Aurora

Aurora is a violet with blue-violet shift and sparkling, metallic finish. It has a stronger, bluish-violet shift that twinkles as the light reflects off; the shift comes more from finer shimmer, while the sparkles are strewn throughout but do not dominate. The press is slightly firmer and has a little more creaminess to it to help the sparkles bind with the color. I like using this with a fingertip and then going back on top with a dry brush for a little more visible sparkle, but it works well with a brushes (wet or dry) and fingertips.

Inspiration: The colors of the aurora borealis, common known as the northern lights. This is a phenomenon that occurs as solar wind, originating from space, arrive many hours later on Earth and create a spectacular light show.

Behind the Name: I felt like (some variations of) purple and green were often the more prominent colors in an aurora borealis, which is why this and the next shade received the their names.

Development

I described it as a "rich, cooler purple/violet with blue/teal/lavender shimmer." The initial loose color samples that came in provided two starting points for this shade; the A version was ultimately chosen for Aurora, but I used the B version for Celestial Bloom.

In September 2020, I felt like the palette needed a brighter, more glowing green to better represent the northern lights, and I was originally going to sacrifice this color for it. I ended up scrubbing a warmer purple hue that Galactic Muse was going to be (that was too close to Deliverer) and reinstating this color for Aurora!

Despite some back-and-forth, it didn't take a lot of revisions; it had just the right press and texture for the first hand-pressed pan and the machine-pressed pan, which made it another one-and-done shade.

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

• Brand Description
• Ingredients