At this point, all beauty junkies worth their weight in mascara know their way around highlighter and can differentiate between a powder formula that packs a punch and a cream formula that adds just a little something. Every once in a while, however, a new product enters the category that causes even the most devoted and experienced to pause and investigate. Cue highlighter sprays, a new take on the (now) classic beauty product. It offers shimmer rather than glitter, and differs from pigment-infused sprays meant to be spritzed all over. Spray highlighters are meant to be applied to a concentrated area, which can be difficult to achieve at first spritz. That’s why we tapped celebrity makeup artist and brand founder Patrick Ta to share his best tips and tricks for mastering the look.
It’s All About Focus
The key to getting a lit-from-within glow is concentrating the highlighter on specific parts of the face. Ta’s Major Glow Highlighting Mist works well for this thanks to its super-fine mist, which offers sheen rather than sparkle. When applying, “make sure you target certain areas of the face,” says Ta, whose go-to spots are the tops of the cheekbone and “C” around the temple.
Distance Is Key
To ensure you don’t look like you dipped your cheek in glitter, it’s important to get the distance right. Ta recommends six inches from the face, which will ensure you’re getting the benefit of the product without overdoing it. If you do go a little overboard, however, just use a clean beauty sponge to dab away excess product.
Use Your Resources
If you need help targeting specific areas, use a sheet of paper to block off the area you want to highlight — similarly to creating a wing using a business card. This will help to keep the highlighter in one place and concentrated in the areas you want to glow. If you want to be a little fancy (and have some extra coin to spend), pick up the Patrick Ta Beauty Major Glow Setting Fan, which can be used to help place the highlighter and set the mist.
It’s Not Just For the Face
According to Ta, the best way to finish off any look is to bring the highlighter down to your neck and décollatege, which helps everything to look cohesive and blended. You can spray the highlighter directly for an extra pop of glow, or buff it in using a brush for a diffused, sun-kissed look.
In the makeup world, foundation and bronzer have always gotten most of the glory. They’re go-to staples that people turn to for coverage and color. However, today we want to talk about highlighter, which has been stealing the spotlight lately.
In our opinion, highlighters are just as important as the two aforementioned makeup products because they deliver luminosity and brightening qualities that can completely transform your complexion. To show our devotion to highlighters everywhere, we’re breaking down the basics of both liquid and powder illuminators so you never have to question their roles in your life again.
A Tale of Two Highlighters
First and foremost, let’s be clear that liquid and powder highlighters are not the same, and therefore serve different purposes. Liquid illuminators are typically more pigmented than powder formulas and should be used to accentuate or brighten specific spots on the face. You know the strobing craze that’s been hitting the beauty scene? Liquid illuminators are perfect for that!
Powder illuminators typically have softer application and deliver more of a sheer, shimmery finish. These types of products work well over foundation or blush to lend your skin that all-over dewy look.
Liquid Highlighter
When using a liquid highlighter, make sure you use a blending sponge or finger to work it into your skin. After applying foundation — before you reach for concealer — dot the liquid along the areas of the face that are naturally hit by the sun (the top of cheekbones, bridge of nose, brow bone, Cupid’s bow, etc.).
Make sure to not go overboard and apply thick streaks of the formula, as it will look too drastic. The key is for the liquid to blend into skin naturally and subtly.
If you’ve got a bad case of under-eye bags or dark circles, simply dot highlighter under the eye area and in the inner corners, blending downward toward the lower cheekbone. This will brighten your eyes and make you look more awake (even if you’re running on a couple hours of sleep).
When using a powder-based illuminator, use either a medium-sized fluffy powder brush or an angled powder brush for application. After applying foundation, dust highlighter on the cheeks, chin, nose and top of forehead. Because the application is less localized than that of liquid highlighter, the result is more of an all-over dewy glow, as opposed to a contoured one. You can also swipe a little along the top of the brows to accentuate their shape!
