Hey guys! In this post I will be continuing my 'Building Up Your Makeup Collection' posts this time moving on to highlighter!
1. Where and Why?
Highlighting is a great way to sculpt and well, highlight the face - it can help to give you a beautiful healthy glow as well as make points on your face look higher and therefore give you a more youthful appearance. It really is an effective and fairly easy addition to a makeup routine that I think makes a real difference to a look.
There are various places on the face you may want to highlight and for these areas you may find different kinds of highlighters work better for each. Places like the brow bone, the bridge of your nose and along the cheekbones are areas most people like to highlight.
2. Formulation and Finish:
Formulation and finish are two things I think you should really consider before purchasing or using a particular highlighting product. One of the main reasons for this is that different products work best for different people and you may therefore find a particular formulation easier to work with. Another reason is that you may find one particular finish a highlighter works a little better in a look than another.
Highlighters just like blushes and foundations come in various different formulations. The most common of these being liquid, cream and powder. You can also purchase highlighters in shimmery, pearlescent and matte finishes - and as I said, these finishes work better depending on the kind of look you are going for.
Cream highlighters come in pot or stick form and these are generally quite easy to work with. Their formulation and the colour of the particular highlight may also make them good primers or eyelid colours as well. Cream highlighters make for a more natural, subtle highlight and are easily to blend and manipulate.
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| Benefit's Watt's Up is a cream highlight that's perfect for that naturual, subtle highlight! Buy at ASOS for £24.50 (Photo credit: Google Images) |
Liquid highlighters are of course a lot thinner in consistency compared to cream blushes and because of this they can be mixed with other liquid products such as your foundation or moisturiser. They can create a beautiful, subtle highlight all over the face and either mixed in with another product or used alone.
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| Benefit's High Beam is a great liquid highlighter. You can mix this product with foundation and your moisturiser for an overall facial glow. Buy at Boots £19.50 (Photo credit: Google Images) |
Powder highlighters once again can be used as a eyeshadow colour if you so should desire and are generally the formulations with the strongest pigmentation. This means that it's easy to go overboard with then especially if they have a shimmery finish so it's always good to make sure you're not using a heavy hand when working with them.
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| MUA's Undress Your Skin Highlighter is a inexpensive and very good quality highlight. Buy at Superdrug for £3.00! (Photo credit: Google Images) |
In terms of finish and when you'd want to use them, it all really depends. Usually, on an eyeshadow look for instance, you'll generally want to use a matte powder highlight or simply something without shimmer in order to not over power the rest of the look - especially if you've already used shimmer.
If you want a very glowy and summery look however, shimmer is great to give that effect as it makes you look very healthy and youthful - though of course, it's possible to go a little overboard so be wary! For something more subtle, go for something with less shimmery and moving towards more of matte finish.
3. Shade and Skintone:
When highlighting, especially along areas of the face such as the cheeks and nose, you may want to consider the colour of the highlighter you are using. Although the colours of them tend to be sheer on the skin, they do still provide a subtle tint and certain shades are more flattering on certain skin tones.
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| TheBalm's Mary-Luminizer is my current favourite highlighter, perfect for light to medium skin tones! Buy at FeelUnique.com for £16.00 (Photo Credit: Google Images) |
As a girl who has more of a fairer skin tone, I really enjoy slightly yellow-toned champagne colours and pearly pinks. Peachy and deeper golden tones may work better for those of you who have medium-dark skin!
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| MAC's Mineralize SkinFinishes are great highlighters with shades for all skin tones. Buy at MAC for £23.00 (Photo Credit: Google Images) |
** Concealers can also be used to highlight places such as a under the eyes and the high points of the face (think of the Kim K look). For that, you might want to get a concealer around 2-3 shades lighter than your skin tone! **
And so, that's everything I wanted to cover on the wonderful world of highlight. I hope that this post was interesting and helpful to you and as always, thank you for reading!
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