Do you bear in mind the nice highlighter resurgence of 2017? Group Attract can’t ever overlook. That 12 months, we examined 310 new highlighter submissions for Better of Magnificence (a staggering quantity in comparison with the earlier 12 months’s 44). As one of many testers within the rising class, I shortly discovered that I desire a highlighter with finely-milled shimmer (versus chunky glitter) that offers me a natural-looking, not-at-all-greasy glow.

Over time, I’ve added fairly a couple of to my common rotation, however one actually outshines all of them: the Uncommon Magnificence Constructive Gentle Silky Contact Highlighter. Housed in a pink compact with an enclosure that snaps shut, this powder highlighter sweeps on as light-as-air powder earlier than shortly melting onto pores and skin. Its velvety-soft texture? That’s the boron nitride within the method, explains beauty chemist Ginger King.

The model claims it’s transfer-proof, smudge-proof, and water resistant — lofty guarantees that King says are doable due to its hefty use of silicone and polymers. It additionally comprises tapioca starch. “Sure, the tapioca like that of a boba drink,” King says. “It absorbs oil for longer put on.”

My go-to shade is Exhilarate, a champagne that appears cool towards my medium-tan pores and skin. I’d sometimes apply the Uncommon Magnificence highlighter with the Sigma Magnificence F03 Excessive Cheekbone brush or any small fluffy brush I might get my palms on. I’d flippantly swirl the comb throughout the domed pressed powder and sweep it alongside my cheekbones and browbones with brief, fast strokes. Make-up artist Joseph Carrillo, nevertheless, launched me to a distinct strategy: “I take advantage of the stomach of a barely-damp Beautyblender,” he says, explaining that he likes to dab the highlighter-dipped sponge onto the interior corners of his shoppers’ eyes, in addition to the guidelines of their noses. “You possibly can press within the glow making it look extra skin-like and fewer powdery.”

Sigma Magnificence F03 Excessive Cheekbone Highlighter Brush

Beautyblender The Unique

He goes on to clarify that it blends the highlighter extra evenly, so the end is “much less like a highlighter was positioned there,” and I could not agree extra.

The above selfies present what the highlighter appears like when utilized with a brush in addition to a moist sponge. When utilizing a brush, I discovered that the end was a lot a more-intense, mirror-like glow. (Take a look at how the sunshine simply bounces off of the realm with the powder swept onto it.) With the damp-sponge methodology, the radiance is subtle. My pores and skin appears extra like pores and skin, and fewer like pores and skin with highlighter on it. To not say both methodology is best, however I desire the latter finish outcome. 

Uncommon Magnificence Constructive Gentle Silky Contact Highlighter

I put this method to the take a look at in lots of situations: to the workplace on busy work days (it seemed simply nearly as good because it did after I first put it on), Solidcore exercise lessons the place I inevitably overlook to take away my make-up beforehand (it seemed much more subtle and skin-like), and date nights with my fiancé (the place I, *wink*, confirmed with confidence that the method is transfer-proof). It is a dreamy highlighter, made much more otherworldly with its worth level. Highlighters with the same impact vary from $9 to $42, and this one with its distinctive texture and method falls proper within the center.