Highlighter Collection - Swatches & Reviews

Hi everyone! It's been a while, but I'm back with a post all about my highlighter collection. Highlighting and highlighters seems to have blown up recently, and I have to say I'm loving it! So here is an overview of all the highlighters I own with swatches and some mini reviews.

I have separated my collection into three sections: liquid, cream, and powder highlighters. I have included both blended and unblended swatches with both flash and no flash.

Liquid Highlighters

Swatches

L-R Becca Pearl; TonyMoly Pink Glam; Becca Opal; Benefit Girl Meets Pearl

 No Flash // Flash

Blended

Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in Pearl: This highlighter is beautiful and can create a perfect natural glow on fair skin. It's super pigmented and you really only need the tiniest bit to create a bright glow.

TonyMoly Goddess Aura in Pink Glam: This is another gorgeous highlighter for fair skin, with a pink tint. It has a relatively thick formula but is easily blendable.

Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in Opal: The colour of this highlight is a gold/copper which is a bit to dark for my fair skin but is a beautiful shade. I feel that the formula is a bit thicker than Pearl, but this may be because I have a sample size with a doe foot applicator as opposed to a pump. 

Benefit Girl Meets Pearl: This is the most sheer of the liquid highlighters, which makes it easy to blend out but still gives a lovely pink-gold glow.

Cream Highlighters

Swatches

L-R Colourpop Hippo; Eglips Highlighter; Benefit Watt's Up; Colourpop Lunch Money; Essence Look on the Bright Side

 No Flash // Flash

Blended

Colourpop Super Shock Cheek Hippo: Technically these have more of a cream to powder formula, which is quite unique and is very soft and silky. Despite being a purple highlight, it looks relatively natural when blended out with a soft purple tint.

Eglips Multi Unique Highlighter: This highlighter is in stick form, similar to a lipstick. It applies quite thickly which makes it a bit harder to blend out on the skin. But the highlight itself has a very natural result.

Benefit Watt's Up! Cream Highlighter: A super popular highlight however on my skin it is slightly too dark. After swatching them I realised it has a very similar colour to Becca's Opal, so it could be a potential dupe!

Colourpop Super Shock Cheek Lunch Money: Again a cream to powder formula light white gold which blends out perfectly. It gives a lovely natural glow.

Essence Soo Glow! Look on the Bright Side: Essence is a super affordable brand with some really great products. This highlighter is relatively thick and doesn't blend out quite as nicely as the others, but for the price is a great product.

Powder Highlighters

Swatches

L-R Becca Opal; TheBalm Mary-Lou Manizer; Elf Peachy Cheeky; Models Prefer Glitz & Glamour (quad - mixed & separate) 

 No Flash // Flash

Blended

Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in Opal: I prefer the formula of the powder over the liquid, as I fell it is easier to blend out and therefore easier to make it work with my skin tone.

TheBalm Mary-Lou Manizer: Definitely my most reached for highlighter, it is a light gold which really makes the skin glow. It blends out perfectly and only a small amount is needed.

Elf Baked Blush in Peachy Cheeky: This is technically a blush, but it is quite sheer and shimmery so it actually works well as a peachy-pink highlight.

Models Prefer Highlighter in Glitz & Glamour: This is a quad highlighter so the swatches above show the mixed colour then the separate shades. The formula is quite chunky but is very pigmented and is another good affordable option.


I hope this was helpful! What are your favourite highlighters?
As always feel free to comment any questions or suggestions!

- Ella 

2015 Favourites

Hey everyone, I hope you are all having a great new year! Today I am doing a list of my favourite products of 2015. I have included some links to my other posts including swatches/reviews of the products!

Lips

This year I have been trying heaps of new nude shades, and here are my favourites!

MAC Velvet Teddy: This is a super popular shade from Mac, and I can see why - it's a really unique colour, and is a cool toned brown with warmer reddish hints, whilst remaining a nude shade. It has become one of my everyday picks!

MAC Peach Blossom: Another nude, but this lipstick is a cremesheen and therefore slightly sheer and glossy shade, and is a gorgeous light pink nude.

Essence lipliner in In the Nude: Probably my most used lipliner, this is so versatile and goes with most lighter nudes or can be worn by itself. The best part is it only costs $2!

Australis Velourlips in Pa-ree: Again one of my favourite nudes. This is a light brownish pink and is a perfect natural nude for my fair skin.

Eyes

Maybelline Colossal Mascara: This mascara is the 'Smoky Eyes' version of the Colossal mascara. I picked this up not knowing what it would be like, and despite the larger wand which I usually do not prefer, this became a favourite! I found it really separated the lashes whilst giving plenty of volume.

Maybelline Big Eyes Mascara: If you like the Falsies mascara, you will love this! This is a double ended mascara, one end the normal Falsies wand, and the other a smaller, thinner brush for your lower lashes. This is a must have for me, and something I would by just for the lower lash wand, which tends to be hard to find in drugstore brands.

Maybelline Hyper Sharp liner: This liner is a new liner made to perfect your winged eyeliner, and it works amazingly! It is flat with a thick side and thin edge which makes it perfect to shape your wings.