This is a practice for the more maximalist makeup guru out there, but minimalist beauty lovers, hear us out. Start by applying a liquid illuminator or drops — our current favorite certainly has to be the Lancôme Teint Idole Custom Highlighting Drops in Rose Glow — to your cheekbones, down your nose and on your cupids bow. One to two drops is all you’ll need for this, and blend it out with your fingers or use a stippling brush. Next, lightly apply the center shades of Lancôme Bronze & Glow Palette in It’s Time To Glow overtop with a fan brush for the silkiest, sparkliest and softest touch. Your highlight will be officially blinding and beautiful, garnering double takes from far and wide (insert smirky emoji).
SHOP THIS STORY
L’Oreal True Match Lumi Powder Glow Illuminator
Maybelline Dream Lumi Highlighting Concealer
Maybelline FaceStudio Master Blush Color & Highlight Kit
NYX Professional Makeup Highlight & Contour Pro Palette
The beauty buzzword and movement of the moment: “clean.” Along with other terms like “green” and “natural,” it’s used to describe every type of skincare, hair, makeup, and fragrance product, from moisturizer to makeup, shampoo to soap.
Ok, you guys have seen all the talk about switching to clean beauty on my Instagram feed, but what is clean beauty? Clean beauty is products that are not toxic to your body, and free of harmful ingredients. I was pretty shocked—actually, floored—to learn that the US beauty industry is one of the most unregulated industries. Companies can basically put any ingredients they want in a product—harmful or not. If you’re anything like me, you probably try to live your best to live a healthy lifestyle by eating well and reaching your fitness goal with the help of FlattummyApp. But then you are slathering yourself with chemicals, parabens, and silicones — it’s counterproductive!
Retailers know that consumers want cosmetics and beauty products that aren’t laden with potentially harmful ingredients — for example, Sephora recently launched “Clean at Sephora,” an initiative in which the beauty brand badged over of its 2,000 products as “clean,” in this case meaning free of ingredients like sulfates, parabens, formaldehydes, phthalates, and mineral oil.
But identifying the “cleanest” makeup products or “safest” cosmetic brands on the market isn’t all that simple. Despite a booming beauty industry, U.S. laws for cosmetics safety are virtually unchanged since they were created back in 1938. Here — unlike in Canada and Europe, where well over 1,300 unsafe ingredients are banned for use in beauty products — unbelievably, the FDA has prohibited only 11 ingredients or related compounds.
While legislation is pending to change this, progress is slow. The Personal Care Products Safety Act, supported by the Good Housekeeping Institute and beauty industry-leaders, would require the FDA to review the safety of at least five ingredients per year (at which rate it could take hundreds of years to even test for risks and dangers!). Yet this small step has remained stalled in the Senate since it was proposed in 2015. And there is no established industry-wide definition for “clean” or “natural” beauty claims. Being aware of what clean beauty is and educating yourself is so important which is why I wanted to share Clean Beauty 101 today.
The term “clean beauty” gets thrown around quite a bit, but few people know what the phrase actually means. Which is understandable: terms like “natural,” “botanical” and “green” are completely unregulated by the FDA, meaning anyone can use them. At its most basic level, a true clean product avoids the use of ingredients like parabens, sulfates, silicones, phthalates, and synthetic fragrances.
“Natural” or “All-Natural”
What it implies: A product is made with ingredients sourced from nature — be they plant, mineral or animal — that are minimally modified.
GH Lab lowdown: Few ingredients are used as-is from nature. “Natural” doesn’t always mean healthier: Some natural substances can even be harmful.
Trust it when: You see the Ecocert Natural Cosmetic stamp, which confirms that at least half the ingredients are plant-based.
“Organic”
What it means: The product’s ingredients and formula are produced without harmful pesticides.
GH Lab lowdown: This is the only government-regulated term in the “clean” beauty space.
Trust it when: It is USDA-Certified Organic (contains at least 95% organically cultivated ingredients) or NSF Organic-Certified (contains at least 70% organic ingredients).
