What is a highlighter and how to use it?

What is a highlighter and how to use it - every woman knows who is not used to showing bruises under her eyes and other signs of fatigue to others. This cosmetic product can work wonders in skillful hands, like a magic wand, turning a sleepy Cinderella into a beautiful princess. To do this, it is enough to know what, where and how to apply.

The answer lies in the name of the cosmetic product. "To highlit" translated from English as “highlight, emphasize”, and the purpose of a cosmetic product is to place light accents in makeup.

Highlighter is simply necessary after using foundation or powder, because they hide the natural relief of the face. After applying the tone, it looks flat and a bit theatrical, and the radiance helps to redefine the features that form the volume.

Using the properties of a highlighter, you can not only correct features such as a too wide nose or too low forehead, but also divert attention from dark circles under the eyes, redness of the mucous membranes and dull skin color.A few touches in certain places will make her rested and create the illusion of a healthy glow from the inside.

Highlighter, luminizer, siator - it's all about him, a little helper in the arsenal of every self-respecting makeup artist. And not only professional. This tool will not be superfluous in a cosmetic bag for lovers to apply make-up on their own. And for those who adhere to the “no makeup” makeup technique, this is the first number among the must-haves.

It differs from other means:

• Compound. It is based on reflective and photochromatic particles, due to which the skin looks naturally radiant, not shiny;
• The uniqueness of properties. No matter what the life hacks in women's magazines say, no other cosmetic product has such properties, so it is difficult to fully replace the highlighter with mother-of-pearl shadows, pale blush, lip gloss. Moreover - do not achieve a similar effect by reusing a primer or moisturizer;

• Special application technology. Illuminizer requires strict adherence to the rules of use, otherwise there is a risk of making a wide nose even wider, and bruises even more noticeable;
• Variety of species. Few products are available in all possible consistencies and formats: sticks, balls, sticks, liquids, creams, and powders. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages, combines differently with other decorative cosmetics products and is designed for different skin types;
• Contraindications. Of course, we are not talking about the composition of a substance that can cause an allergic reaction. Highlighter is contraindicated for owners of problem skin, which should not be drawn attention to. For problems with acne, peeling and redness, it is better to limit the use of the product in the eye area.

The number of varieties of highlighters, multiplied by the number of cosmetic brands, can take by surprise any beginner in the make-up area. The easiest way to navigate the assortment is to divide all the products into groups: solid, cream, liquid, powder.

• Pencil. In this format, the tool is suitable for working out small details: the water line on the lower eyelid, the corners of the eyes, the areas under the eyebrows. It is convenient to place accents quickly and accurately with a pencil, but it is difficult for them to work out larger areas.

• Stick. The product in a tube a la lipstick is convenient because you can take it with you everywhere and fix your makeup during the day. The stick itself is semi-solid, easily twisted, and the highlighter lies pleasantly on the skin. It can be applied both with a light movement over the face, followed by shading, and by picking up the product on the fingertips.

They are placed in tubes of small volume. The thick, creamy consistency is easy to apply to both large and small areas. Thanks to its light texture, the highlighter cream gives a natural and delicate glow. It can be with a wet effect and with sparkles.

They are distinguished by a less thick consistency, similar to a lotion or fluid, and greater durability. Produced in the format of tubes with an applicator, markers with a small brush at the end and in the form of bottles with a dispenser. The latter are applied using sponges or a beauty blender.

Liquid highlighters are convenient to apply to any part of the face, blend with brushes or fingers, adjust makeup with them throughout the day. They do not require a base in the form of a primer and foundation. In the absence of skin problems, lightly enough to apply a little product to the desired areas.

Like creamy textures, liquid highlighter is not designed to be applied over compact powder. It can be a stain that will be difficult to shade into a beautiful natural highlight, and under the powder it will lose its shine.

There are two types - loose and compact. Compact and easy to carry, suitable for beginners and easy to apply with a wide brush at the end of makeup. Loose is a more professional tool that requires skill from the makeup artist. They can be mixed and applied to different areas of the face, creating interesting overflows and shades on the skin.

Both products work well on both foundations and powders, with the former producing a more lustrous and expressive effect, while the latter is softer and more casual.

