3 Ways To Master The Art of Highlighting

Highlighting may seem like a simple no-brainer for some, but did you know there’s so much more to it than it looks? Highlighters come in different forms of shapes and textures, and applying it to the right places makes a huge difference to anyone’s look.

Areas to apply your highlight (Photo Courtesy)

First and foremost, there are a few key areas you should take note of when it comes to highlighting — your cheekbones, forehead, brow bone, inner corners of your eyes, nose bridge, chin and cupid’s bow. Now that you’ve taken note of which areas you should focus on to bring out and enhance your skin’s glow, you’re ready to move on to the next step!

Here, we’ve come up with three different ways of highlighting your face for you to achieve that lit from within glow.

1. Conceal & Bake

Kim Kardashian Contour & Highlight (Photo Courtesy)

There are no official rules when it comes to highlighting your face. With that said, concealing your under eye areas and baking your face with a loose powder is one way to go.

It’s all about enhancing what you have and blending it all out, ensuring that it doesn’t come across as streaky. We talked about baking in our previous article, which showed how it helped to set and brighten the foundation and concealer applied after leaving the powder on for 5 to 10 minutes. It’s an old trick that we’ll never get tired of – because it really works!

(L – R) Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder Glow. Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder, $70. Huda Beauty Easy Bake Loose Powder, $60. NARS Orgasm Illuminating Loose Powder, $45.

Baking with a translucent loose setting powder will help set down your makeup. However, if you want to bump up your makeup routine, you can layer it with some highlighter or even with Laura Mercier’s new Loose Setting Glow Powder which gives a more iridescent glow to your look.

2. Blush 

Highlighting with a blush (Photo Courtesy)

Who said you can’t add some glow to your face with a blush? If you prefer to add a natural flush, try sweeping some blush to the apples of your cheeks for that warm and glowy look.

(L – R) YSL Couture Blush in 04 Corail Rive Gauche, $78. Dior Rouge Blush in 219 Rose Montaigne, $73. NARS Blush in Orgasm (Peachy Pink with Golden Shimmer), $50. Clinique Cheek Pop in Blush Pop, $40.

Our favourite would have to be the one from NARS, in the iconic Orgasm, that has an added shimmer to it for a natural pop of colour and glow to your complexion.

3. Highlight 

Rihanna wearing Fenty Beauty Killawatt Foil Freestyle Highlighter Duo (Limited Edition) in 7DayWknd/Poolside, $54. Available at Sephora. (Photo Courtesy)

And of course – highlighters. They come in a myriad of colours — silver to gold, and even purple just like the one from Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty Line (above)!

 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBkXw73ggXQ]

 

If you’ve watched the video by Fenty Beauty on YouTube, then you might be familiar with how they applied it on your cheekbones, temples and even your eyelids! When doing so, it’s key to make sure that it’s all well-blended out from start to end to avoid any harsh lines. It doesn’t stop there by the way — use other shades of highlight to layer and intensify the glow on your face.

(L – R) Fenty Beauty Killawatt Foil Freestyle Highlighter Duo (Limited Edition) in 7DayWknd/Poolside, $54. Illamasqua Beyond Powder Deity, $62.50. Kat Von D Beauty Metal Crush Highlighter in Gold Skool, $37. Marie Dalgar Color Studio IT’S HOLO Highlighter, $49.

Picking the right shade of highlight can be tough, especially when you’ve too many options to choose from. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned is that your shade should be chosen based on your skin tone – if you’re on the fairer end of the spectrum, you should pick something lighter. Likewise, you should pick something darker if you have darker toned skin.

(L – R) CHANTECAILLE Liquid Lumiére, $75. Marc Jacobs Beauty Dew Drops Coconut Gel Highlighter, $69. Smashbox Petal Metal Shimmer Drops (Limited Edition), $52. Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector Liquid Highlighter, $62

Not a fan of powder highlighters? Try a creamy liquid highlighter instead! The Marc Jacobs Beauty Dew Drops Coconut Gel Highlighter won our Editor’s Pick as it is said to “give a beautiful golden shimmer that reflects light subtly.” Perfect if you’re not going for a softer and natural-looking glow.