Midnight Courage

Midnight Courage is a rich navy blue with matte finish. This shade is all about the undertone; it's more vivid than most navy blues, so it has more depth and intensity, but it's not in-your-face blue at all. In order to get that richness and depth, the press is less firm, so there is light powderiness in the pan, which can lead to light fallout if it is overapplied. It's pigmented as you'd expect, but it is best applied with a lighter hand and built up. There is ultra-fine pearl that helps blend out the shade but isn't visible, so it looks matte applied.

Inspiration: It was originally conceptualized as more of a mid-tone, slightly warmed-up brown that was tentatively named One Shot (inspired by my love of lattes) but found myself wanting more of a navy blue shade when it came to actually working with the color story in practice. I wanted something richer and bluer, cooler compared to the existing navy blues Sydney Grace had, which was how this shade came to be.

Behind the Name: The name is a nod to the time when I've had to dig deep, really learn about where my lines of right and wrong have been, and then come to difficult decisions that enabled me to take the higher road. In terms of my blogging journey, one of the moments that stands out is when I decided not to review the NARS x Guy Bourdin collection and wrote about why--it was really the first time I took any "stand" on something that occurred in the community. This shade is dedicated to my friend Sam (Samantha Ravndahl, a YouTuber in the space) for her ability to come through in the midnight hour and provide advice and support when I needed it.

Development

I did quite a bit of rearranging, both in terms of names as well as directions, for some of the matte shades in this palette, including this shade. In mid-2020, I changed it from a type of brown to a navy blue. The first version was too light and faded, I wanted it to be cooler-toned, almost purplish in comparison to where it was. The second version was better but still not quite rich enough.

The third version was still too dark and not rich enough in the blue color and needed a little more glide. The fourth version was still too faded and too light.  The fifth version achieved the level of richness in blue while keeping it darker with the right level of firmness in press.

FURTHER READING: Formula Overview, which is a detailed review of the range as a whole.

• Brand Description
• Ingredients