“Naturally Derived”
What it implies: Natural ingredients in a product have undergone some chemical processing.
GH Lab lowdown: When you see this term or a similar one like “natural origin” or “made with natural ingredients,” look for a qualifier that indicates what percentage of ingredients it applies to.
Trust it when: The product carries the Good Housekeeping Seal, since the Good Housekeeping Institute Labs verify all product claims.
“Chemical-Free”
What it implies: A product doesn’t contain harmful chemicals like formaldehyde, toluene, and lead.
GH Lab lowdown: Not all chemicals are created equal; plus, every ingredient (natural or synthetic) is made up of chemicals. They are even part of human biology!
Trust it when: The claim is ingredient-specific, as in “paraben-free,” and the product has earned the Good Housekeeping Seal (we obtain data to validate all ingredient claims).
“Nontoxic”
What it implies: A product is not harmful to humans.
GH Lab lowdown: Such a wide-ranging term is meaningless unless it refers to a specific ingredient. Almost anything, even drinking water, can be harmful in large quantities.
Trust it when: Never, since it cannot be proven or disproven.
“Green” or “Sustainable”
What it implies: Products are developed with minimal present and future environmental impact.
GH Lab lowdown: This broad term covers everything from what’s in a product to how it’s made, packaged, distributed and disposed of.
Trust it when: You see certifications like Cradle to Cradle for sustainability and the Green Good Housekeeping Seal, which validates both sustainability and product performance.
Why is Clean Beauty Important?
Your skin is the biggest organ and absorbs up to 60% of what you put on it. Yet so many of us are completely unaware of what’s inside our products and believe the government will oversee our safety. The truth is, that there is a serious lack of regulation of U.S. Cosmetics.
The US has not passed a law regulation personal care products since 1938. Since then, more than 80,000 chemicals have been introduced into products on store shelves. Only 10% of these have been tested for human safety.
Just as a comparison, while the UK has banned nearly 1,400 harmful ingredients in personal care products, the US only partially prohibits 11. The FDA even allows chemicals known to cause cancer including parabens (which are known to disrupt hormone function), phalates (an industrial chemical that can damage the liver, lungs, and reproductive system), formaldehyde, lead and more.
How can you really go “clean” with your beauty routine?
The BLB Lab’s top tips on making truly natural and sustainable clean beauty choices:
1. Do an ingredient check. For a deeper dive into ingredients, the Beauty Lab recommends consulting resources like the Made Safe Hazard List and theEnvironmental Working Group Skin Deep database. Both nonprofits aim to collect the latest science on ingredients and offer recommendations for safety-certified products across categories.
2. Choose fragrance- and dye-free. Products that contain no fragrances or dyes are by nature better for the environment, as they use fewer ingredients, and people can have sensitivities to both. Even fragrance from natural sources can cause reactions. Plus, brands aren’t required to list the ingredients in “fragrance” on labels, so in many cases there’s no way to know what’s in those products.
3. Pick less packaging. The more minimal the packaging, the better for the earth. Whenever possible, seek out products with fewer components and without parts or materials that can’t be recycled (aim for codes 1 and 2) and unnecessary elements like outer boxes. Keep your eye out for the winners of BLB’s new Sustainability Awards for beauty, home care and toys, to be announced this fall.
4. Buy (green!) beauty that gives back. Seek out beauty brands that donate a portion of their proceeds or make a contribution to environmental causes.
What Can I Do Right Now to Protect Your Health?
When I am purchasing a new product from toothpaste or laundry detergent to shampoo or nail polish, I use the Environmental Working Group website. EWG created the Skin Deep Database that includes information on more than 61,000 products and rates them for safety.
My tip is to slowly switch out products one at a time so it doesn’t seem daunting and expensive. I would start with the products you use daily. I love Native Aluminum & Paraben Free deodorant and their sulfate and paraben free body wash! Make sure to stay tune for a full guide!
