The ever popular Hourglass Holiday Palettes have dropped

This is genuinely one of the better all-in-one palettes for travelling light this season. Choose one that suits your skin tone best.

Every autumn, without fail, three things happen: the clocks go back, John Lewis reveals its advert, and someone in the beauty industry decides tinned eyeshadow needs a Parisian jewellery collaboration to justify the price. This year it's Hourglass, teaming up with the designer Lauren Rubinski to produce three versions of its Ambient Lighting Edit, each dangling its own little charm: a clover for Wish, a heart and key for Hope, an upside-down horseshoe for Luck. Very on the nose for a product whose main pitch is essentially "hope you look nice."

Strip away the charm bracelet dressed up as make-up packaging and what you actually get is six shades of blush, bronzer and highlighter per palette, all drawn from Hourglass's established Ambient Lighting range, the stuff that made its name on red carpets a decade ago and has been quietly excellent ever since. That's the bit worth paying attention to. If you've used the original Diffused Light powder, you'll know what these are capable of: soft-focus, not sparkly, genuinely flattering in photos taken by relatives who still use flash.

The marketing calls it "Photoluminescent Technology," which is a lovely way of saying finely milled pigment that reflects light well. What it will do, reliably, is even out and warm up a face in about four swipes.

The tin casing and the "vegan, cruelty-free, 5% to the Nonhuman Rights Project" credentials are a nice touch and clearly the right instinct, though I'd gently note that a good cause sitting alongside a £98 price tag for six eyeshadow-sized pans of powder is still, at heart, a luxury purchase dressed in ethics. Buy it because the formula is genuinely lovely, not because the tin makes you feel better about spending on it.

Verdict: This luxury palatte is dressed up in sentimentality and charm bracelets, but the product underneath the story has always been one of the better face palettes on the market that come into their own when you travel. If you're going to spend Hourglass money on a holiday set, this remains one of the more defensible ways to do it.