7 Illuminating Moisturizers That Will Make Your Skin Glow

We stan a glowy complexion and are firm believers that you can never have enough highlighter. Seriously, whether it’s a liquid formula or a powder illuminator, we can’t get enough. But if you appreciate the dewy makeup look and stay up to date on the latest makeup tips and trends, you also know that you can also achieve it with the right skincare routine

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One must-have for skin radiance? Illuminating moisturizer. Using one of these moisturizers gives you a lit-from-within, glowing look and a natural dewiness — you might not even need to use a highlighter. Keep reading to discover seven of our favorite moisturizers for creating a luminous finish.

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IT Cosmetics Confidence in a Cream Rosy Tone Moisturizer

The rosy tone of this moisturizer isn’t just pretty to look at — the pigments give skin a revitalized, youthful appearance. The formula also gently exfoliates and intensely hydrates to reveal a more vibrant complexion.

Lancôme HydraZen Glow Liquid Moisturizer

This refreshing, lightweight formula provides 24-hour hydration and visibly reduces signs of stress, like dullness. The best part? Your skin will look more radiant and glowy almost immediately after application.

YSL Beauty NU Glow in Balm

Want to exude radiance without clogging your pores? This moisturizing primer’s non-comedogenic formula is infused with shea butter and glycerin to hydrate and illuminate the skin. You can mix this into your foundation or apply it under nation for a radiant finish.

Garnier Pinea-C Brightening Serum Cream Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 30

This three-in-one product acts as a serum, moisturizer, and sunscreen. It’s infused with pineapple and vitamin C to target dullness and even out your skin tone, while SPF 30 protects your skin from UV rays.

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Glow Recipe Plum Plump Hyaluronic Acid Moisturizer

Hydrate, plump, and prime your skin for makeup with this super silky moisturizer. A blend of hyaluronic acid and polyglutamic acid, it exfoliates and moisturizes for a glowing finish.

L’Oréal True Match Lumi Glotion Natural Glow Enhancer

This multi-purpose product can be used as a primer, highlighter, and full body luminizer. Flecked with a touch of shimmer, the lotion creates a seemingly lit-from-within glow no matter how you use it.

Summer Fridays Cloud Dew Gel Cream

If you’re looking to create a smooth, even base before makeup, this ultra-lightweight moisturizer is a must-try. Hyaluronic acid, ceramides, and amino acids help promote even tone, texture, and skin resilience.

How To Recreate the Viral Hailey Bieber Smoothie on a Budget

If there’s one thing we are always on the lookout for, it’s tips on how to achieve flawless, glowing skin. Luckily, we have celebrities like Hailey Bieber to let us in on their skincare secrets. Well known for her flawless skin, she recently launched her beauty line, Rhode. While Rhode currently has a waitlist, her viral Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie does not. 

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Launched at Erewhon Market in June, Hailey Bieber’s limited-edition smoothie includes skin-enhancing ingredients such as hyaluronic acid (which, by the way, we did not know you could ingest) and sea moss, which Erewhon described as a “wellness supporting ingredient.” Coming in at $17, this smoothie promises to have your skin glowing from the inside out. If you’re like us and don’t have an Erewhon Market nearby, or if you want to save money (doesn’t everyone?), you can easily re-create the viral smoothie from the comfort of your kitchen. To find out if the smoothie is worth the hype, we tested it out for ourselves. 

@haileybieber

#duet with @ricklox #lafoodie my HB Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie available @erewhonmarket💕🍓

♬ original sound – Rick Lox

How to re-create the smoothie

We followed the recipe Vital Proteins shared on their TikTok, which omits the hyaluronic acid and sea moss, making it more budget friendly. Although these two ingredients are the stars of the smoothie show, don’t worry. This recipe is still packed with nutrient-dense flavors that are great for your skin. Almonds contain a nice dose of vitamin E and zinc, while strawberries are good for your heart, and collagen and hyaluronic acid may help your skin cell turnover. Plus, this recipe uses vegan cream instead of dairy, and both maple syrup and dates, sweeteners that have more nutrients than sugar.

That being said, if you want to make the smoothie more authentic to the one sold at Erewhon Market, hyaluronic acid and sea moss are both available to order online. The recipe we followed does call for a strawberry glaze, which you can make yourself. For a more convenient option, it can also be purchased from the store, or you can use an alternative like strawberry jam or preserves. 

