Highlighting your face is one of the best things you can do to bring out your features. If you spend as much time as the girls at CT do watching Lisa Eldridge on YouTube or looking at the latest fashion magazines, highlighted faces are the norm. Although it’s usually accompanied by a good contour, highlighting can be a lot more important depending on the look you’re going for or even your skin color. It brings light and dimension to the face so if this still isn’t part of your everyday makeup routine, it probably should.
Here are some reasons why you might want to buy that highlighter next time you’re at Sephora.
It adds dimension. Your face naturally has parts that both dip in low and protrude but some people have flatter features that need a little lifting. Highlighter brings out the part of the face where it was placed by capturing the light and bringing it forward. If you weren’t blessed with high cheekbones, for example, placing some highlighter on the tops of them will help capture light and bring them forward. As a general rule, highlighter should be placed on the highest parts of your face like the nose bridge, cupids bow, and middle of the forehead.
Ideal for girls with dark complexions. Girls that have darker complexions benefit greatly from highlighting. When contouring, you use a dark color to recede the area but if your skin is really dark, you want to do the opposite; highlight the cheekbones so that the hallows of your cheeks naturally look darker. Of course darker complexions can benefit just like any other skin color from contouring but using another dark color will drain your face creating the opposite of what you want to achieve.
Makes you look youthful. When you think of younger, healthy looking skin, usually dewy or glowy skin comes to mind. If you have maturing skin, highlighting will bring back that youthful glow and make your skin look a lot fuller if sagging is an issue.
To see makeup transformations using highlighter, check out the videos!
(Cover image: E!)
