Spotlight on Highlighters: 5 of the Best

I often need all the help I can to look less like I've risen from a crypt in the morning and highlighters are just one of the secret weapons I use to bring a little brightness and luminescence to my otherwise tired fizzog. 

Regardless of the product in question, I use all highlighters similarly. 

• In a Power V (Make a V sign with your fingers, one under your brow, the other on your cheek bone & use them as a guide). 
• Down the centre of my schnozz to make my nose appear slimmer. 
• In my cupid's bow, to give me the illusion of fuller lips. 
• On the innermost corners of my eyes to widen them and appear more awake.
• On my décolletage with lower cut tops.

The market is completely saturated with products to help you bring a natural shine to specific areas of your face but I thought I'd show you my top 5. To be used sparingly of course, I made that mistake once and ended up like the Tin Man in search of a face cloth and a slap. 

MAC's Superb - €28

First up, MAC Superb from the In Extreme Dimension collection. This large pan is one of the only items I have ever queued in a MAC shop for. I rote about my grá for it here but since then it has just risen in my estimation. I'm using it as a highlighter, an eyeshadow and a body  brightener on my décolletage (as I am with each of these products). The rose gold luminous colour is one of the most flattering products I own.  

Benefit's High Beam - €26.50

Cult favourite and long time hanger outer in my kit, Benefit's High Beam is liquid light for your skin. It's soft pink shimmer blends out to an almost invisible but completely iridescent brightener and works wonders for a quick pick me up. 

Catrice Made to Stay Highlighter Pen - €3.29

 The cheapest of my picks, Catrice's new Made to Stay Highlighter Pen more than holds its own in the highlighting stakes. Coming in at €3.29, this soft, pale pink shimmer stick is twistable uppable and the ideal size for throwing into your mála for quick perk me ups during the day. It's staying power is fantastic and the shade will complement any skin tone. 

MAC SuperWatt - €18

The second MAC offering to make the luminous grade is SuperWatt from the recent Electric Cool collection. Technically this one is an eye shadow but boy what a product it is. It's a super soft creamy champagne taupe that lends itself easily to highlighting efforts on the rest of your kisser. It glides on effortlessly and seriously stays put all day. Even on your lids this won't crease or rub, I'm seriously impressed with SuperWatt. Seriously. 

TopShop Cheeks in Prism - €15

I seem to be mentioning Prism just about everywhere these days but that's not for nothing. A constant in my make up kit and a product I won't be without, TopShop have knocked it out of the park with their Cheeks range. I adore Prism but should you want a bronzer look, there's always Ray. There's definitely something for everyone in the light stakes when it comes to Cheeks. 

Remember you don't always need a product specifically designed to highlight in order to get the effect. Any light or frosted shadows will do the trick too. Never be afraid to play around with what's in your make up bag already. Have a bit of fun and see what works for you. 

Tell me, what are you using to light the highs of your face these days? 

TopShop - Ray - Cheek, Lip & Body Highlighter

We've seen several large brands bring out bronze highlighters so far this Summer, first Benefit with SunBeam to replace Moonbeam and now TopShop have added to their Cheeks collection with Ray, a deep bronze highlighter with golden microshimmer shot through it's twistable uppable stick. (that's totally a technical term)

The Cheeks range (including Prism) are soft, blendable highlighters that are made for use on cheeks (natch), eyes, lips and the body. Fancy some swatches?

Even swatched heavily, Ray blends out to bronzey, luminous loveliness

Ray is a great highlighter for darker skin tones but, truth be told, I'm loving it on my own visage. It's a lot warmer than it's counterpart Prism but works beautifully as a brightener for tanned skins (false or naturddle).A swish on your lips, topped with a slick of gloss is a great way to do a simple Summer lip too.

At €18 these bad boys aren't cheap but you're getting a lot of product for your eurobux, please see exhibit A, M'Lud. I bought Prism over 9 months ago and although reluctant at first, it's simple and effective ways won me over and I've been using it every other day since. Wanna see what 9 months use does to the schtick?

Both fully extended..

