly is not - it leans unmistakably fully warm and on me looks like clown cheeks. The best and most natural matches (it's a struggle to find any) for my ultra-cool skin tone I have found from Made By Mitchell's range of pinks - think Gel Gleam in Gummy Bear (eyeshadow, but bomb as blush) and the Cold Heart Blursh, also found in the light edition of the Curve Case. The gap between what works for me and the Diffused Heat is enormous. As for the Incandescent Strobe Light in my 3-pan, I can just barely get away with its subtle yellowish undertones as long as I keep the application fairly conservative. Again, the product could be bomb if they had included a cool-leaning whitish or silvery-pinkish shade instead of the darker-based rosegoldish shade. The second finishing powder in the Jellyfish is darker than Ethereal Light, which, as also was stated the case of the Strobe Light highlighter, automatically means it's too dark for me. The other limited edition blush is way too warm and dusky for me as well, enough said. Finally, personally anything less than a grayish and desaturated bronzer/contour shade on me looks like I would have smeared mud onto my visage, so . Summa summarum, I love the formula but the shade choices make it impossible for me to use Hourglass face palettes.