The closest Hourglass dupe is Maybelline Lash Sensational Sky Tubes for Unlocked Instant Extensions Mascara: both are tubing mascaras built for length, and both slide off with warm water, for about a third of the price. Next is e.l.f. Halo Glow Setting Powder for Veil Translucent Setting Powder, two loose translucent powders with a soft-focus finish. Third, Milani Baked Blush stands in for Ambient Lighting Blush, a swirled powder blush with a glow. For the Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil the dupe is e.l.f. Instant Lift Brow Pencil, and for Vanish Airbrush Concealer it’s L’Oréal Infallible Full Wear. A dupe gets you the product type, the finish and the job. It doesn’t get you Hourglass’s talc-free formulas or its hand-mixed powders, and the last two of the seven matches below are loose ones.
The seven at a glance
| Splurge | Price | Dupe | Price | How the dupe compares |
| Hourglass Unlocked Instant Extensions Mascara | About $34 | Maybelline Lash Sensational Sky Tubes | About $11 | Tubing too, one shade |
| Hourglass Veil Translucent Setting Powder | About $52 | e.l.f. Halo Glow Setting Powder | About $8 | Loose, soft-focus finish |
| Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush | About $48 | Milani Baked Blush | About $13 | Swirled glow, has talc |
| Hourglass Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil | About $38 | e.l.f. Instant Lift Brow Pencil | About $4 | Dual-ended, finer tip |
| Hourglass Vanish Airbrush Concealer | About $39 | L’Oréal Infallible Full Wear Concealer | About $13 | Waterproof, but matte |
| Hourglass Unreal Liquid Blush | About $38 | Milani Cheek Kiss Liquid Blush | About $8 | Loose: no hyaluronic acid |
| Hourglass Ambient Lighting Bronzer | About $58 | Physicians Formula Murumuru Butter Bronzer | About $13 | Loose: creamier, scented |
Prices are approximate, and they change often.
1. Hourglass Unlocked mascara dupe: Maybelline Lash Sensational Sky Tubes
Unlocked Instant Extensions Mascara is a tubing mascara. Instead of painting lashes with pigment and wax, it forms a film around each one, with lightweight fibers for length. Hourglass says it wears smudge-proof and flake-free for up to 16 hours. It comes off with warm water and your fingers, no remover needed, and it’s sold in Ultra Black and Espresso. It’s vegan and ophthalmologist tested.
Maybelline Lash Sensational Sky Tubes works the same way for about a third of the price. It’s a tubing mascara made for length and separation, it’s ophthalmologist tested, and the tubes slide off when lashes are soaked in warm water. The formula is vegan, with shea butter and castor oil, and Maybelline says it lasts up to 24 hours. The brushes differ: Maybelline’s has pyramid-shaped bristles and a sphere tip for the inner and lower lashes. It also comes in Very Black only, so if Espresso is your shade, there’s no match here. Our best mascaras roundup has more options.
2. Hourglass Veil Translucent Setting Powder dupe: e.l.f. Halo Glow Setting Powder
Veil Translucent Setting Powder is a finely milled loose powder with soft-focus, light-reflecting particles and a little diamond powder. It’s made without talc or fragrance, and the jar holds 0.36 ounces behind a sifter. Hourglass says it blurs the look of pores and fine lines without flashback, and that it can be used to bake under-eye concealer.
e.l.f. Halo Glow Setting Powder is the same kind of product at about $8: a loose, translucent setting powder with a silky texture. e.l.f. describes the finish as a glow without shine and says it blurs the look of fine lines and pores, and it can be used to bake as well. It comes in five tone-specific translucent shades plus a brightening light pink, and it’s vegan. The diamond powder is Hourglass’s alone. Our Hourglass Vanish Airbrush Powder review names this same e.l.f. powder as its budget pick, so one jar covers both.
3. Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush dupe: Milani Baked Blush
Ambient Lighting Blush fuses a blush shade with one of Hourglass’s Ambient Lighting Powders, so each pan is a swirl of color and glow. The powders are mixed by hand and no two compacts look alike. The finish is radiant and the color builds. It’s made without talc or fragrance, and a pan holds 0.15 ounces. The link here goes to Luminous Flush, a champagne rose.
Milani Baked Blush gets to a similar look by a different route. Each one starts as a cream mixed with shimmer and several colors, gets baked on Italian terracotta tile, and dries into a silky powder with a mix of hues in one pan. Milani describes the result as a lit-from-within glow that builds easily. It also has grape leaf extract and an olive oil ferment. The difference that matters is the base: talc is the first ingredient. If talc-free is the reason you buy Hourglass, this isn’t your swap. The link goes to Luminoso. Our blush, bronzer and contour placement guide covers where either one goes.
4. Hourglass Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil dupe: e.l.f. Instant Lift Brow Pencil
Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil is a mechanical pencil with a triangular tip. The flat edge draws broad strokes to shape the brow and the point fills in fine lines. The formula blends powder, pencil and wax, there’s a grooming brush on the other end, and it comes in nine shades. It’s fragrance-free.
e.l.f. Instant Lift Brow Pencil costs about a tenth as much. It’s dual-ended too, with a pencil on one side and a spoolie on the other, and e.l.f. describes the color as budge-resistant. The tip is where they part. e.l.f.’s is a fine precision tip, good for feathery, hair-like strokes and slower at blocking in a full shape. There are six shades to Hourglass’s nine, so a brow color that falls between the usual browns may only exist in the Hourglass range. More picks are in our best brow pencils roundup.
