The 5 Best Highlighters for a Natural Glow
My skin can be dull and dry in Winter, the weather change never works in my favour. Something I find myself doing more of in Winter is highlighting. This always keeps my skin looking glowing and somewhat alive during the colder months. Armed with the best highlighters from Sephora for a natural glow, I’m ready to take on Winter. Although these are the best highlighters of 2017 for me, I'll be using them all year round!
BECCA x Chrissy Teigen Glow Face Palette Review - $78
This palette was created in collaboration with Chrissy, the American Model. The Limited Edition highlighter palette includes two highlighters, a blush and a bronzer. Each shade looks perfectly Becca, I always hit the pan with my Becca products because I literally become so obsessed with them. I feel like this palette is the perfect summer glow shades for warm balmy nights.
The shades included are;
Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed Highlighter in Beach Nectar
I adore this shade! I wear a light dust of this to work most days and I find that it can be a subtle highlighter or by applying more, it can be really bright and bold. It has a slight apricot shade that shows with applying and it’s not a bright white highlight. It’s more of a sun-glow colour and it shows off pretty gold flecks in the light. I found it easy to blend out after applying it over a setting foundation powder. It wasn’t very chalky and blended out so well with my foundation! I normally don’t expect a good blend from glittery highlighters. Sometimes applying a highlighter can move my foundation if I’m not careful but this whole Becca palette didn’t! I’m always happy to find products that don’t do this! (Also this shade is brand new and exclusive!)
Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed Highlighter in Rose Gold
The gold shimmer in this highlighter is a little more obvious than the Beach Nectar shade. When applied it’s warm and almost orange-toned. I was surprised though, it’s super wearable, blendable and not a strange bright obvious colour on my face! It worked really well with my false tan and a darker foundation shade. The brightness of the rose gold might look a bit orange on paler skin.
Sunlit Bronzer in Malibu Soleil
I’m not sure if I like this as a bronzer on its own, it’s a little hard to blend but it’s perfect over my normal bronzing and contouring. It adds a nice dimension to it and a touch of shine. I think I’d love to use this in the crease of my eyelids, I always love matching my lids with a bronzer for a really natural look.
Luminous Blush in Hibiscus Bloom (Limited Edition)
This blush is a gorgeous gold coral pink! I’m not normally a blush wearer so I’ve only dusted this over lightly after contouring and before highlighting. It’s a sweet and wearable colour and I hope I can embrace blush with this shade. I still feel that it’s a little bright for me and super similar to the pink shades in the Jaclyn palette!
Marc Jacobs Dew Drops Coconut Gel Highlighter Review - $63 (This one's my favourite!)
This dewy highlighter is my go-to at the moment! The gel has a thin consistency, it’s light for everyday wear and can be applied thinly and give a natural sheen or it can be layered for a full glow. I normally use this on all the high points on my face as it’s not too overpowering for a normal day. I would love to mix this with my foundation for an overall hydrated-looking glow, I feel like the gel would mesh really well with the consistency of my foundation too! This reminds me of the Becca Moonshine but in a liquid form - the golden peachy hue is the perfect warm highlight. The bottle is the sweetest packaging ever, so minimalist and sleek with a pump top too! My favourite thing about this coconut highlight is that it’s free from Parabens, Sulfates, and Phthalates. This makes me feel so much better about putting it on my skin every day!
Ps. It kind of smells like baby powder, but it’s nice?
Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector - Slimlight Highlighter - $46 Jaclyn Hill Collection
I adore this highlighting pencil for the small details. I wear this under and over my brow bone to brighten my eyebrow arch, the inner corners of my eye for a bit of a wake-up and on my cupids bow for a fuller looking lip before applying a lipstick. I can pinpoint the exact spots I want to accentuate and define them with a luminous mattified glow. It’s also perfect for wearing on top of the usual highlighter if you just to light up with an extra pop.
I also love wearing this highlighter on my eyelids as an eyeshadow stick. It’s perfect for the inside quarter of my eyelids to really brighten the whole area! So many good ways to wear this highlighter, plus it’s probably the best travel highlighter I own!
