*I forgot to include the BH, Mac, Becca, and Dior Highlighter in the first picture of the actual products but I decided to include them in the post and the swatches since they are great as well!
L-R (same pics, different lighting!):
-Mac Lustre Drops: Pink Rebel
-Becca Shimmering Skin Perfecter: Moonstone
-Josie Maran Argan Illuminizer
-Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette: Incandescent Light
-TheBalm: Betty LouManizer
-Tarte: Champagne (from the Rainforest After Dark Palette....they seem to provide this highlighter in other palettes as well!)
-Nars Blush: Albatross (not really a blush but can be found in their blush category)
-BH Galaxy Chic Palette: Saturn
-Dior Amber Diamonds
Although the product looks pink from the outside and is called "pink" rebel, this does not come across pink. It seems to have more of a neutral undertone when put on the skin. I actually would have never gone for this based on its outside appearance, but one of the Mac lady's recommended it, swatched it, and i instantly loved it! I think this could work great for any undertone (warm or cool) because it doesn't come across too pink or too golden. This is more of a subtle glow than a full on metallic highlight. It does seem to fade throughout the day but I find that most liquid highlighters fade on my oily skin.
Becca SSP Moonstone:
This is a pale-gold liquid highlighter (there are also powder versions of these). Staying power is ok, again I have a harder time with liquids. I absolutely love the color because it fits right into that champagney-gold color that I loooove as a highlighter. I like Moonstone over some of the other colors such as the hyped Opal because its lighter and is slightly more golden. When swatched next to Opal, Moonstone appears more golden while Opal appears more amber. I have also swatched the powder version of this and find it to be slightly chunkier than the liquid.
Josie Maran Argan Illuminizer:
This has to be my current favorite. Perfect shade for me. Slightly darker than Moonstone but the same champagne gold, hinting on the more gold side. The great thing about this stuff is that it contains argan oil so it's also a moisturizer (great for all you dry-skin ladies!). As a liquid I was quite impressed with its staying powder, definitely the best staying power of all my other liquid highlighters. What I love about this is the natural glow it gives your skin. It brightens and just makes your skin look healthy and younger. With liquids I usually set them or go over them with a powder highlighter but with this I'm satisfied as is.
Hourglass Incandescent Light:
This is a powder available only in the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette. This is a very subtle highlighter and is perfect for those of you who don't want the metallic highlight but instead prefer a subtle, soft-focus glow. Alone this appears neutral and light but swatched next to other highlighters it leans more cool (slightly pink). I wouldn't consider this a full on cool-toned highlighter though. It is actually quite similar to the Laura Mercier Matte Radiance Highlighter. I think this may only come across slightly cool because most of my highlighters above are warm-toned (and my skin is warm-toned). This stuff is great though and is perfect for an everyday highlight or great for the winter when you want to highlight and brighten without so much of that summertime bronze-y glow. This works great for me when paired with a mauve blush.
TheBalm Betty LouManizer:
This is a much darker highlighter and can be used as a bronzer on my NC-30 skin. When applied over blush it will give a nice glow but if you have lighter skin like me I wouldn't recommend using only this as your highlighter. This would be perfect for darker skin tones though. Out of all the highlighters this one definitely has the smoothest, least glittery texture. The Mary LouManizer I'm sure would work for my skin but I like the idea of using this as a bronzer for a bronzed glow or to use over a lighter highlighter.
Tarte Champagne
This is like a powder version of the Becca Moonstone (even more soon than the actual powdered Moonstone!). It has the same pale-gold/champagne shade. Has a great buttery texture but not quite as smooth as TheBalm. I like using this in the colder months when I'm not going for that bronzed goddess look because this is a very light highlighter. I also tend to use this when I use blushes outside of my normal brown/taupe/bronze shades that are more "colored" such as mauves, pink, and reds. I find that this shade is very universal and goes well with most everything.
Nars Albatross
This is my favorite powder highlighter. I love this just like I love the Josie Maran Illuminizer. It has amazing staying powder and the color is perfect for me. This is a very yellow-gold colored highlighter and therefore may not work for everyone, especially those with cool skin tones. This is my go to highlighter in the summer when I am going for the bronze goddess look. It ties the bronze look together and is the perfect finishing touch on a bronzed look. Downside to this though is that it's not universal. Because it is so yellow I wouldn't use this with any pink or mauve blushes or if I was going for a bright-colored eye look. I find that this works amazing with a brown/warm-toned smokey eye, bronzer, and brown or coral colored blush.
BH Saturn
I threw this one in as well because it's a very inexpensive option and the palette is an eyeshadow palette making it very versatile. The color Saturn seems very similar to Albatross but it does have some red swirls in the shadow. When swatched with only the gold I'd consider this a pretty close dupe to Albatross. With the red swirls, the color is more amber and is still a pretty highlighter! The texture is surprisingly smooth with no chunky-ness and I think this is due to the fact that it's a baked shadow.
Dior Amber Diamonds
This used to be my favorite highlighter. I still love this but the color is just a little too "amber" for me. What I do like is that it has multiple colors in it so you can kind of cater to the color you are going for. This gives a great metallic highlight without being chunky. My favorite thing to do was to just use the lightest shades as my highlighter which is actually quite similar to Moonstone or Tarte's Champagne. When swatched all-together, like I said, it gives it an amber tone (hence the name! haha) which I think would be ammmazing for someone slightly darker than me.
No comments:
Post a Comment