This product is pollen containing some color.With the help of pigments, the transparent brow gel transforms into green, pink, blue mascara or eyeliner. By themselves, they are used as shadows or the most natural "shimmer" for the face, applied with a small flat brush.

Translucent natural shades are best suited. With them, the face will not look too over-powdered or flat, and the makeup will turn out to be as invisible as possible.

The highlighter, like the foundation, is selected in accordance with the skin tone. It can be tested on the same areas as other cosmetics: the wrist, the back of the hand, directly on the face. The ideal product should lie discreetly on the skin after shading, giving it only a slight glow.

For those who find it difficult to choose the right shade on their own, makeup artists have developed a number of recommendations:

• Light porcelain skin will suit warm silvery shades. You can experiment with cold pinks, but apply them in very small amounts so that the face does not look doll-like;
• With visible redness, products in lilac, pink and purple tones are suitable. You need to be very careful with them so as not to get the opposite effect, focusing on unwanted redness;
• Clear young skin can afford colors deliberately different from the natural shade: violet, blue, pink, lavender;
• A beautiful tan is best emphasized by golden color and tone in bronze;
• For Asian skin honey shades are intended;
• Olive undertone it is also better to shade with warm colors, for example, peach.

The top of the best products in terms of texture, durability and color palette consists, for the most part, of products from famous brands for professional makeup.

In fifth place in the top five are products from Sleek Makeup. All palettes contain several types of highlighters for different makeup, each of which gives a delicate glow for the whole day. In addition to natural and familiar shades, Sleek Makeup releases highlighters in blue, purple, lavender shades, with which you can recreate the image of a model from the catwalk. They are not suitable for everyday use, but for a festive make-up they will come in handy.

The fourth place is occupied by NYX cosmetics. This is the most affordable option among professional cosmetics, while its properties are not inferior to more expensive ones. Highlighters can be used without foundation, on top of it and adding a drop when applying tone to give the whole face a slight glow.

The favorite of the public from the South Korean brand Berrisom settled on the third position. Like all cosmetics for Asian skin types, it has a strong brightening effect and can be used as a complete moisturizer.

The second place belongs to The Balm brand, whose credo is “Beauty in 5 minutes”. In addition to being high-quality and functional makeup assistants, they are also packaged in original tubes and jars in rockabilly style.

The first place is shared by two giants in the beauty industry - Bobby Brown and MAC brands, and Make Up For Ever competes with them. These products adhere flawlessly to the skin, behave flawlessly throughout the day, are packaged in convenient bottles and are presented in the widest color palette.

Highlighter is an irreplaceable thing, and therefore it is not worth saving on it. Few mass-market products can compete in properties with a high-quality highlighter from a reputable brand. And if he can, then his search will take the same amount for which you can immediately buy a good tool.

Professional but affordable includes the Berrisom brand. The average price per bottle is 900 rubles.

Sleek Makeup will cost a little more. You can buy a palette of magical radiant within 1125 rubles.

The Bulm products will get into a cosmetic bag for 2000 rubles; the average price tag for MAC, Make Up For Ever and Bobby Brown is from 1500 to 3500.

For those who buy a highlighter for the first time, and are not ready to spend a lot of money, there is a budget, but high-quality product from L'oreal. Its price is within 699 rubles.

It is also worth taking a closer look at NYX cosmetics, which can also be purchased at a relatively low cost - from 400 rubles.

Using a highlighter correctly is a necessary condition for high-quality makeup. This is the finishing touch, so the accents are placed last, after moisturizing and leveling the tone. It is important to remember that:

• The product is applied in the manner recommended for the specific texture. So, it is good to pick up a creamy substance with your fingers, a liquid one with a sponge, and a crumbly product requires the use of a brush;
• Bigger is not better when it comes to makeup. The sparing use of a radiant product in the right places will make the face look fresher, younger and more beautiful, and the excess will make it completely shiny, like a Shrovetide pancake;
• You need to apply glare in strictly defined places.

Ladies who don't wear bangs can use a shimmer effect to make their forehead look wider or taller. In the first case, you need to apply a little money on the side parts and the temporal zone and blend thoroughly. In the second, the product should be placed on the border of the forehead in the center, at the roots of the hair.

