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Rant & Rave: Liquid Highlighters
Tell us what you love and hate about...
Liquid Highlighters
I love mixing them in with base products, like primer, moisturizer, or foundation, for a more luminous finish to my base. I don’t usually wear them alone, even though they often work that way, as they can be too subtle for my taste. If they pack more punch on top of products, then I’ll definitely wear them alone, too! I do prefer the kind that dry down for the most part and don’t remain tacky or movable throughout the day.
— Christine
I purchased the Josie Maran liquid illuminator to do a full face Josie Maran look on my blog (fiveproductface) but it’s terrible. It has good reviews on Sephora, but I find that the shimmer particles are way to big and it applies pretty chalky and cakey looking on my complexion
I have the Josie Maran gold liquid highlighter and haven’t had the same problems, however the pump dispenses too much at one time for me — hard to control — otherwise I love it.
I also love them for mixing into matte, full-coverage foundations. I find that they often lift my foundation when I try to apply them on top, even if I haven’t powdered yet or anything, so I avoid doing that. If I want to keep the coverage level of my foundation, I’ll apply a super-intense liquid highlighter under the foundation and on top of primer. I’ve also mixed them in with too-pigmented cream blushes to sheer them out.
I like your idea of mixing them with too-pigmented cream blushes.
I use a lot both on me and clients Celestial Skin Liquid Lighting and The Guardian Angel Cream Highlighter by Kevyn Aucoin… They are just too good.
The guardian is the most subtle from those two, its highlight for the ones who doesn’t want highlight. And Celestial in liquid form is one of the few highlights that can be used on tv cause it doesn’t look like the metallic stuff we are used to see on the social media.
Truly five star products.
Rant: They usually don’t get along with my oily skin. They tend to be to subtle for my tastes.
Rave: I don’t have any. I don’t really use them. I don’t go for mixing them with my foundation, though that is a plus for other people.
*too subtle
I just picked up the Sephora Radiant Luminizing Drops in the shade Morning Light, which is the first liquid highlighter I’ve ever owned. I actually really like them, they give a beautiful “glowing from within” type of luminosity; I think I’ll be reaching for them a lot during the summer especially. So far I have only used them on my cheekbones on top of makeup, not mixed into makeup. Only gripe is they seem to fade faster than my powder highlighters.
I like liquid highlighters that dry down, and don’t stay sticky and moist, as with my oily skin, it’ll be eaten!
I also like ones that work well blended and mixed into my base. That’s how I wear liquid highlighters 99% of the time. I hate when they make my base feel sticky and tacky, and heavy!!
Love: They can usually be used as a mixer with my foundation or BB/CC creams for a nice, natural looking dewiness. Also, can make for a softer focus highlight when that’s all I want.
Hate: The more gooey, greasy ones are a HUGE turnoff for me! Also not a fan of one that lifts up the product underneath or does that icky bunching up on itself thing because it just dries TOO fast.
They’re usually not my favorite kind of highlighter formula, I find that they can be very intense and harder to blend without lifting my foundation that creams or powders. I prefer my highlight very subtle, and creams or powders give me more control over the result.
Only raves – as I’ve said before, I prefer cream and liquid products for the face. It is all down to formula though. I’m not looking for metallic, see it from space highlight; just subtle light on key points on the face.
Oh my – I would have a really hard time applying liquid highlighter on my face – it would end up everywhere.
I think it is too messy and easy to end up with too much liquid on your fingers/brush.
I love that they are subtle and look more natural, most powder highlighters are too obvious for my personal taste.
For the most part, I love them! They can separate is the only bad issue.