Beauty Tip: How to choose the right highlighter for your skintone

Glow Master: Our guide to the perfect highlighter for every skin tone

Sarah Khan

11 Sep 2017

updated the 12 September 2017 à 15:36

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The Best Highlighters for Your Skintone
The secret to mastering that highlight for a beautiful glow? Find one that is right for your skin tone.

Browse our gallery for the expert tips to selecting the perfect highlight for your complexion - whether you're fair, medium, deep or dark.
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For Fair Skins
Iridescent shades work particularly well on fair skin tones - think ivory, lilacs or pearlescent finishes. The light, subtle pigments lends just enough radiance to your complexion (without washing you out).

Expert Tip: Bright ivory or white shades, like the YSL Touche Eclat White Strobing Pen, look amazing for a subtle sheen on fair skin. Avoid choosing shades that are too warm or contain red undertones.
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YSL
YSL Beauty Touche Eclat White (via Tangs), SGD62
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Glossier
Haloscope in 'Quartz' or 'Moonstone', SGD29.53
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For Light/Olive Skins
Olive or light-medium skin tones tends to look best in light golden or champagne hues. Cult favourites like Becca's Shimmering Skin Perfector in 'Champagne Pop' is a great option for a beautiful sheen.
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Becca
Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed in 'Champagne Pop' (via Sephora), SGD58
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Tarte
Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Highlighter (via Sephora), SGD48
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For Medium to Medium-Deep Skin
To keep your skin from looking too frosty (which can happen if you were to use a highlight shade too light or cool for you), opt for highlighters that have peach or yellow gold undertones.

Expert Tip: Because your skin tone naturally accommodates a beautiful bronzed look, go a step further and dust a bronze or gold eye shadow for a full-on golden goddess look.
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Dior
Diorskin Nude Air Luminizer Powder (In shade '003), SGD75.71
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Makeup Forever
Pro Light Fusion Undetectable Luminizer (In shade 'Golden'), SGD68
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For Dark Skin
Rich tones like rose gold or bronze pair beautifully with darker complexions. Be sure to opt for highlighter products with a lot of pigment and avoid ones with frosty, opalescent shades, as they can cause the skin to look gray and ashy. Simply stick to the warm hues!

Expert Tip: Mix your bronze-toned liquid highlight with your foundation to give you a stunning all-over glow. To top it off, apply a deep rose cream blush after your highlighter and buff it out so it blends with the illuminating shade.
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Fenty Beauty
Killawatt Freestyle Highlighter (In shade 'Trophy Wife') via Sephora, SGD50
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Nars
Dual Intensity Blush (via Sephora), SGD68

If you find that your highlighter’s looking too frosty or ashy, it could be because it is not right for your skintone.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’d know that highlighting has been the definitive beauty trend of 2017. (And 2016, and 2015… Well, you get our drift).

There is just something incredibly transformative about highlighting your face. Whether you’re using a powder, cream or liquid formula, a good highlighter lends a beautiful dimension to your face structure and can make you look irresistibly healthy and glowy.

While several highlighters have achieved cult beauty product status (like The Balm’s Mary Lou Manizer, Becca’s Opal), this does not mean they’re suited for everyone – in particular, for all skin tones. We cannot recall the number of times we’ve tried a highly-raved highlighter with high hopes, only to find it look rather lacklustre on our warmer, yellow undertone Asian skin.

BEST HIGHLIGHT TIP: CHOOSE ONE TWO SHADES LIGHTER THAN YOUR SKIN

The biggest mistake women make when purchasing highlight is to assume they’ll all look the same on them. “The best way to find a highlighter that’s right for you is to look at your own skintone,” advises acclaimed celebrity makeup artist, Dana Delaney. “Look for a highlight shade that’s two shades lighter than your skin.”

This achieves the most natural and flattering highlight for your complexion that looks like part of your skin (as opposed to a galactic stripe that sits harshly on your cheekbone). Sounds very much like selecting an undereye concealer shade, no?

In the gallery above, we share our best expert makeup tips for picking the right highlighter for your skintone, along with recommended picks of our favourite highlighters! Browse through and find the perfect holy grail highlighter to put your best face forward.

Sarah Khan

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