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Lancome Glowing Lights Glow Subtil Silky Creme Highlighter Review, Photos, Swatches

Lancome Glowing Lights Glow Subtil Silky Creme Highlighter
Lancome Glowing Lights Glow Subtil Silky Creme Highlighter

Lancome Glowing Lights Glow Subtil Silky Creme Highlighter ($30.00 for 0.14 oz.) is a medium, rosy copper with warm undertones and a frosted sheen. Burberry No. 04 Rose Gold (P, $68.00) is cooler (95% similar). Rare Beauty Flaunt (P, $25.00) is more shimmery, darker (95% similar). ColourPop Wisp (P, $10.00) is brighter, warmer (90% similar). MAC Royal Challenge (LE, $42.00) is lighter (95% similar). Jouer Topaz (P, $24.00) is more shimmery (90% similar). MAC Must Have It (LE, $34.00) is less shimmery (90% similar). Marc Jacobs Beauty Tantalize (54) (P, $45.00) is lighter, brighter (90% similar). NARS Surreal (LE, ) is cooler (90% similar). Dior Bronze (LE, ) is darker, cooler (90% similar). Huda Beauty Malibu (LE, ) is more shimmery, lighter (90% similar). Becca Rose Gold (P, $19.00) is more shimmery, warmer (90% similar). ColourPop Butterfly Beach (P, $10.00) is warmer (90% similar). Phytosurgence Dew of Dawn (P, $26.01) is less shimmery (90% similar). ColourPop Padded Down (LE, $12.00) is more shimmery (90% similar). MAC Dima's Glow (LE, $42.00) is more shimmery, lighter (90% similar). MAC Flare for the Dramatic (LE, $42.00) is more shimmery, cooler (90% similar). Bobbi Brown Afternoon Glow (P, $48.00) is darker, cooler (90% similar). ColourPop Might Be (P, $10.00) is more shimmery (90% similar). ColourPop Dew Drop (P, $7.00) is darker, brighter, warmer (90% similar). Lethal Cosmetics Flare (P, $18.00) is cooler (90% similar). Top 20 dupes listed, see the rest. See comparison swatches / view dupes side-by-side.

The Glow Subtil Silky Creme Highlighter is a “buildable cream highlighter” that gives a “soft-focused glow.” It’s available in five shades, and I purchased two to review (the other will be reviewed shortly!). The texture is dense, lightly spongy, and very emollient to the touch–it feels quite wet initially–but it goes on smoothly and dries down to a powder-like finish, so it doesn’t look wet or glossy (nor does it slide right off the face, either!). If you thought, “Hey, that looks like ColourPop!” — you’re right on the money; the texture is very much in that vein, and to my knowledge, I’ve really only seen ColourPop use that cream formula in a cheek product (but they were not the first to use it in eyeshadows–Chanel, BUXOM, Dior, and MAC have also used it). I find Lancome’s formula to be more slippery to the touch, but they perform largely the same otherwise. Glowing Lights had semi-sheer, buildable coverage that applied evenly, blended out easily, and lasted for over nine hours.

Also, a note: the interior plastic pan that product actually sits in was offset in both of mine, so that it could pop out, which I do not think was intentional, and I was able to pop it fully in and haven’t had them lift out on their own since.

Lancome Glowing Lights Glow Subtil Silky Creme Highlighter
Lancome Glowing Lights Glow Subtil Silky Creme Highlighter

Lancome Glowing Lights Glow Subtil Silky Creme Highlighter
Lancome Glowing Lights Glow Subtil Silky Creme Highlighter

Lancome Glowing Lights Glow Subtil Silky Creme Highlighter
Lancome Glowing Lights Glow Subtil Silky Creme Highlighter

Lancome Glowing Lights Glow Subtil Silky Creme Highlighter
Lancome Glowing Lights Glow Subtil Silky Creme Highlighter

Lancome Rose Gold Glow Subtil Silky Creme Highlighter
Example of faulty packaging (Lancome Rose Gold Glow Subtil Silky Creme Highlighter pictured, happened to both of mine)

Lancome Glowing Lights Glow Subtil Silky Creme Highlighter
Lancome Glowing Lights Glow Subtil Silky Creme Highlighter

Lancome Glowing Lights Glow Subtil Silky Creme Highlighter
Lancome Glowing Lights Glow Subtil Silky Creme Highlighter

Makeup Look
On face:
  • Tarte Rainforest of the Sea Foundation
  • Guerlain Les Voilettes Loose Setting Powder
On eyes:
  • Becca Champagne Collection Eyeshadow Palette
On lips:
  • MAC Ravishing Lipstick

44 Comments

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ashley Avatar

I just have to say this, I don’t understand why a global company like Lancôme (or L’Oreal, excuse me) would waste their time, energy and money selling a product that is a direct copycat of a smaller company like Colourpop? Don’t get me wrong, I love Colourpop, they do a VERY good job of keeping up with makeup trends and producing colorful products that speak to an enormous demographic, and they are very affordable. But Lancome is luxury cosmetics, and shouldn’t debase itself to this type of competition, even if they are just trying to reach a younger market or offer to an older market a similar product. I just see it as a little embarrassing, when I think of L’Oreal/Lancôme’s high quality and innovation, that here we have product that is square in line with the performance, packaging, and even color presentation of Colourpop. And, when you said the plastic pan wasn’t even placed correctly and you could just pop it out, that just killed all hopes of even thinking of testing it out in store. And no, QC isn’t perfect even with high end products. But it’s off putting to see a luxury brand knock off a cheap one, and I fail to reason why I would ever buy an identical product when I could get it for about a 1/4 of the price. When I look for dupes, I’m usually looking for a more affordable version of something nearly identical in color and/or performance to a high dollar product, not the other way around. Thank you Christine, your blog is so helpful in saving the people money! At least those juicy shakers were somewhat unique…