Australis Metallix eyeshadow in Guns and Rose Petals: This eyeshadow is absolutely amazing and I have never seen anything exactly like it before! It is a creamy shadow which is incredibly metallic and glowy on the eyes, as if you have real gems on them.

Makeup Geek eyeshadows: The 'MUG' eyeshadows are incredibly pigmented, particularly the matte shades. They come in a huge range of colours with a reasonable price and are great quality. The foiled eyeshadows are especially incredible, similar to the Metallix in powder form.

Face

Secret Key Finish Up BB Cream: This is a Korean BB cream which I love for using as a base for my makeup. It works amazingly at covering up pores and redness, and reminds me of Benefit's Porefessional for a fraction of the price! (I bought mine from beautynetkorea.com).

Nars Creamy Concealer: I never thought I would splurge on a concealer like this one, but here it is and I can say it was definitely worth it! The tiniest bit of this concealer goes such a long way and conceals amazingly. I have the shade Chantilly which is perfect for under the eyes for fair skin as it has a yellow undertone, although I find it works anywhere on my face.

Models Prefer Contour Collection: Contour kits were all the range this year, and I'm glad that I picked one up, in particular this one! It has great contour colours for lighter skin tones which can be difficult to find, as well as a gorgeous yellow shade and highlighter.

Eyebrows

Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Pomade in Medium Brown: I love this product as it is so versatile and easy to use, and can be used for any style on your brows. I actually find it easier to use than a pencil or even powder as it glides on so smoothly and makes it easy to define your brows.

Maybelline Brow Satin in Dark Brown: I love this product for its convenience as well as its quality. It is double sided with a pencil on one end and a powder applicator on the other. It is a very easy to use product and I really love how it looks on my brows.

Cheeks

TheBalm Mary-Lou Manizer: This highlighter is a very popular product and for a good reason. It is a beautiful gold shimmery powder which beautifully illuminates the face.

Nars blush in Gaiety: This blush looks alarmingly bright pink, but actually applies a more natural almost peachy pink. It gives a lovely glow to the skin which makes you look slightly flushed without looking crazy.

Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in Opal: Another very popular highlighter which I found works even on my very fair skin despite its slightly bronzier colour. I love this as it gives a gorgeous natural glow when used lightly or can be built up to look super glamorous, but just looks so beautiful on the skin.

And that's it for my 2015 favourites! What were your favourites from the year? Did you discover any amazing new products? Let me know!

- Ella

Models Prefer Contour Collection Review

Hi everyone! I recently bought the new Models Prefer Contour/Collection - Ultimate Highlighting & Contouring Palette and thought I'd give you a review.

Contouring is very on-trend at the moment, and a lot of contouring palettes have come out. The Anastasia Beverley Hills and Australis contour palettes are the two which are probably most comparable to this palette in terms of the shades, although I have not tried them out myself.

I wasn't sure whether to get the Australis palette, especially after the quite negative reveiws (although it has supposed to come out with a better formula now), so when I saw that this palette had come out, getting very positive reviews and for the same price at AU$16.95, I jumped right onto it, and I'm glad I did.

Front of box

Back of box

The palette comes with a handy little booklet about how to use the kit depending on your skin tone and face shape and some other tips. The palette also comes with a big mirror inside which is actually useful.

Although admittedly the shades aren't all perfect for my fair skin, I manage to find a use for most of them. They are all matte shades apart from one, the shimmery highlighter, and come in warm and cool tones.

Highlight 1 -  This is the lightest shade, and is a light cool toned powder. The powder is just about the same colour as my skin so for me it works best as a setting powder.

Highlight 2 - This is a yellow shade, which is usually meant for under the eyes. The colour is very yellow so if you put too much on it can look strange, but blended lightly under the eye works quite well to cancel out and brighten under eye circles.

Highlight 3 - This is my favourite highlight shade. This one is an actual shimmery highlighter rather than a matte powder. Although it looks quite dark I still really like it even on my super fair skin. It blends out to just give a nice glow, and I think it would work on any skin tone.

Contour 4 - This shade is a slightly warm dark brown, and is what I use for light bronzing. All the powders in the kit blend out really well, and this shade is not too orange so it works well on my skin tone.

Contour 5 - I absolutely love this shade for contouring. It is cool toned so gives a nice shadowey affect and carves out my cheek bones nicely. It is a perfect contour shade for fair skin.

Contour 6 - This is the only shade out of the palette that I haven't actually used. It is very warm and quite dark, so would probably work best for bronzing on medium skin tones.

Swatches shades 1-6 (L-R)

Flash

No flash

Rundown

I think this palette is a very good, versatile palette. Although the shades are not all perfect for my skin, I still manage to find a use for most of them. The shades are all quite light, so I would say this palette would work for fair to medium skin tones, and not really anything darker than that. Hopefully they will release a darker palette like Australis has because this is such a great kit! The powders are relatively pigmented but still very blendable. 

Pros: pigmented, blendable, versatile, affordable
Cons: suitable only for lighter skin tones, not necessarily all usable

Rating: 4/5

Thanks for reading! Let me know your thoughts.

- Ella

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