Tarte Tartiest Pro Glow To Go - $33
This is probably another highlighter I’d take travelling! It’s super compact and probably just a little larger than the height of my palm. The two highlighters and one contour shade is pretty much the necessity when finishing off a look, so it’s great to only carry the main shades! The cool undertones work really well on my skin tone with and without a false tan, and there’s a huge change between my two shades! I also absolutely LOVE how pigmented this little palette is, one sweep of the highlighters and I’m like a beaming lighthouse.
Chisel
This light to medium brown is also slightly yellow in undertones! Just like the highlighters, the pigmentation is really great, easy to blend and natural looking. It’s a very buildable shade and I think it’s best applied this way too. Because of the heavy pigmentation, applying a lof of product at one time might look dirty and patchy. Apply less product and buff it out longer than you think you need to for a really natural contour!
Gleam - Golden beige - Yellow/Cool undertones
This frosty shade is pigmented, smooth to apply and super long lasting! I wore it all day at work (8.5 hours) and came home to my highlight still poppin. This shade didn’t budge my foundation or sink into pores or fine lines either. I found that I didn’t need to use a lot of product to achieve a natural looking glow either which is always a bonus. While the palette is small, I feel like I could get a lot of uses out of it. I’m really happy with this blendable shade!
Burst - Frosty golden sheen
The colour is slightly yellow when applied onto the skin, I think this might only suit pale to lighter skin tones. I wore it with a light tan and found that it still looked good! It applies evenly and without bumps or graininess, it also sits on the skin really smoothly and is always blendable even after blending! This can be a positive for blending out further, but may rub off without a setting spray!
I used a contouring brush for Chisel and a smaller blending brush for Gleam and Burst for accuracy! I love Burst across the highest points of my cheeks and tip of my nose with Gleam applied to my brow bone and the inner corners of my eyes.
The packaging is a small rectangle cardboard palette with gold details. It feels very much like NARS eyeshadows with a velvety coating.
Jaclyn Hill Champagne Collection Face Palette - $89
I don't know a single person who doesn't love this iconic creamy 5 shade palette. It sold our earlier this year and has been one of the most talked about palettes! When Becca collaborated with Jaclyn Hill the beauty YouTuber, they created this perfect beast.
It's so great for mixing and matching your glow, or if you want to be seen from space... wear them all at once! This palette has two Champagne Pop Highlighters, two mineral blushed and a luminous blush. The first thing I noticed about this palette was how luxe and high-end it feels! It's a perfect weight and the packaging design is perfect as Becca always is. I really love the reflective inside and huge application mirror.
Shimmering Skin Perfector - Champagne Pop and Prosecco Pop
Like all of my highlighters, I apply these to the highest points on my face, but I also love wearing them as a shimmery eyeshadow for a night out! Especially along up upper lash line if I'm doing a cut crease. I find it really makes the dark shadowed crease pop! I have noticed that the shades in the palettes are a little dryer than in the compacts. The colours and the way it's blended into foundation doesn't seem to change though!
Champagne pop is everyone's favourite and I don't blame them! I also have this in the single compact and it's completely used down to the pan! It's the perfect golden peach highlight for a healthy glow and still blendable, easy to layer and creamy. I have no idea how they made something so perfect, can you tell I've loved it since it came out? I use this for everyday makeup and I layer it for an evening look. It never cakes into my foundation and it's super long lasting. I honestly have nothing bad to say about this shade!
Prosecco Pop is a little more of a yellow-toned gold shine. It's very similar to the Champagne Pop in terms of blending, long-lasting and even the shades are still very similar!
Mineral Blush in Amaretto and Pamplemousse
I find these aren't truly matte but are a satin look on the skin. Both warm shades contain highlighting sheen and do look quite shimmery when applied. They're super pigmented (as expected) but are always buildable if you use a very light hand with these shades! Similarly, with the Chrissy palette, I'm not a huge blush wearer but I'll happily wear a light dusting of either of these! The best thing about these shades is that they're easy to blend and can be used to make a very natural look.
Luminous Blush in Rosé Spritz
The golden frost on this shade is beautiful! It's a bright warm pink-coral with yellow undertones because of the sheen. I found this shade wasn't as dry as the highlighters and it was easy to blend. If you don't like a harsh blush, I recommend applying this very lightly!
This is posted in a fun collaboration with Sephora.com.au. - I was sent these products to trial and review. Every review is 110% my own honest opinion according to my personal experiences with the products. I am not a trained makeup artist, please test the products or ask for professional advice in store.