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? 

China Glaze Prismatic Collection - Magpie Nirvana!

You'll remember last week I showed you the gorgeous Ray-Diant from the China Glaze Prismatic Collection, well, as promised, today I have a look at the entire collection for all of your magpie wants. Each polish is a densely packed holographic glitter with ultra fine to small glitter particles that can be used in a single coat, built up for bling or used as a base for an even bigger glitzier glitter, I did with Rainbow Connections and Ray-Diant.

There are six polishes in this collection and they differ slightly with regard to the jelly suspension and colour of micro glitter so each have a distinctive coloured finish. Let's have a look at the swatches first, then each polish close up.

Nice, eh? Now let's have a closer inspection of the individual polishes..

Polarized from Prismatic 

Polarized is the most silver of the lot with multi coloured micro glitters. 

Prism from Prismatic

Prism has all of the elements of Polarized but with more blue/purple microglitters so shines purple in the light. 

Optical Illusion from Prismatic

Optical Illusion is a blue/green offering with some purple duochrome glitters. 

Full Spectrum from Prismatic

Full Spectrum, while very like Prism, finishes to a pinker hue than the others. Very pretty. 

Liquid Crystal from Prismatic

Liquid Crystal is probably the most duo chrome of the collection. Although it's packed full of multi coloured glitters the final effect is a purple/blue hybrid, depending on how the light hits it. 

Ray-Diant from Prismatic

Ray-Diant has a greenish hue but changes in front of your eyes, depending on the angle and the light. It was my first from the collection and is probably still my favourite.

As with all glitters, I'd advise you use a base coat as when removing them, they have a tendency to scratch the nail bed. A top coat is also a must to even out the many, many glitter particles and prevent snags. Please don't allow removal to put you off these stunning polishes, I've yet to meet a glitter that's any match for Cutex Moisture Guard and a sheet of Plenty.

The Prismatic collection is available now from Beauty Emporium for €7.50 per polish. What say ye?

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!**