Natural Highlighters

How to Use your Glow Powder

The key to natural highlighters is a light touch. Glow powders are not designed to make you look shiny or glittery, their role is to bring flattering light to an area and play up your features. Use the product sparingly and in the areas of focus only, to underline your skin’s natural luminosity.

Where to apply Natural Highlighter

For a natural glow select the parts of the face and decollete that naturally catch the light. A few strokes of natural highlighter along the top of your cheekbones and just above and below the arch of your brows will give these areas a lift. These areas are perfect for illuminating your best features for daywear. Natural highlighter also opens the eye area, it’s a great trick if you haven’t had your 8 hours of sleep! Two small spots of glow powder at the inner corners of your eyes and on the centre of your eyelids will open up your eyes and make you appear more awake.

For evening or special occasion makeup, a fine line of natural highlighter down the bridge of the nose brings a slim facial profile to focus and the look is complete with a full pout; dab a little glow powder onto your cupid’s bow, just above your upper lip and a dab on your chin to accentuate your lower lip.

Keep in mind natural highlighters tend to be potent formulations, as far as saturation of colour, so a little goes a long way. Keep to the rules of only highlighting the high points of the face with glow powder and control the density of colour. It’s best to layer if you need a little more colour as you go, rather than loading your brush full of product and making the application harder to control. If you do find you have applied a little too much natural highlighter, gently buff out any excess with a brush or use a clean sponge or beauty blender to tone it down.

Choosing your Natural Highlighter

Natural highlighters and glow powder come in a number of forms, a cream pot, cream stick and mineral powders. They all work to the same principle, it is entirely up to your preference.

A natural highlighter stick is a perfect tool for when you need a quick touch-up on the go. Not only is it amazingly compact, but the twist tube makes the application process super easy. After completing your foundation (and contouring), using the natural highlighter stick mark the facial areas you would like to feature by “drawing” directly onto the area and then blending the formula into your skin with either a sea sponge beauty blender, a soft brush, or your fingertips.

A cream highlighter is well suited to all skin types: normal, dry, sensitive skin and mature types as it creates a dewy finish. Oiler complexions can certainly wear a cream texture too, it’s an ideal choice over a liquid highlighter, then just as you do foundation, dab a little translucent powder to set the product and extend the wear.

Pro Tip: a cream highlighter is incredibly versatile. You can mix little into your foundation to create a liquid glow powder that gives a subtle radiant all-over glow.

All-natural glow powder is pigment rich, light reflecting mineral powder, primarily zinc oxide that is well tolerated by all skin types. Glow powder can be used in the same way as a cream-based highlighter but applied with a highlighter or contour brush. A “fluffy” brush used in a light sweeping motion is ideal, so you do not disrupt the base you have just applied and perfected. For smaller areas like your brow bone or cupid’s bow and the corner of your eyes, switch to a small eyeshadow brush for a more precise application.

All skin tones and all ages can benefit from glow powder and natural highlighter. Very fair skin tones can opt for a opal/ pearl, silver or rose tones paired with blush or bronzer to add dimension and contour. For warm and medium skin tones golden or peachy highlighters add warmth, while darker skin tones look luminous in a rich gold, deep bronze or copper shades.