Not bad, right? I can foresee Ray being shown just as much love as Prism and taking a spot in my prime rotation of daytime make up, it might even make a cheeky appearance as a body highlighter when the sun deigns to visit us again or if we ever get away to the sunshine.

Considering the blatant TopShop price conversion rip off, I did want to link you straight to both of these products online but alas they're not to be found on the site and I'm not quite sure why that is. As it stands if you want to try out this warm schtick of goodness for yourself you're going to have to check in store, I can assure you, you won't regret it.

Any love for a bronzey highlighter? What are you using currently to light the highs of your visage?

MAC - Extra Dimension - Skinfinish/Highlighter in Superb

It's very rare that I run out to buy a product, much less rare that I call the shop the night before and get up at 9am ON A DAY OFF and make sure I'm first in line to have it but since seeing Dusty Hunter's video about the new MAC In Extra Dimension collection and the fact that Superb Extra Dimension Skinfinish/Highlighter is an exact dupe for the Holy Grail & impossible to find Estée Lauder's Modern Mercury illuminating powder gelée, that's exactly what I did. Knowing that Éstée have recently purchased MAC, it was only a matter of time before there was some cross over in products produced. Thank the Lord.

This skinfinish/highlighter is a rose gold, dry to the touch but oh so smooth product. It looks a lot warmer in the pan than on the skin. It catches the light beautifully for a high shine finish but I find it a lot more subtle than metallic, making it a win for Irish skin tones. 

Swatched (heavily) wet on the left and dry on the right

I've been using this highlighter just about every day since purchase such is my grá for it. I'm loving it as a highlighter on temples, cheekbones and décolletage but also as a subtle but hugely flattering eye shadow. This handy photo shows you exactly where to use it. The genius that is Dusty Hunter had suggested using Modern Mercury (& this as it's a dupe) as a funky nail polish. Simply paint your nails with a clear basecoat, brush this powder on lightly and seal with a topcoat for a unique metallic finish. I've yet to try it but I will.  

The beautiful Christine over at Temptalia.com has Superb in a face of the day, which shows it's subtlety perfectly.  She's also rated it A- and coming from one of the leading beauty gurus, that's pretty phenomenal. 


At the time of writing this post, Superb has already sold out on the MAC website and I can envision the shops running out fairly quickly too. I bought it for €28 in BT2 in Blanchardstown but I know that each of the MAC stores (Cork especially) are hugely helpful in holding and posting products to your home should the want overcome you. 


Tempted?




PS... If you haven't followed Dustin Hunter yet, do yourself a favour and get on it, I love the man muchly.  

Has High Beam been Duped?

I have a serious love for highlighters, well for High Beam in particular. More so since the Beaut.ie & Benefit launch in BTs that taught us to do the Power V for best highlighting effect. For those of you without access to links, that involves giving yourself the fingers, right into your eye. Top finger goes under your brow and bottom finger on the top of your cheekbone. Use this a guide as to where to place your highlighter for maximum benefit. (Geddit?)

Tootling around TopShop a couple of weeks back, merely because I had a voucher, I would never tootle there normally considering their rip off comparison prices, I stumbled across this lovely. 

Twistable Uppable, my favourite format.

This is called Prism and is one of 3 Cheeks offerings on the TopShop counters right now. It's a little steep at €15 but then again so is everything in Irish TopShop stores (can you tell it annoys me?)

Anyway, its a beautiful soft shimmering stick that can be used as a daytime highlighter. In comparison with High Beam the colour and effect is a lot subtler. 

High Beam Heart - Prism Splodge

Prism on Top - High Beam Bottom

I've been using this for about 2 weeks now and while I do like it as an alternative it won't knock High Beam out of my mála. I've found it's staying power is fairly poor, it's effects have pretty much worn away by lunchtime, which has a lot to do with the soft consistency. 

While I don't regret the purchase it's not one I'll be making again. For the extra €8.13 including delivery from feelunique.com  I reckon High Beam is a much better choice. I've had mine for over a year now, using it every other day and you can see from the first picture, it's really holding up well. 

So what say you? Would you be tempted? Any love for TopShop cosmetics out there?

**You're getting an edit right here, just after I published this post Benefit released Watts Up, TopShop is an even closer to dupe to that!**