OK, so maybe the comparison to Helen of Troy is a bit much, but I've never seen an eye shadow cause a craze like Shiseido The Makeup Hydro-Powder. Longtime readers might recall the original mention of this illustrious shadow on this site; it was way back in December '05 when several of us gathered in a midtown Sephora and snatched up the entire stock of Hydro Powder in Whitelights.

A few months later my obsession with this shadow resurfaced when I saw Tom Pecheux use it to highlight the cheekbones, jawlines, even the ears of models in the Doo.Ri Spring '07 show. When I found out that particular shade - Glistening Sand - was not yet available, I was crushed. Devastated! Champing at the bit! While Whitelights was a snowy, glimmering pale white - gorgeous in its own right - Glistening Sand was a warm, shimmering golden beige. The perfect highlight shade. Whitelights was no longer enough for me; I had to have this new one.

I waited and waited and waited. And now it's here! You can now snap up this incredible cream-to-powder shadow in Glistening Sand and several other new shades, as well as the venerable Whitelights and others from the original collection (pictured here is Violet Visions).

Just watch out for milling crowds of rabid, shadow-obsessed women at the Shiseido display. I might be there once again, hoarding the entire stock for myself.