Highlighting, Strobing, Contouring
What does it all mean you ask? The latest trend in makeup is to highlight and contour. But the latest latest trend is STROBING. The final result is a natural glowing look that everyone is raging about. PERFECT FOR SUMMER! It also creates illusions of angles in all the right places. Think of it as a painting on your face, where contouring creates shadows and highlights emphasize them to create flattering shapes and catch the light in just the right way. Strobing is essentially a fancy way of saying highlighting but intense highlighting. Think SUPER GLOW. It's all about light. The confusion stems from the fact that highlighting is also part of contouring and often uses very light shades of foundation, whereas strobing uses a sparkly glitter like finish on specific areas of your face (you wouldn't put sparkles under your eyes).
Today we won't be giving you a complete guide on contouring, but we are sharing our favorite highlighters with you along with some tips, tricks, and things to consider before making any purchases! We LOVE highlighters because when we're too lazy or short of time to coutour, highlighters always make you look natural and beautiful... FAST! We suggest leaving contouring for picture nights or big parties! We've gone through A LOT of different highlighters at every price point. There are some pros and cons to every format but we love them all equally. Some are cream, some are powder. Some are sticks, some are palettes. Depending on your level of expertise some will be more suited to you. The last choice you have to make is what shade you're in the mood for. Lately we've been loving the warmer gold tones.
Liquid, Cream and Powder
Using liquid and cream highlighters give the most natural dewy results, when used properly. They are amazing because unlike powders they don't accentuate dry skin or lines. REMEMBER if you choose to use a liquid or cream make sure you put it on BEFORE a finishing powder (people often think that highlighter is last to go on: but it depends on if it's cream or liquid). We suggest putting creams on AFTER FOUNDATION. We like using our fingers to apply creams and liquids but you can use a brush if you like. Put it anywhere that the light hits (cheek bone, above brow bone, along bridge of your nose, and on your cupids bow.) Wherever you want you face to stand out essentially. Usually we just put it on the highest part of our cheek bones: in the shape of a C.
You can also MIX creams and powders. First apply the cream and then accentuate some areas with a powder (it sticks on nicely!)
Need a tutorial? Watch Desi Perkins show you how it's done! See how gorgeous the result is in the picture!
GOALS
Our Picks
Hourglass Ambient® Lighting Palette - $70 USD
This is our most recent purchase and we love it!!! It's a powder and comes with 3 shades. The palette is also so beautiful! All the colors have great pigmentation and we love the variety. The shade Radiant is so subtle and beautiful.
ABH never lets us down. Another favorite product. The best part is that it has 4 shades!! It's highly blendable and every color is absolutely gorgeous!!! Good luck choosing. The colors are listed below.
Hard Candy – Mood-changing golden peach with a pink pearl reflective finish
Mimosa – Radiant golden peach with a metallic finish
Starburst – Rush of cool pink with an iridescent finish
Crushed Pearl – Glimmering pink and silver with a crystalized chrome finish