MAC Hyper Real Glow Palette in Flash + Awe

Last Thursday, MAC launched their new Hyper Real Glow Palette, a set of three highlighting shades available in two colour waves: "Finally, something worthy of the hype. Fall fast and hard for the highlighting palette perfection of Hyper Real Glow. Each palette packs three hues of highlight for supercharged, ecstatic-in-love-level radiance... With an irresistibly creamy powder formula, shades blend effortlessly to leave an ultra-reflective, yet flawlessly smooth sheen." There are three highlighting shades in square pans in each palette, and they are housed in a slim black mirrored cardboard case. each Hyper Real Glow Palette contains a total of 13.5 grams of product, and retails for $48.
In natural daylight: Flash + Awe, Rosy Glow, and Light of the Party In direct sunlight: Flash + Awe, Rosy Glow, and Light of the Party

Flash + Awe is a pale cool-neutral silvered pinky beige in a shimmery metallic finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a smooth, creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. There is nothing similar to this in MAC's permanent line-up.

Rosy Glow is a light neutral pinked beige in a shimmery metallic finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a smooth, creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is darker and more pink than Flash + Awe, and lighter and more pink than Soft and Gentle.

Light of the Party is a light-medium warm peachy pink beige in a shimmery metallic finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a smooth, creamy texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is lighter and more peach than Beaming Blush, and more peach than Soft and Gentle.

Finally, MAC has hopped on the highlighter palette train! MAC has never had any sort of highlighting kit in their permanent range, so it really was about time that they added these. For those who like to combine highlighting shades or simply want more variety in a single compact, the Hyper Real Glow Palettes will definitely appeal to you. Since the discontinuation of their Iridescent Powders a little over six years ago, MAC only had Mineralize Skinfinish or Extra Dimension Skinfinish in their permanent range — both of which are gorgeous formulas, but have that weightless, baked texture that is buildable in opacity. What MAC was missing in their highlighter range was that dense, creamy powder formula that is super-smooth, ultra-blendable, and gives off a beaming, metallic sheen — the texture and finish that has made Anastasia Beverly Hills' Glow Kits and Becca's Shimmering Skin Perfectors reign supreme in this category. Flash + Awe is definitely geared towards fair to medium skintones, but Get It Glowin' was designed for medium to dark skintones, so no one misses out.