With the help of highlights, the eyebrow line is visually raised, along the entire length or only in the corners. It is most convenient to do this with a pencil, and shade with a cotton swab or brush.

In eye makeup, highlighter is especially important. It can perform several functions at once: visually enlarge them, make the look open and fresh, mask bruises and circles under the eyes, give the eyelids shine in a festive make-up.

To enlarge the eyes, the emulsion is applied along the hairline in the center of the eyebrow. You should not do this to owners of impending eyelids, since the highlighter will only draw attention to this feature. Deeply located eyes will be made larger by a small drop of funds in the center of the eyelid, gently blended with a brush. The brightener for this should be compact, like shadows.

"Spread apart" close-set eyes are two dots placed in the corners of the eyes. You can make them less sharp with a brush to blend the shadows or with your fingertips. The same technique is used to create the effect of an "open" look.

Nude and light pink highlighter is used on the water line of the lower eyelid to eliminate redness.Also, this method will come to the rescue of those who overslept for work or school, but want to look rested and collected.

A fairly wide area, on which it is convenient to apply the highlighter pointwise or powder with a fan brush. The most successful places are the highest points of the cheekbones. If you put a little money on them and blend them, they will become more visible, tall and clear, and also divert attention from fine wrinkles and signs of fatigue.

The effect of radiance shortens a nose that is too long, lengthens a snub nose, narrows a wide one, makes a large one more elegant. Depending on the desired effect, the agent is applied to the back of the nose, tip or wings. If there is a hump that you want to disguise, the line along the back of the nose should be made intermittent, without affecting the protruding part itself.

Light shine is used, as a rule, to visually enlarge the lips. To add volume to them will help a slight check mark above the upper lip and a dot in the center of the lower. A particularly successful effect is obtained when using lip gloss or hygienic colorless lipstick. They look well-groomed, voluminous and beautiful.

All points listed are base. If possible, the highlighter should be applied only to problem areas, and not to the whole face at once, so that there is not too much radiance.

It is easy for a modern girl to paint without the help of a makeup artist. There are a large number of makeup tutorials and recommendations on how to do it yourself step by step.

To complete the makeup with correctly placed accents, you should use the scheme for a specific type of face.It demonstrates where to apply highlights in a triangular, square, round or oval shape to hide imperfections. Do not ignore the proportions, otherwise there is a risk of being disappointed in the vaunted magic tool, which simply will not give the desired results if it is not in the right place.

Blending is an important step in using a highlighter that you should not forget about. If you do not make the borders of the lines soft and blurry, it will lie in a noticeable unnatural spot, focusing on the defect that they tried to hide.

The most suitable tools are brushes. Fan it is convenient to apply the product, while distributing it in a thin layer. With a wide powder brush, you can blend it when contouring or strobing in large areas. Thin elastic brushes made of natural bristles are suitable for small areas that require accuracy: eyebrow line, eyelids, corners of the eyes.

An important point: when applying a highlighter to the skin, you need to take into account that after shading, the borders of the highlight will become wider, so initially the drop should be very small. In order not to overdo it, it is better to apply it to different zones in stages.

Shading is the final touch. Before proceeding with it, you need to completely make up.

Facial correction and contouring methods have been widely used for a long time, but they continue to improve. Strobing has replaced complex, time-consuming and heavy baking, contouring and toning. It is convenient because it does not require careful toning of the face and drawing new lines that form more regular features and an oval.

Its secret is in the play of light and the use of a highlighter with reflective elements.

Unlike darker sculpting, which is applied to the pits, shimmer products are applied to the raised points, reducing and hiding everything unnecessary.

It is carried out in stages:

1. Facial skin preparation. Highlighter is not a corrective or concealer, it is applied as a finishing touch, so to begin with, the tone of the face is evened out using the usual foundation, cushion or foundation, but with the addition of a highlighter. It’s not scary if the tone was initially matting, it will still fit well on the skin, giving it the effect of radiance from the inside.

