On Highlighters and How to Glow this Winter

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Neglecting blush, contour, and highlighter is fine but if you really want your skin to look glowing and beautiful during the dreary winter months, using all 3 (sparingly!!) can go a long way.

For me, highlighter can be one of those products that feels so dang extra. Like, c’mon. I don’t need to HIGHLIGHT MY CHEEKBONES for just my regular daytime makeup. I always noticed how dimensional my face looked when I used it, but I simply often left out that step.

I’ve been converted, though, and wanted to share a few products I’ve been loving and offer some tips on how to add natural, soft dimension to your face.

Highlighting and contouring does not need to be complicated, severe, nor require tightly packed brushes that may feel hard to work with. Even a makeup newbie can learn how to do this and I promise you’ll love how your skin and face look versus when you simply wear foundation.

Glowing Skin Palette, Becca Skin Love, Becca Glow Glaze, Becca Under Eye Brightening Corrector, Becca Soft Light Blurring Powder

I’ve been loving the Becca Skin Love foundation. It is creamy and a little thick, but after it’s applied it looks soft and like I’m wearing a filter on my skin. It’s really fantastic.

When it comes to contour and highlight, Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar bronze and glow palette is just incredible. The price is steep, I know, and it was certainly indulgent to buy it, but it’s just so dang good. I don’t know that my makeup has looked this good in a long time!

I’ve also, though, really enjoyed a Sephora bronzer that is pretty neutral and matte to use as a contour/bronzer mix. Generally bronzer is used to add warmth and glow to the skin, and contour is use to add shadows for dimension, but since I use neither in a very controlled, specific way, I find that even the most neutral bronzer can be softly used to add depth to the outer corners of my face.

A great drugstore option is this by NYX. I used one by L’Oreal but it’s no longer available so the NYX option is the closest I could get!

The key, when using these products, is to have a light hand. NOTHING is harder than trying to erase makeup mistakes so a light hand allows you to build product up without overdoing it.

The order I go in when applying these three products is 1. Contour, 2. Blush, and 3. Highlight.

Here is a photo of half of my face with contour, blush, and highlight while the other half only has foundation and concealer.

See how flat the left side looks? This may be obvious to you without having to see it, but sometimes it’s nice to see how a little bit of makeup can really add warmth and glow to your skin!

If you are apprehensive about using a contour or bronzer, start at the very outer part of your face and softly bring it in closer to the center. You can’t go wrong adding a touch of color to right under your cheekbones, near your ear, and along your jawline. Then add a bit to your hairline around your forehead as well.

Apply highlighter at the tops of your cheekbones, inner corner of your eyes, and down your nose. I also like to add a bit along the center of my forehead as well.

I keep blush on my apples of my cheeks only. I generally don’t sweep it up near my temples like I used to because I’ve found the contour shade to be enough at the outer part of my face.

Just like you can find cream blushes, you can also find cream highlighters and contour shades. To me, powder is a bit easier to start using but if you enjoy it you may like a cream option for dry winter days. I like using the Becca Glow Glaze stick on days where I’m looking for a very natural highlight on my skin!

So try it, if you haven’t yet. It’s great for amping up otherwise dull skin and it does NOT need to look like your face is a disco ball.

p.s. Here is a winter makeup tutorial that I did at the beginning of this year with a few drugstore makeup finds. 

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H says · 12.22.18

What shade of butting powder?

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Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog says · 12.22.18

Beautiful look! I can really see the difference between the non-highlighted and highlighted sides of your face! Thank you for showing us a comparison! 🙂

Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com

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Emily says · 12.22.18

Thank you for including a comparison photo! As someone who has never contoured my face, it was so helpful seeing the difference it made. I feel inspired to give it a try now!!

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amy baugh says · 12.22.18

What lip product do you have on?

It looks perfect! you look perfect!

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K. Holland says · 12.23.18

What color lipstick do you have on?

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jh says · 12.25.18

cool

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Llightningff13 says · 12.26.18

I prefer to purchase essential oil from essential oil supplier Malaysia , since it is cheaper and trusted

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Peter Gale headteacher says · 12.26.18

Great resources you have here. Would you mind I’d translate it in French, linking the source(you) of course?

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Kofi Danso says · 12.28.18

I have been following you from the beginning and this is another great post. Keep it up!

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Kathryn McGee says · 12.28.18

Did your lash lift burn your eyelashes off? Curious why they look so stubbly lately.

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Natalie Redman says · 01.05.19

Gorgeous! Love these tips.

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lura says · 01.06.19

beste makeup 2019 : https://bit.ly/2RBdVzw

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Junaid Iqbal Memon says · 01.08.19

I have only one word ..AMAZING!

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Cindy says · 02.10.19

Is there another powder highlighter that’s a more reasonable price that you recommend? While I’d love to splurge, I’d like to try out using a highlighter first. Thanks!

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