@vitalproteins

Our Vanilla Collagen Peptides are the KEY to the viral @Hailey Bieber smoothie!🙌🍓✨🤍 Want to give the smoothie of the summer a try for yourself? Follow along as @My friends call me Bev recreates and don’t forget to tag us when you try it!😉 #HaileyBieber #erewhon #erewhonmarket #erewhonsmoothie #smoothie #wellnessisvital #vitalproteinsUS

♬ original sound – Vital Proteins

Once we had our ingredients assembled, it was as simple as tossing them into our Nutribullet and blending until everything was well combined. In the meantime, we used the back of a spoon to spread coconut cream and strawberry glaze onto the sides of our drinking glass. You can skip the aesthetics and put both ingredients at the bottom of your glass for the same effect. 

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Before trying the smoothie out for yourself, we would be remiss not to mention some quick tips. Depending on your blender, you may need to cut up the dates before blending to save yourself from big chunks of dates. Additionally, make sure to blend the smoothie thoroughly so that the collagen powder is well incorporated. Lastly, while dates, maple syrup, and strawberry glaze contain naturally occurring sugars, the amount this smoothie calls for is something to be mindful of. If you want to make it less sweet, you can simply use only one date or omit the maple syrup or strawberry glaze altogether. 

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Our thoughts as registered dietitians

We loved the texture of this smoothie. Thanks to the avocado, it was thick and creamy and much fluffier than other smoothies we have tried. The taste reminded us of a strawberry milkshake, and we would recommend this to anyone looking for a delicious post-workout snack or an on-the-go breakfast option.

For us, smoothies are our go-to summer breakfast, and we can see ourselves adding this to our weekly smoothie rotation. we love to toss a handful of greens into our smoothies for an extra nutrient boost, which we plan on doing with this recipe in the future. Chia seeds are our favorite smoothie topping to aid in digestion, and we think they would make an excellent match for this glowing skin smoothie. 

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While this smoothie does contain some amazing ingredients for your skin (think: healthy fats from the avocado, vitamin C from the strawberries, and collagen for tissue support), we wouldn’t say it’s a magic cure-all for your skincare woes. As always, staying hydrated and eating a well-rounded diet rich in plants and other whole foods will provide essential nutrients to protect and keep your skin healthy. 

How to Make Hailey Bieber’s Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie

Add all ingredients to a blender with ice, pulse until smooth, then pour into your favorite to-go smoothie cup and get glowing!

Watch this easy tutorial to try it out:

@missremiashten

how to make the @Hailey Bieber @Erewhon Market smoothie at home 🥹🍓

♬ Peaches – Justin Bieber
  • 1SERVINGS

Ingredients

  • ½ cup Organics Almond Milk⁠
  • 1 cup Harry’s Berries strawberries⁠ (or frozen strawberries)
  • 2 scoops Vital Proteins Vanilla Collagen
  • A couple drops or scoops of Neo Cell Hyaluronic Acid⁠ (in liquid or powder form)
  • Organic Coconut Cream⁠ (not to be confused with coconut milk)
  • Sea Moss Gel
  • ¼ cup avocado⁠ ⁠
  • 1 tsp maple syrup⁠
  • 2 dates⁠
  • House-made strawberry glaze⁠, optional

We then poured a small amount of the strawberry glaze and coconut cream into the bottom of the glass, topped it with the smoothie, tossed in a straw, and basked in all of the sweet, skin-loving glory this smoothie promised.

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Author’s Notes

You can replace Collagen Beauty Greens with fresh aloe vera. Aloe vera is a fantastic natural ingredient that helps our skin to retain moisture and improve elasticity. It is full of antioxidants and has anti-inflammatory properties, which makes it an excellent component to add to your smoothies.

Dates contain nutrients and antioxidants that can delay the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines, giving your skin an extra glow.

Have you tried Hailey Bieber’s new smoothie? Tag us in your creations on Instagram and subscribe to our email newsletter for more inspo!

VERSED SKINCARE – WHAT’S WORTH THE MONEY

We feel like Versed Skincare has taken over social media. We see so many posts about their products. One of our favorite parts of this brand is they have affordable skincare! All of their products are very reasonably priced! We have recently had the chance to try out a few of their products, and we are here to give you our opinion on what’s worth your money!

