Top Highlighters

We're approaching that time of year when we (we meaning beauty and style bloggers) start to gather up all of their favorite products of the year in anticipation of the ever-popular Yearly Favorites (for example, come Dec 31, YouTube will be rife with 2012 Favorites videos--they're awesome!). I'm working on my list and will get set to film it soon, but in the meantime I wanted to share with you some of my favorite highlighters.

I'm a highlighter nut. It all started with my purchase of a then little-known company called Benefit's highlighter called High Beam. At the time, Benefit was known for one thing: their universal lip/cheek stain Benetint. Once I picked up their High Beam cream highlighter, I was hooked. For every high school party and throughout college, I would carefully dab a few dots of the luminizing cream on each cheekbone and blend up into my temples. I loved looking like I glowed, and it helped distract from the requisite teenage breakouts I constantly had on my forehead and chin.

To this day I'm still obsessed with highlighters and looking "glowy". Since I've tried a lot of them, I thought I would share with you my top highlighters of all time--but since I can't choose one favorite, they will be in no particular order of preference.

Benefit High Beam

As the name implies, and as I've already waxed poetically about above, Benefit does highlighters and does them well. Since the incarnation of High Beam and its subsequent popularity, they've also released Moon Beam (a golden shimmer) and Sun Beam (a bronze-y shimmer). But what I love most about High Beam is its subtlety but also its potency. A little bottle of this stuff will last ages. And you can add as much or as little as you want. Another thing I do with highlighters/luminizers is I add a few drops onto the back of my hand and then mix with a pump of my liquid or cream foundation for instant radiance. But more often than not, I apply this last, to the tops of my cheekbones and blended up into my temples for a subtle glow. If you're darker skinned, Moon Beam will work equally as well for you. And if you're looking for a tanned glow in the summer, try Sun Beam.

Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector

This is relatively new to me when you consider how long I've been "luminizing". But I immediately fell in love with Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in Pearl. I tend to prefer cream highlighters over powder ones as they tend to give more of a sheen and run less risk of looking frosty. This one is so sheen-y and lovely, that you really need a spare hand with this. It also means that this ginormous bottle lasts you ages! It's not cheap, by all means, but it is regularly touted by beauty experts as one of the best highlighters on the market, and it's easy to see why. I use "Pearl" which is the white shade as I'm quite fair, but the great thing is these come in a nice range of colors to suit absolutely every skin tone.

Benefit Watts Up!

Another fantastic product from Benefit (I swear, I don't work for the company), I started using this highlighter this year. Now, admittedly, I was coming in to the store to return another Benefit luminizer called "Girl Meets Pearl"--I swear it didn't even show up on me. So I took a chance and swapped it out with Watts Up!, and I'm so glad I did. Watts Up! is a shimmery champagne solid stick that is so easy to apply, you don't even need to get your fingertips messy as it has a convenient sponge blender on the other end. The effect is very sheen-like and not at all artificial, frosty, or sparkly. Perfect for day or night. Plus the packaging is super cute--it looks like a little light bulb! Precious!

Diorskin Amber Diamond Shimmer Powder

An absolute cult favorite, so popular in fact that when rumors spread recently that Dior was going to discontinue this line of highlighters (there's also a Rose Diamond), public outcry was so intense and it started flying off the shelves at an incredible rate, the Dior folks (rather astutely) chose to keep it in the lineup. Amber Diamond is, simply put, gorgeous. I've tried both shades and although I do feel Rose Diamond was a better fit for my pale skin tone, I absolutely love using this highlighter in the summer months as it gives more of a bronze-y glow that allows me to skip bronzer & blush. You can use each shade individually as eyeshadows, or swirl it all together. And it's the exact opposite of frosty--all sheen, luminous, and doesn't accentuate pores.

I've also included a couple more highlighters in my YouTube video which I filmed for my channel subscribers, so feel free to check that out if you're interested!