Hourglass Illusion Tinted Moisturizer

I waited a long time to review this. I gave it lots of different opportunities. The only reason I even *have* this guy to review is that I grabbed it on accident somehow when meaning to grab the primer (one of my favorite primers ever). Instead of taking it back or anything, I thought, "yes! I don't own a tinted moisturizer, I want to try one and why not start out with one of the most expensive?" And so my journey began....

I wanted to like this. I really, really, REALLY wanted to like this. I tried it so many different times in different weather and circumstances... But it was always the same outcome: it went on looking great and ended up looking like hell. My sister complimented me a couple of times when I had first slathered some of this on, commenting on on my skin looked nice. My skin never looks "nice," so perhaps this is part of the reason I wanted this to work for me so badly.

Here's where the trouble came in... As you all know, I'm oily. OILY in all caps may be more appropriate. I have yet to find a makeup routine that doesn't leave me shiny as the early hours of wear roll on. So when I'd wear this, it would end up settling on my skin in a gross way--kind of finding its way into lines and pores and pooling there. When I sweat or start secreting the oilies in my regular makeup, it just looks shiny like I've been out running a marathon or something. When I would sweat or secrete (that sounds so gross hahaha) in this, it would emphasize and highlight EVERY LAST FLAW on my face so that my skin's texture looked worse. That was the main thing--the texture of my skin just looked awful!

I even tried to lighten up the thicker consistency (because this is a bit heavy for a moisturizer, in my opinion--not like crazy heavy but not as light as I might have imagined) by mixing it with my regular moisturizer... This helped a bit but I still ended up with the same problems in the end. Argh!

And here is where I argue on the side of Hourglass... I think if you aren't an oily or sweaty person and you have nice, even skin this may work for you--but why would you need it? The thing I thought I liked about this was that it gives really good coverage for a tinted moisturizer but if you don't have the problems to cover, you don't really need the coverage. See where I'm going with this?

And I'm a little baffled because it gets great reviews on the sale websites so those drier-skinned people out there *must* be enjoying the coverage, the consistency and plunking down $55 for a moisturizer with some color to it. $55 is a lot. A lot for me to end up looking gross. But it gives me some hope to pass along--hey, maybe this would work for you! People who shop Sephora's website seem to adore it. Lucky them!

And I'm sorry to Hourglass and to my wallet because I TRIED with this product--harder than I would try with most things that don't work for me. And at least in the end I can say I wasn't a quitter.

You can buy this at Sephora for $55 and it comes in a range of six different shades.

Have you guys ever tried this moisturizer? Is $55 too much? I'd be really interested to see if anyone had better results because with all the 5-star reviews out there, I'm left thinking I might just be the exception.