Removing our makeup isn’t the most fun part of our self-care routine, but it is absolutely essential! If you’re a lazy girl, you likely rely on makeup wipes or micellar water on cotton pads, and if you’re into skincare you probably start with a cleansing balm or oil before going in with your water-based cleanser. Well if we told you there was a much easier, more effective and cheaper way to get rid of your makeup you’d probably be interested, right?
Say hey to Face Halo, a double-sided cleansing cloth that looks like a giant cotton pad, but just add water, and the cloth will remove ALL your makeup, just like magic. Well, it’s not magic, it’s some pretty clever technology!
The Face Halo works like a dream, it can be reused hundreds of times, and costs $22 for three, which means it’s about to save you A LOT of money. We’re going to quickly break it down for you: A pack of 25 Neutrogena Makeup Wipes costs $6.50, so if you use one every day of the year, that’s around $95 on makeup wipes (plus a lot of waste), and you’re not even removing your makeup properly. If you’re using a cleansing oil, you’re probably spending around $20 (minimum) and you’ll likely use at least three in a year – you do the math!
Not only is it great for your bank account, but it’s also a savior for the environment too! Face Halo calculated that on average, women use two makeup wipes a day, aka 113 billion makeup wipes a year! That means to date, Face Halo has replaced up to 375 million single use wipes from going into landfill – pretty great!
Here’s the breakdown on the Face Halo, how it works, and why it’s now a staple part of our cleansing routine.
How Face Halo works: Face Halo uses special fibers that are 100 times finer than a human hair, which are able to reach deep into pores to remove and trap makeup. All you need to do is add water and gently wipe the Face Halo across your face and it will remove everything, from foundation and liquid lipstick to mascara and eyeliner.
Once you’ve used Face Halo, you should wash it with soap (a bar of soap is super quick and easy), and every week you can chuck it in the machine for a deep clean. It can be machine washed up to 200 times, which means you can use one cloth for a year without needing to repurchase another. Just a reminder you get three in a pack, so you’ll essentially spend $22 on a makeup remover that could last you two to three years – not bad!
What we thought: Until you use the Face Halo, you kind of don’t believe it can work, because how can water and material get rid of makeup? But trust us, those little fibers know what they’re doing! The Face Halo removed our cake face super effectively in the same way our cleansing oil does. It even removes all traces of mascara and eyeliner quickly and more efficiently than most cleansers we’ve used.
However, we did notice (especially as we wear a lot of makeup) that there was still a little makeup residue left over, so we do recommend a second cleanse with a water-based cleanser after you’ve used Face Halo. But considering we always double cleanse – no makeup wipe or cleanser is enough to remove all makeup and grime in one go – that definitely didn’t deter us.
After we used Face Halo and did our extra cleanse, we washed it with a bar of soap, which took us around 20 seconds to get it back to its bright white shade. FYI, it also comes in black, but nothing is more satisfying than seeing what comes off on the white version! It also works really well as a gentle alternative to a muslin cloth for removing mud and clay masks.
The Face Halo is super handy for when you’re gyming or traveling (especially if you have a carry on) as it’s lightweight and easy to use anywhere.
We also tried the new Face Halo Body, $22, which we loved for exfoliating our body. On one side it has an exfoliating fabric and on the other side, the classic Face Halo fabric to polish and refine the skin on your body. Definitely worth a try if you’re looking for a new exfoliator.
What we didn’t like: TBH, there’s nothing to dislike, it’s a good price for what you get and it’s super-efficient at removing ALL makeup. The Face Halo doesn’t have any skincare benefits (other than efficiently removing makeup), which is why we definitely recommend following with a cleanser that suits your skin type, which will be able to target your specific skin concerns.
The verdict: We’ve used our Face Halo every day since we got it. Sometimes it replaces our oil cleanse and other times we use our oil cleanser and then a water-based cleanser and use the Face Halo around our hairline and neck and to get the last traces of mascara from around our eyes. Overall, it’s fair to say we’ll be keeping these in our routine for a long time to come!
beautyleebar.org 