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Acne Calming Cream Cleanser | $16.99

We feel that cleansers are mostly all the same. It’s on your skin for such a short amount of time that they aren’t going to make a drastic change to your skin. But since we started using this cleanser, we have noticed a difference in breakouts. We have been breaking out a lot less since we used this every night. If you struggle with acne, you’re going to love this cleanser! We also have found this does a good job of taking off your makeup as well!

This face wash is made with 1.5% Salicylic Acid which will help you get rid of any breakouts. The other main ingredients are Blue Tansy and Apple Fruit Extract. The Apple Fruit Extract is a very gentle exfoliant, and the Blue Tansy has anti-inflammatory properties and gives it the blue color!

Originally some of us editors were using Cerave Hydrating Facial Cleanser, but we found that it was drying our skin and irritating it which was causing us to break out more. We switched to this cleanser and will never go back. The formula leaves the skin feeling fresh, and we can see noticeable improvement! We use this product every so often to address minor breakouts we have. At the first sight of a pimple, we will use this product morning and night to treat and stop the breakout from getting worse! This product is so gentle yet effective! We love using it with a facial brush tool as well!

If you have acne-prone skin and are looking for a new face wash, we recommend picking this up. We love how it makes our skin feel, and how it helps with our breakouts, and we love that it is on the affordable end!

Weekend Glow Daily Brightening Toner | $17.99

This is the perfect toner for anyone that is struggling with dark spots or pesky marks left from breakouts. The weekend glow toner is made with a four-acid complex including Lactic Acid, Glycolic Acid, Azelaic Acid, and Kojic Acid. It also has bearberry extract and Vitamin C to help brighten your skin. We love that it is gentle enough to be used daily! We rotate this with other chemical exfoliants throughout the week, so we use it about 3 nights a week. We think this is our favorite out of everything we have tried from Versed.

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Be careful with this toner since it is similar to witch hazel and a lot of customers have said this caused them to break out even worse than before. It has a slight smell for a second then it disappears once dried down.

Using this after the Acne Calming Cream Cleanser is the perfect combo! So, if you are someone that struggles with hyperpigmentation or dark spots this is going to be the toner for you!

The Shortcut Overnight Facial | $19.99

This overnight facial cream is made with Lactic and Glycolic Acid and Vitamin A to help exfoliate and brighten your skin. You apply this on your face 1-3 times a week at night and leave it on all night. It absorbs right into your skin, so you don’t feel like you are sleeping with a sticky mask on all night. We truly love the idea of this product, because it is kind of a two-in-one. You get your chemical exfoliant and your moisturizer all in one.

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The blend of lactic and glycolic acid works together to break down dead skin cells. Vitamin A is one of the most powerful and proven ingredients for aging skin. Vitamin A exfoliates, brightens, and hydrates while skin-conditioning allantoin, rosehip, and vitamin E keep the skin calm. It’s pH-balanced, non-drying, and non-irritating—basically, it’s a non-scary treatment that won’t leave you red or flaky (just bright and refreshed). It’s even gentle enough to use on back-to-back nights, and it absorbs into your skin just like a lotion, residue-free so your pillows are safe too.

This overnight facial works on sensitive skin as well. It does make your skin feel soft the next day, but this is a product you’ll have to use consistently for a few months to notice a difference.

Mood Lighting Luminizing Glow Drops | $17.99

This was by far the product we were most excited to try out because we love anything that is going to give us a glow. But we honestly weren’t super impressed by these. It is supposed to give you a natural glow, something that can be great for summer bare face or use with makeup!

We did give the LUMINIZING GLOW DROPS to our friends, and they love it. However, we do like that this is a serum, so it has ingredients like Peptides, Blackberry Extract, and Vitamin E. We just found we didn’t get the glow we were expecting from this, we had to use quite a bit of product to notice a difference. We started to break out and that is a no-no for us! It does feel nice on the skin and does give a very subtle glow, but we still find ourselves reaching for the Glow Recipe Dew Drops more.

Virtually weightless, each glow drop pumps up hydration levels and plumps up elasticity for noticeably smoother skin. How? The peptide polyglutamic acid—a.k.a. hyaluronic acid‘s more powerful relative that can hold 4000x its weight in moisture—works alongside antioxidant-rich blackberry extract to strengthen skin’s barrier.

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This comes in two different shades – Sheer Bronzed and Sheer Golden. We did get both shades since we all are not the same skin color.

