High End vs Drugstore Highlighters

Highlighters are key to sculpt and define your face. They are also another one of my guilty pleasures, and they sure can get expensive for essentially just putting compacted glitter onto your face.

When buying highlighters you have two main decisions. 

Firstly: Powder or liquid?

Secondly: Drugstore or high-end?

Either way, here are my favourites of all the categories.

Okay so first off we have powder. 

On the left of the picture below we have the high-end highlighter: Lancôme Blush Highlighter in the shade Moonlight Rose. This is a limited edition highlighter that was originally labelled as a blush but was adapted into a highlighter, and a beautiful one at that. This was priced at around £35, but I am unsure on wether it is still available.

Secondly, on the right there is a drugstore powder highlight. MUA/Makeup Academy are well known for their high quality products at low prices. This highlighter is now available in 3 different shades, but this shade is Pink Shimmer. Priced at just £3 each these are a true bargain that work perfectly.

On the swatches below (obviously left being high end and right being drugstore) you can really see the true quality of both of them with just one swatch.

So starting with the high end, Lancôme really did create an amazing highlighter here. It is incredibly pigmented and creates a gorgeous shimmer that when blended out can work as an amazing base for a very full on contoured look. This also works really well with a Mac 159 brush which allows the perfect amount of product to be applied onto the face. For how much you pay, you get your fair amount of usage and it is a creamy, generally lovely highlighter that is perfect for everyday use.

The MUA/Makeup Academy highlight is actually a dupe for Lancôme Moonlight Rose as you can see by the built up swatches. For £3 it has a crazy amount of pigmentation and applies flawlessly with any brush, and even with your fingers (I don't recommend just leaving it how you apply it if you do that, definitely blend it out unless you want a streaky face.) This is definitely a more pearly based colour and can be built up to work really well with a more natural, dewy looking face. I cannot recommend this product enough and I cannot wait to try the other two highlighters in this collection.

Onto the liquid highlighters, and these have more than one use as they are more blend-able.

On the left we have the drugstore highlighter which is actually from Tesco's new brand BD Cosmetics. I bought this in a panic when I believed I had lost my high beam, and at only £8 it wasn't much of a money loss if it didn't work very well. I believe this is only in one shade. This is very pigmented and you really do not need a lot of the product to achieve the desired glimmered outcome.

On the right the high-end alternative Benefits High Beam. This product has worked really well on some occasions and awfully on others. Don't get me wrong, I love this product. I love Benefit, but I have found that especially with matte foundations this just does not blend out properly. Leaving me very streaky and very sad. However it does leave a beautiful shine and gleem. This is priced at £20 and does last a long time, so is a very fair price. This has a little brush, like a nail polish would, that allows you to add small amounts of the product to precise points of your face.

On the swatches below you can really see the difference in the two colours. The BD highlighter is almost bronze and High Beam is pearlescent and pinky white. They both perform similarly although i always use High Beam for a stronger more distinct highlight, and the BD highlighter for a dewy look when mixed into my foundations.

As I said, highlighter can be used in different ways and to outline different aspects of your face and features. To make your face thinner, you just apply on the cheekbones and cupids bow, as well as on the nose. With liquid highlighters you can mix it with a matte foundation to create a much healtier, radiant looking foundation that allows your face to look dewy.

Never underestimate the power of a good highlighter.

Love, Lois xo