   The main condition is that the two products must be thoroughly mixed. For application, a beauty blender or a high-quality brush with artificial bristles is suitable (natural bristles “eat up” liquid textures)

2. Masking problem areas. If there is a problem of highly visible circles and bruises under the eyes, they should be masked with concealer, since even a good strobing will not do the job as well;
3. Radiance enhancement. This stage involves re-applying the highlighter already in its pure form on certain areas. Basic points for strobing: bones under the eyes, vertical highlight on the forehead above the bend of the eyebrow, area under the eyebrow, bridge of the nose, edges of the nasolabial fold, upper lip, center of the chin, center of the forehead, corners of the eyes. You can maximize the effect by re-highlighting the zones with a dry luminizer.

If the outerwear shows the neckline or exposes the shoulders, they should also be worked out with a few touches of the brush.

Models in glossy magazines, stars on the red carpet and popular beauties set certain parameters for an attractive appearance, and a narrow, well-shaped face is one of them. In fact, chasing this incubatory beauty is not at all necessary, it is enough to correctly emphasize the features of your type. Highlighter in this case is an indispensable tool.

With an oval face, it is enough to apply it in the center of the forehead and under the eyes, emphasize the upper lip and the dimple on the chin.

An elongated or elongated face at the roots of the hair and along the chin line is shaded by a contour, and it is necessary to highlight a small area on the forehead just above the eyebrows, the back of the nose, and the area under the eyes. Can be used on the lips and in the corners of the eyes, but not on the chin or above the tails of the eyebrows.

A round face involves applying artificial shadows on the sides and highlighting the central part of the forehead, bridge of the nose, areas under the eyes, and the center of the chin with the help of highlights.

Square and rectangular shapes are corrected according to the same scheme: too protruding and wide zygomatic and temporal parts are darkened, and the entire T-zone and the area around the eyes are highlighted.

With a heart-shaped highlighter is applied to the entire central part of the forehead from the bridge of the nose to the hairline, the entire chin, a little under the eyes and on the nose.

The shape of an inverted diamond means highlighting the center of the face and focusing on the eyes.

To narrow it, you need to draw a thin strip of brightener along the front surface of the bridge of the nose. To visually make it shorter, the strip needs to be drawn only 2 thirds of the length. To enhance the effect will help the use of a cold shade corrector.They need to draw a barely noticeable shadow to the left and right of the back of the nose and connect them in one line between the nostrils. Shade the shadows well with a fluffy brush.

If the nose is "potato" - the area around the nostrils is shaded.

Completely camouflage the blue under the eyes only with the help of a shining emulsion will not work. It is not dense enough and pigmented and too shiny if applied in a dense layer. Before using a highlighter to mask circles and bruises, the area under the eyes must be worked out with a good concealer with a moisturizing effect. Concealer and highlighter can be mixed together.

Makeup rules using highlighter and other cosmetics:

• Creamy textures - creamy, crumbly - to crumbly. With this combination of products at the finish line, you will get the most durable and natural makeup;
• Shading, shading, and shading again. The times when at the peak of popularity there were clear lines in makeup have passed a few decades ago. The main characteristic of modern make-up is smooth transitions and naturalness, so that there are no obvious spots of bronzer or shine;
• One product is good, but two is better. Highlighter works much more effectively in combination with corrector or concealer. It is not necessary to master the intricacies of contouring, it is enough to work out the technique of applying shadows and highlights to the most important areas;
• There are no essential products. High-quality shimmer shadows as a highlighter? You can take a risk. Highlighter instead of shimmery shadows? Of course yes! Golden, bronze, silver shades work great on top of regular shadows, creating a lasting festive make-up.You can also use cold pink shades on blush;
• We combine the incompatible. At first glance, it may seem that the matte tone is not intended to be combined with shiny products, but this is not the case. If mixed before applying to the skin, you get a beautiful base of foundation that gives a delicate glow and long-lasting coverage during strobing.

Comparison before and after

After applying the highlighter, the effect is obvious. Make-up acquires completeness, and the face becomes embossed and radiant.

Professional make-up artists and lovers of makeup experiments unanimously recognize the highlighter as one of the most necessary products in a cosmetic bag. Among the advantages of shining emulsions, they note the ability to significantly transform the appearance, emphasize beautiful features and mask flaws. Cream and compact products are very popular. They last a long time, give a beautiful radiant effect, and can be used in combination with other products.

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