What’s The Difference Between Cream vs Liquid vs Powder Highlighter?

What is cream highlighter?

Cream highlighter is generally comes in a stick or pot format. The texture is melty and malleable, responding to the heat of your fingers to transform into a dewy, glossy cream that feels almost balm like. These formulas are usually relatively sheer, creating a glazed appearance that still looks like skin. They have less slip than a liquid but are more flexible than a powder, giving you more time to work them into your skin.

The Glow: Lit-from-within dewy glow. Summer skin finish with a subtle sheen.

Best For: Mature skin. Minimal and no-makeup days. Summer makeup looks.

Tilbury Tip: Cream highlighter won’t set down so it can be prone to melting and migrating around your face. For hot days or oily skin days, try setting your cream highlighter with a powder highlighter to keep it in place and increase its wear time.

Unreal Highlighter Fresh, Healthy Glow Stick: Cream Highlighter Stick

One glaze fits all, darlings! I created Unreal Highlighter Fresh, Healthy Glow Stick as a speedy, easy cream highlighter that makes your skin look fresh from a facial or a holiday retreat. The universal Glazed Goddess shade gives skin a sheer, champagne glow that stretches across every skin tone. The unreal formula is also made with 92% skincare ingredients including hyaluronic acid and vitamin E – it nourishes skin as it glows! This is the easiest summer glow up of your life, darlings! You’ll look and feel UNREAL!

Discover the full Unreal makeup routine

What is liquid highlighter?

Liquid highlighters are thin, silky formulas that often have a dropper or doe-foot applicator. The amount of shimmer in liquid highlighter varies by formula – some are packed with shimmer to give them a metallic glow and others are more subtle with a soft-focus glow. They can be a little messy to apply because of their runny consistency. Liquid highlighter is generally less pigmented than a powder but has more sparkle than a cream, creating a reflective, gloss-like glow. They are the best of both worlds for anyone that loves a highlighter makeup look but wants their base makeup to look dewy and fresh with minimal powder.

The Glow: Radiant, glossy glow. Lifted, luminous skin with a light-catching finish.

Best For: Dry skin. Textured skin. Glowy makeup looks.

Tilbury Tip: Applying liquid highlighter on top of your foundation can disrupt your makeup base. Try wearing liquid highlighter underneath or mixed with your foundation to give it a radiant finish, or pat it on with your fingertips to avoid swiping away at your base makeup.

Hollywood Flawless Filter: Liquid Highlighter + Glow Primer

Darlings, my legendary Hollywood Flawless Filter will make you glow like no other! I have bottled the beauty glow of red carpet lights and the powers of social media filters into a glow elixir that makes you look flawless in real life! The Hollywood glow it gives your skin has such a smoothing and blurring effect, skin just looks effortlessly radiant. Never glittery or stark, Hollywood Flawless Filter has a silky, skin-like glow that looks like warm candlelight. It’s super-sheer and endlessly flattering – wear it alone or mixed with foundation to give your complexion the look of a Hollywood star!

Discover how to use Hollywood Flawless Filter

Beauty Light Wands: Liquid Highlighter Wands

Do you love to sparkle and shine, darling? My Beauty Light Wands are the dreamiest liquid highlighters with eye-catching shimmer that looks flattering in every light. Never messy or chunky, this easy liquid formula glides onto skin and blends like a dream, creating pools of glow that make your cheekbones look lifted and shine so bright! They’re made with Glow Gel Technology to create the most mesmerising, high-gloss skin finish that meshes beautifully with foundation, bronzer and blush to give you the look of cheekbones that glow forever!

What is powder highlighter?

Powder highlighters are soft, finely milled powders formulated with shimmering ingredients to give skin a beautiful, light-catching finish. Generally formatted in palettes or compacts, powder highlighters are often more pigmented than liquids or creams, making them a great choice for anyone that loves that 2016 blinding highlighter look. Unlike cream and liquid highlighter, powder highlighter sets down once it has been applied which gives them better longevity. Due to the powdery texture, this is the highlighter most likely to spread sparkles around your face – it is best placed onto the high points of the face with a small, fluffy brush and applied little by little for precision.

The Glow: Beaming, high-shine glow. Shimmering skin with metallic reflects.

Best For: Oily skin. Matte foundation looks. Highlighter lovers.

Tilbury Tip: Some powder highlighters can look chalky, so it’s especially important to prep your skin with moisturiser and reach for a hydrating primer and foundation to make sure you aren’t accentuating skin texture with shimmer.

Filmstar Bronze + Glow: Bronzer + Highlighter Palette

If you’re looking for a powder highlighter with a soft-focused, red-carpet glow, you need to try my Filmstar Bronze + Glow Face Palette. The highlighter in this palette is inspired by old Hollywood glamour, gilding cheekbones in super-smooth illuminating powder with subtle champagne glimmer. Tapping this highlighter onto your finished makeup look gives you that overall red-carpet bombshell effect, making your facial architecture look lifted and sculpted with a blockbuster glow.