Be the light

For a while now there’s been a major online hoo-ha about this product finally being available in South Africa. Despite the fact that I have numerous highlighters already, I was amped to purchase this mostly due to the hype that surrounded this. You know curiosity and all that. So last weekend I ended up in Dischem (as usual…) in front of the L.A. Girl makeup stand. This was a bit intimidating…

Testers of the various shades are on the stand; with a lid you can lift in order to swatch the shades. The actual product is sealed in plastic, so someone can’t just open it and stick their fingers in it. It took me some time to pick a shade – I didn’t exactly want to cover my face in shimmer in store and besides, those fluorescent lights make everything look different. I decided on 80 Watt. It didn’t look too bronzy, but it’s also not too gold and glittery.

When picking up the product with a brush there was some fallout and my hands had some shimmer going on when I was done, as well as around the container. I’ve seen people apply highlighter with a fan brush, I used my regular angled blusher brush (don’t like my fan brush). The powder is easy to apply and blend, just be careful of applying it only where you need it; you don’t want to end up looking like a disco ball, shimmering all over the place. I usually apply highlighter to the top of my cheekbones, along my nose and maybe a tiny bit on my forehead to light up my face. The applied colour doesn’t really look like it does in the pan; it seems a bit more shimmery and definitely lighter. The staying power appears to be not too bad – I’ve applied some in the morning before work, and by lunchtime it hadn’t faded all that much (I’m not saying nothing, it was definitely still visible).

The pic above was taken in a few different shades of light – you can see the variance depending on the light.

All in all I’m impressed with this product – it gives you the sort of glow you see on celebrities (which, be honest now, is what you want). There are quite a few shades, so it’s difficult to pick one (or two…), as you would have to try them all to see which really suit you. They all look vastly different so that makes it slightly hard. But even if you don’t get the “correct” shade, I’m sure you’ll still love it – it’s a nicely pigmented product that does what it says!

Guys:
Best you steer clear if your misses is wearing something like this – it sticks to everything and you will look like Tinkerbell if you get too close.