You can use these by mixing them with your foundation, wearing them as the last step in your skincare routine, or mixing it in with your moisturizer. Our favorite way is using it as a highlighter on our cheekbones!

Just because we didn’t love these doesn’t mean that they won’t work for you. We are just someone that loves a more noticeable dewy finish. So, if you are more on the subtle side.

Silk Slip Lip Oil | $9.99

We thought this was going to be tied with the Acne Calming Cream Cleanser as one of our favorite products! First off, the pink packaging just gets us! Second, it is the most hydrating lip oil, and it makes your lips look amazing! We wanted this to be one of the main beauty essentials that we always keep on us!

We honestly did enjoy this product for the most part. Our lips were always hydrated when applying, but the only thing we did not like was that they would dry a bit sticky. Also, after a while, the product produced this awful odor which was odd. We even repurchased because we thought maybe we got a bad batch. Very disappointing and a waste of money. Looking online we are not the only one with this issue, so they seem to have a problem with the formula going bad quickly. Hopefully, they fix this ASAP!

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They chose ingredients that will help hydrate your lips instead of leaving them feeling dry a few minutes later like most lip balms. They said your lips will stay soft and hydrated with a subtle, healthy sheen (not a glossy shine). Most important, you can still feel the moisture on your lips even after the oil is fully absorbed. 

SILK SLIP CONDITIONING LIP OIL contains Camellia Oil, Jojoba Oil, Vitamin E, Sunflower Seed Oil, and Sesame Oil. And I feel that this does live up to the hydrating claim completely. It has a great smell and doesn’t leave a weird taste in your mouth.

They also have tinted lip oils that we dying to try along with other products that we already ordered to try!

Have you tried anything from Versed Skincare? If so let us know your favorites in the comments! Some were better than others, but that is how it’s going to be with skincare. But overall, we are genuinely so impressed with their skincare, and we will be picking up some more to test out!

Milk Ice Cubes for Your Face

MILK!! But for your face.

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That’s right. Today we are going to introduce you to a little trick that skincare gurus are OBSESSED with. Sonya Dakar taught me this. She’s a celebrity skincare expert with her line (which is amazing) & recently she discussed how to keep your youthful skin & hot celeb beauty secrets. 

Pores are so pesky & annoying. They can get so big, especially if your skin is dirty. After much research, it turns out that milk ice cubes do shrink your pores. These are going to brighten the skin & you are all dewy & glassy AF.

In this post, you’ll find out how to turn some simple, milky ice cubes into your new favorite skincare step. Keep on reading…

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The Benefits of Using Milk Ice Cubes on Your Face:

♡ helps with acne.

♡ shrinks pores.

♡ helps keep the skin hydrated.

♡ brightens the skin.

♡ reduce the look of dark spots & circles.

♡ keeps your skin tone oh so even.

♡ helps with fine lines and signs of aging.

♡ helps reduce puffy eyes and dark circles.

♡ can remove spray tan from your face (this could be a pro or a con).

♡ increase blood circulation on the face.

♡ soothes inflammation.

♡ reduces acne and dark spots.

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So How The Fuck Do you Make Milk Ice Cubes?

Well, EASY.

Take a big bowl & mix a cup of cow’s milk and a cup of coconut milk. Milk has lactic acid that removes dead skin cells and provides a natural glow to the skin. Mix it well then pour it into a cute ice cube tray & freeze it overnight. So basically, it’s milk ice cubes.

In the morning, wake up & enjoy a refreshing icy situation. We feel a healthy glow. You guys know we love ice on my face so it’s no surprise we’ve done this a million times.

You can also do this any time before bed. Cleanse, applying an ice cube on your face in a circular motion until it’s used up, rinse it off with water & your skin is tight & ready to go. We are a big fan of heating up to cool down, so we’ll use the Dr. Dennis Gross steamer and then cool our skin down with a milk ice cube.

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If a milk cube isn’t for you, you can use aloe vera or green tea – or just use a plain ice cube. Rub an ice cube on your skin. Ice cube rapidly constricts blood vessels, so you’ll still get tons of pore shrinking & glowing skin benefits. It’s the key to product absorption & your makeup will loook flawless if you give yourself a little ice cube facial before you apply foundation.

And of course, if you love tools, you can never go wrong with an ice roller. We hope this skincare post brings you value & you try these milk ice cubes on your face. 

Peace, love & ice.