5. Hourglass Vanish Airbrush Concealer dupe: L’Oréal Infallible Full Wear Concealer
Vanish Airbrush Concealer is a full-coverage liquid concealer that’s waterproof and crease-resistant. Hourglass says it wears for 16 hours and sets to a natural, airbrushed finish. Microspherical powders in the formula blur the look of pores and fine lines. It’s concentrated, so one to three dots under each eye is the whole dose, and it’s made without synthetic fragrance, talc or alcohol.
L’Oréal Infallible Full Wear Concealer matches the headline specs for about a third of the price: full coverage, waterproof and crease-resistant, in 25 shades. L’Oréal says it lasts up to 24 hours. Two things are different. The finish is matte, where Hourglass’s is natural, and matte can look flat under dry eyes. And it contains fragrance. The extra-large applicator lays down a lot of product in one stroke, so start with less than you think you need. Our long-wear concealers roundup has others to compare.
6. Hourglass Unreal Liquid Blush dupe: Milani Cheek Kiss Liquid Blush
Unreal Liquid Blush is a serum-like liquid blush with hyaluronic acid and a white lupin seed extract. The color builds, the finish is natural, and Hourglass says it stays put for up to 12 hours. The bottle holds 0.34 fluid ounces and dispenses a drop at a time from a soft button on its base. It comes in seven shades.
Milani Cheek Kiss Liquid Blush is a loose match. It’s a lightweight, creamy liquid blush that builds and blends, with rose water, watermelon extract and pomegranate juice, and it can go on lips as well as cheeks. It’s vegan and talc-free. There’s no hyaluronic acid or lupin extract in it, and no dropper. What you get is the product type at about $8. The link goes to Rose Romance.
7. Hourglass Ambient Lighting Bronzer dupe: Physicians Formula Murumuru Butter Bronzer
Ambient Lighting Bronzer does for bronzer what the blush does for color: bronze pigment fused with an Ambient Lighting Powder, in a sheer, airy formula with a radiant finish. It comes in four shades and it’s made without talc or fragrance. The link here goes to Luminous Bronze Light, the shade Hourglass suggests for fair to light skin.
Physicians Formula Murumuru Butter Bronzer is the loosest match here. Both are bronzers with a glow, and Physicians Formula’s has fine pearl and soft-focus pigments. The texture is another thing entirely. It’s made with murumuru, cupuaçu and tucuma butters, and the brand describes it as creamy and soft, somewhere between a powder and a cream. Talc is its first ingredient and it contains fragrance, two things the Hourglass formula leaves out. It’s hypoallergenic and dermatologist tested, according to Physicians Formula. Buy it because you like a creamy bronzer for about $13, not because it’s the same powder.
How we picked
We started with Hourglass’s best-known products, then matched each to one cheaper product of the same type. A match had to share a format and a finish, not just a category, and cost clearly less. No brand supplies more than two dupes. Pairs are ranked by how much they have in common, closest first.
The Ambient Lighting Palette isn’t matched here. It has its own Buy, Dupe, or Splurge review. Phantom Volumizing Glossy Balm is missing because no cheaper glossy balm met all of those conditions.
When the expensive one is still worth it
When the formula is the reason you bought it. Hourglass makes its Veil powder, Ambient Lighting Blush and Ambient Lighting Bronzer without talc or fragrance. Both the Milani blush and the Physicians Formula bronzer start with talc, and the bronzer and the L’Oréal concealer are scented. If you avoid either ingredient, three of these seven swaps are off the table.
Shade range is the other reason. Unlocked comes in a brown, the Arch pencil comes in nine shades, and the Ambient powders are mixed so each pan carries its own blend of light and color. A one-shade mascara and a six-shade pencil cover the middle of the range well and the edges poorly.
If I Were You
- If you only swap one thing, I’d swap the mascara. Tubing is tubing, the removal is the same, and mascara is the product you replace most often.
- If you set your makeup every day, I’d try the e.l.f. powder next. At about $8 it’s a cheap experiment, and a loose powder lasts.
- If your skin reacts to fragrance, I’d skip the L’Oréal concealer and the Physicians Formula bronzer and keep the Hourglass versions. For a rash or stinging that doesn’t settle, see a dermatologist.
- If your under-eyes are dry, I’d keep Vanish. A matte, full-coverage concealer is the least forgiving thing you can put there.
- If you want one splurge, I’d make it an Ambient Lighting product. The hand-mixed powders are what Hourglass is known for, and they’re the hardest part of the line to copy.
FAQ
Is there an exact dupe for Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush?
No. Milani Baked Blush gives a similar swirled, glowy powder blush, but it’s baked instead of hand-mixed with a finishing powder, and it contains talc.
What’s the best dupe for Hourglass Unlocked mascara?
Maybelline Lash Sensational Sky Tubes. Both are tubing mascaras made for length, and both come off with warm water. Maybelline’s comes in black only.
Is e.l.f. Halo Glow Setting Powder a dupe for Hourglass Veil or Vanish?
It’s a reasonable stand-in for either. Like Veil Translucent Setting Powder, it’s a loose translucent powder with a soft-focus finish, and our Vanish Airbrush Powder review picks it as the budget option there too.
Are Hourglass dupes vegan?
Some are. Maybelline describes the Sky Tubes formula as vegan, and e.l.f. and Milani say the same of the Halo Glow powder and Cheek Kiss blush. Check each product if it matters to you. Our makeup archive and Buy, Dupe, or Splurge reviews have more comparisons.
Bottom line
Hourglass splits into two kinds of product. The mascara, the brow pencil and the concealer are good versions of things the drugstore also does well, and those are easy to dupe. The powders are different. Veil has a close cheap cousin, but the Ambient Lighting blush and bronzer are talc-free, hand-mixed and hard to copy closely. Save on the first group and spend, if you’re going to, on the second.
