The best highlighters to buy in 2020
WHEN you start integrating a highlighter into your beauty routine, you never go back. The best highlighters will give you a gorgeous glow, and can also contour the face. Highlighters are designed to reflect light, so tend to work best when applied to ‘high’ points on the face. Use on the cheekbones, down the centre […]
WHEN you start integrating a highlighter into your beauty routine, you never go back.
The best highlighters will give you a gorgeous glow, and can also contour the face.
Highlighters are designed to reflect light, so tend to work best when applied to ‘high’ points on the face.
Use on the cheekbones, down the centre of the nose and along the brows.
Many also use their highlighter as a shimmery shadow, or blend it with blush or bronzer.
There’s a highlighter to suit every skin type and need, from stick highlighters for a subtle shimmer to buildable liquid versions.
Powder highlighters are another favourite – and they’re ideal for giving your cheekbones a gorgeous glow.
This article and featured products have been independently chosen by Sun journalists. It contains links which are ads, and if you click a link and buy a product we will earn revenue.
1. Illamasqua
- (AD) Illamasqua Beyond Powder Highlighter, OMG, £28.90 at Amazon – buy here
Don’t be put off by the price of this highlighter, which is described as ‘shockingly beautiful’ by one reviewer.
The baked formulation has a creamy texture, and can be applied using a number of tools – your fingers, a sponge, a brush.
It can also be used wet for a more intense metallic finish.
Fans love to sweep it across the cheekbones and onto eyelids to illuminate and give a ‘sophisticated glow’.
2. Rimmel
- (AD) Rimmel London Sculpting Highlighter Palette, £6.95 at Amazon – buy here
Rimmel’s well-priced palette is an all-in-one highlighting, sculpting and blusher set, that leaves skin looking fresh and glowy.
It’s got the Kate Moss stamp of approval – she designed it – and is a value for money buy.
Simply start with the highlighter (on cheekbones, brow bones, bridge of nose), contour with the shading powder (swipe onto the sides of the nose, jawline and hollows of cheeks) and finish with some blush on the apples of the cheeks. Voila!
3. Nars
- Nars The Multiple Orgasm, £30 at Cult Beauty – buy here
This highlighting stick from Nars can be used all over the face – on lips, on cheeks and on eyes.
It’s super versatile and won’t disturb the makeup underneath, plus it blends well and lasts beautifully.
Popular shades you can’t go wrong with? Orgasm is a universal favourite, and Copacabana and Portofino are also considered flattering on a variety of skin tones.
4. Fenty
- Fenty Beauty Killawatt Foil Freestyle Highlighter Duo, £28 at Boots – buy here
Fenty Beauty’s highlighter duo is one of the brand’s most beloved products, and this amped up, highly pigmented version of the original Killawatt gives skin a mega-reflective, metallic finish.
The cream-powder formulation blends into the skin beautifully, and the striking colour combos can work beautifully on all complexions.
‘When I did my makeup, this highlighter was the perfect finishing touch. It’s perfect, and the way it reflects is angelic’, writes a fan.
People love to use these as eyeshadows, too.
5. Hourglass
- Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette, £61 at Cult Beauty – buy here
Hourglass’ coveted highlighting palettes are a sort of magic filter for the skin – pricey, but you look like you’re walking around with your own personal lighting crew.
The Ambient Lighting palette is a favourite; it conceals imperfections and gives skin a luminous glow using innovative ‘photoluminescent technology’.
The palette consists of three shades, which can be layered together or worn individually.
6. Glossier
- Niteshine, £17 at Glossier – buy here
This liquid highlighter is a favourite because it applies easily – even for those with dry skin.
It’s natural yet makes an impact, and fans praise it for its lasting power, colour selection and wearability – day or night, it does exactly what you want it to.
‘I seriously struggle with highlighter because my skin is so dry. This product is genuinely the best highlighter I’ve ever used. ZERO EXAGGERATION. I’ve used drugstore highlighters and high end highlighters but this one just looks natural and pigmented’, writes a convert.
Most read in Sun Selects
We’ve designed Sun Selects to help you to find the best products that won’t break the bank.
Need to keep your blonde hair, well, blonde? Then you’ll love these fab shampoos for blonde hair.
Enjoyed our roundup of the best highlighters? Then you might like our selection of the best toothpastes to buy now.