Kat Avatar

I think what confused me so much was why they used extremely similar packaging to CP. I saw it in Sephora and it looked fairly identical, or at the very least the packaging was manufactured by the same factory with slight modifications in the size of the clear portion, colors, etc. I can understand a brand wanting to hop onto a popular new formula type, but I don’t understand why they’d let the packaging be so similar. If your $30 product is packaged the same as an $8 product with the same formula and performance, it’s going to reflect poorly on your product and bring it’s perceived value WAY down (at least in my eyes), especially since the $8 product was already very well established before this one came out.

Eileen Avatar

The wonderful world of patent infringement and corporate espionage! LOL For those of you who don’t know what this is about, Spatz used to be a supplier to L’Oréal. They canceled their contract and then promptly came out with the Kylie Jenner lip kits. L’Oréal contends that Spatz stole their matte formula and used it to create the kits. We shall see . . .

Ray Avatar

Seed Beauty/ColourPop’s parent company started out as a manufacturer of luxury cosmetics. They don’t talk about which brands they’ve produced product for, but there’s a good chance that Lancome went with Seed for this one. I find it very strange that not much effort was made to conceal this (the packaging, the overall look of the product), but it’s possible they decided that CP and Lancome don’t have enough of an overlapping buyer base to spot the similarities. Women who’ve been buying Lancome in-store for years probably haven’t heard of ColourPop.

Katherine T. Avatar

OMG, the marble design looks EXACTLY like Colour Pop Churros highlighter!! I just got an email this morning from CP advertising free lip glosses with purchase, and the launch of Churros. Very interesting…….the Lancome one looks really nice, it will be a very flattering color for many people, and the shimmer isn’t OTT. I have a feeling the CP one is going to be more shimmery

Arantxa Avatar

Yeah.. This looks a lot like CP. However, Glowing Lights is a beautiful shade as well so thank you for the review!

Actually, I’m not suprised by how similar they are. Lancome is definitely not the first brand out there that was ‘inspired’ by colourpop or has at least similar products. And maybe it’s just me, but I feel like it’s getting a lot harder for such brands to come out with unique products, especially hightlighters. There are only so much shades that we can actually wear on our cheeks (on a every day basis). In my opinion Jeffree Star has changed a lot since he came out with his Skin Frost highlighters; there was a green one that really suprised everyone and one that was really suitable for very pale skin tones. But other than that, I think the only way for companies to distinguish their products from others, is to play around with the formula instead of packaging or colors. And it would’ve been nice if Lancome was more creative; after all it is a high-end brand which we pay a high-end price for. Had they put more thought into it by doing superspecial packaging (which seems to be a trend now) or if they came out with unusual colors that are wearable, I think more people would consider buying theirs instead of the CP for 8 dollars.

Christine Avatar

I think perhaps the odd part is that even the packaging is very similar, which seems like a miss for Lancome as a higher-end brand (not that it always justifies it, but packaging for higher-end can often be a chunk of the additional cost to make it, though margins are still healthy).

Bonnie Avatar

Love it but It looks literally EXACTLY the same as the marbled CP highlighter they just released this week! Crazy! Btw i Looooove your makeup in this picture! That eyeshadow!!! So pretty!!! Ugh! Is that from the Becca palette that they recalled?

Trina Avatar

I played with these at sephora and honestly i think if you were blindfolded you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between these and CP. I wish i would of took a pic of the box to get the ingredients because i can’t find them anywhere. I’m just curious if the ingredients are similar to CP. Do you still have the packaging?

Christine Avatar

I don’t! I tried to take a photo, but the silver box/black text didn’t come through as readable (no matter how much I tried to edit). The ingredient lists were different from what I could tell, but I’m sure the main ingredients are still similar.

Laura Avatar

Interesting to see a HE brand “getting inspiration” from a low end product…usually it’s the other way around! I wonder how similar the ingredients are.

LCF Avatar

HOW does the product know when it is being applied and therefore when to dry down? Would it go powdery in the pan if the ambient temperature were warm enough? A mystery.

Connie Avatar

I am so sad because I really want to get my hands on this product. I have the CP one and I like it but I can’t say I love it so I am interested to see what this Lancome one is like as Christine is giving it such a high rating. Unfortunately, this product is not available in Canada and it is not even available on Nordstrom website!

Annie Avatar

I swatched this in Sephora the other day and really liked it. I agree it feels more slick than Colourpop’s formula. I just saw online that Sephora has a great set right now with a FULL size of this product, plus minis of other highlighters from Hourglass, Benefit, Becca, etc… for only $30! That’s the price of the Lancome glowing lights alone! Did I mention it’s full size?! Needless to say I snagged that set! ^_^ I forgot to use my Sephora Play pass for 50 bonus points though. I am always forgetting about that when I order online! Sigh.. Oh well

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