Category Archives: Highlighter

Burberry Sheer Summer Glow Natural Highlighting Compact Review, Swatches, Photos

Burberry Sheer Summer Glow
Burberry’s Sheer Summer Glow Natural Highlighting Compact is a limited-edition product for this summer.   Nordstrom’s website has the following information on its intended use:
 How to use: gently blend the four shades using the Burberry Beauty Brush. Apply all over the face for a fresh and natural glow. Each shade may also be used separately to highlight and sculpt the face by applying color to the forehead, eyes, cheeks and chin. 

Thus, it’s intended as both a highlighter and a contouring product.  However, I prefer my contouring products matte, so I intend to use it as a highlighter and a bronzer. 
The Sheer Summer Glow compact packaging is exactly like an oversized Burberry eyeshadow: both are housed in square, metal compacts embossed with the signature Burberry design.  While I love the heft of the metal compact, the compact is magnetic in such a way that’s it’s physically impossible to stack the eyeshadows/ Sheer Summer Glow (the magnets repel each other), which I find very annoying for storage.
Burberry size comparison
Inside the compact, there are four squares of color. Each is large enough to pick up individually, or they can be swirled together.  All four are shimmery – but it’s a glowy, illuminating type of shimmer, not one where you see the individual particles of shimmer/glitter.  The powder is very high quality – it is very soft, smooth, and blends flawlessly. 

And, swatches! This is all four swatched individually (the pink is almost invisible on my skintone), and then blended together (also almost invisible on my arm). Please click on the swatch photo to enlarge it.  Because of the way the colors show up on me, I anticipate that I will mostly use the left half as a bronzer, and the right half as a highlighter.  I can also use all four shades together as a subtle highlighter. 

The Burberry Sheer Summer Glow Compact is available at Nordstrom.com, and a few select Nordstrom stores have Burberry counters (I’m lucky that there is one near me so I was able to go see this in person before purchasing!).

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This post is from Project Swatch. All rights reserved.

MAC Superb Extra Dimension Skinfinish Review, Photos, Swatches

Today, I have an In Extra Dimension Skinfinish highlighter from MAC’s newly-released In Extra Dimension collection.  The In Extra Dimension collection consists of three Skinfinishes and several eyeshadows – it’s already available online, and will be released in-store on April 5th.

I bought just one piece from the collection – the In Extra Dimension Skinfinish in Superb, which is a rose-gold highlighter that is (so I hear) an exact dupe for the Estee Lauder Illuminating Powder Gelee.

Superb is packaged in MAC’s signature compact, just like the Mineralize Skinfinishes – however, as you can see, it has a design embossed on it rather than being dome shaped like the MSFs.  I like MAC’s packaging – it’s functional and sturdy, and I like the clear lids, because it’s easy for me to see what everything is in my drawers.

I really like the texture of Superb – it’s sort of dry yet smooth and soft.  Again, it’s supposedly like the Estee Lauder Illuminating Powder Gelees, but I haven’t swatched them, so it was a new texture for me! The texture is nice, because it’s really easy to apply lightly for a glow, but also easy to apply heavily, which you can see in the swatches.  It blends very easily.

It’s a little hard to describe the color of Superb – it’s sort of a rose gold that leans bronze, I think. The swatch below is color accurate, I think – what would you call this shade?

Will you be picking up anything from MAC’s In Extra Dimension collection?

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This post is from Project Swatch. All rights reserved.

Make Up For Ever Sculpting Kit 2 Review, Swatches, Photos

On a recent trip to the Make Up For Ever boutique, I picked up MUFE’s Sculpting Kit in #2 (it comes in four shades).  The duo consists of two matte powders; one to contour, and one to highlight.

MUFE’s Sculpting Kit is packaged in a very simple plastic palette with a clear cover.  It is very functional – it’s easy to see what you’re working with – though not particularly beautiful.

Both of the powders are very high quality. The textures are great – soft, silky, and blendable. They last very well on my normal to dry skin.  They have just the right level of pigmentation for contouring / highlighting products; the first layer is sheer, but they’re buildable to any level of depth that I want.

Heavy swatches:

Overall, I really like this kit, and I’m happy to own it. I’ve been using it every day since I bought it.  However, if you’re on a budget, I would suggest buying the MAC Pro Sculpting powder in Sculpt, which is extremely similar (or whichever sculpting powder is best for your skintone), then using a matte offwhite eyeshadow to highlight. This will give you an identical, or at least very similar, look for less cost.

I bought the MUFE Sculping Kit at the Los Angeles MUFE store, but it’s also available at Sephora stores and Sephora.com.

This post contains an affiliate link. For more information please see my disclosure policy.

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This post is from Project Swatch. All rights reserved.

MAC Lightscapade Mineralize Skinfinish Review, Swatches, Photos

Since the popular highlighter Lightscapade is being re-released with MAC’s Reel Sexy collection (out in stores on April 5th; already online), I thought I’d review my Lightscapade, which I bought last year when it was released as part of the MAC Fall Color Collection.

The Lightscapades which were released originally, as part of the Danse collection, have the most beautiful marbling, while the Lightscapades released later – as part of the latter two collections mentioned above – are more beige.  However, from researching online, my understanding is that this doesn’t really affect the color of the product once it’s applied.  And, I still think my Lightscapade – though beige from far away – is beautiful up close – it has subtle blue, pink, and yellow veining.

To put it simply: Lightscapade is my favorite highlighter that I own. I really love the effect it gives on my skin.  It’s very glowy, without being obviously shimmery or glittery.  The color is very neutral on me – it’s sort of an off-white shimmer/glow.   Here are comparison swatches with my other highlighters.  As you can see, it’s most similar to Guerlain Parure de Nuit, but more pigmented – the Guerlain is more subtle, which sometimes I want, and sometimes I don’t.

Overall, I really love MAC Lightscapade and it’s a must-have in my stash! I’m even considering buying a backup – but the pan is so large that I can’t see myself finishing it anytime soon, even though I use it all the time.

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This post is from Project Swatch. All rights reserved.

TheBalm Mary-Lou Manizer Review, Swatches, Photos

the packaging; the compact

Since I already own two -->perfect highlighers -->, I felt a little silly buying a third. But, theBalm was on Hautelook*; I was already buying the Nude ‘Tude Palette (and thus paying shipping), and the Mary-Lou Manizer was (at half-off), only another $12.  And, as it turns out, it’s really different from the two highlighters I already own.

The Mary-Lou Manizer, like most theBalm products, comes in very cute packaging. Since I prefer sleek, minimalist type packaging, this isn’t something I appreciate, though I don’t mind it either.  The compact is sturdy and functional, and has a large mirror, though I can’t see myself using the included mirror instead of a real mirror.

The powder is very soft, very blendable, and very pigmented – you only need the tiniest bit to achieve a glow.  It’s not frosty, but has a definite shimmer.  It’s a golden highlighter, which is what makes it different from my other highlighters; they’re much cooler toned.  When I first applied it to my face, I applied too much to one spot – it’s easy to overdo, because it’s so pigmented.  However, it was very easy to blend out the mistake, and it looked beautiful when I was done.

thebalm mary-lou manizer

The other two highlighers I own are MAC Lightscapade and Guerlain Parure de Nuit; here are swatches of all three together.  You can really see how the Guerlain is the most subtle – I’m surprised I got it to show up at all in the photo!

thebalm mary-lou manizer; mac lightscapade; guerlain parure de nuit

Overall, I love the Mary-Lou Manizer, and I’m really glad that I bought it.  It is a beautiful, high-quality highlighter, and different enough from what I already own to really make it worth it!

*This is an affiliate link. For more information please see my disclosure policy.

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This post is from Project Swatch. All rights reserved.

MAC Flower Fantasy Pearlmatte – Review, Swatches, Photos

I recently bought MAC Flower Fantasy Pearlmatte Face Powder from the MAC Vera collection, and I have a quick review for you today!

Here are swatches of the two matte pink shades together (the second stripe of pink was too narrow for me to swatch individually), the light shimmery shade alone, then everything swirled together.

MAC Flower Fantasy Pearlmatte

I was a little disappointed in the pigmentation of the matte shades when I swatched it on my arm; they are fairly sheer. So, I tried it on my face – I applied the matte shades to my cheeks, and used the shimmery part to highlight.

lipstick is viva glam cyndi

I was really pleased with how this turned out! The pigmentation worked out just fine; it applied as a very flattering soft pink.

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This post is from Project Swatch. All rights reserved.