Which highlighter shades will meld with your skin tone and make your complexion glow without leaving a cast? Here is my Glow Guide to the best highlighter colours for every skin tone.
8 minute read
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Face Kit
$136.00$122.40
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Tan, deep and dark skin favours highlighter shades with more depth and saturation like gold, copper and bronze. Because deeper skin tones are more richly pigmented, highlighters can fade out or look dull on the skin – this is especially true for light, icy shades that can appear ashy and unflattering on melanated skin.
Charlotte’s Choice: Beauty Light Wand in Goldgasm
The best highlighter shades for fair and medium skin are lighter shades that will deliver a soft glow that doesn’t look stark on pale skin. Shades like champagne gold, light pink and icy white look ethereal on fair and medium skin, highlighting features while blending effortlessly into base makeup. Reaching for bolder colours like yellow gold or deeper pinks can leave a visible cast on fair skin because of their deeper level of pigment. Instead, choose lighter shades that leave a natural-looking spotlight effect.
Charlotte’s Choice: Beauty Light Wand in Spotlight
Cool-toned skin favours cool-toned makeup shades that won’t fight against the natural pink tones in skin. If your undertone is on the cool side, try reaching for highlighter shades like silver, icy white and bubble pink for fairer skin tones and rose gold, beige or cool bronze for deeper skin tones.
Charlotte’s Choice: Beauty Light Wand in Pillow Talk
Warm highlighter shades like champagnes, coppers and rosy pinks look the most flattering on warm-toned skin. If your complexion has prominent yellow or gold tones, a golden highlighter shade like yellow-gold or champagne gold will look beautiful on your skin because it matches the warm glow naturally present in your skin. Shades of pink, beige and bronze with a warmer temperature can also look beautiful on warm-toned skin; try rosy pinks over silvery pinks, copper bronze over iced bronze and olive beige over taupe to make your cheekbones pop.
Charlotte’s Choice: Filmstar Bronze & Glow Palettes
Yes - Some highlighters can flex between skin tones to create a universally flattering glow, but it’s no easy feat. The difficulties with creating a highlighter for all skin tones lie in the pigmentation; too much pigment will overwhelm a fair complexion but take away that pigment and your highlighter will disappear on deep skin. The trick is to focus less on colour and more on glow. Sheer highlighters are super subtle and won’t look out of place on any skin tone. To get the highlighter glow we all know and love, they need to be packed with pearlescent pigments that reflect and bounce light around your face – this is the type of glow that looks flattering on every skin tone.
Charlotte’s Choice: Unreal Highlighter Fresh, Healthy Glow Stick
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Face Kit
$136.00$122.40
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Darlings, I created my Unreal Highlighter Fresh, Healthy Glow Stick to give every complexion an unreal glow! The formula is sheer and stretchable with 92% skincare ingredients – it’s like a summer glaze for your skin that delivers the most magical glow! It’s that spa-fresh, summertime skin look and feeling in an easy, speedy stick! Fair, medium, tan or deep – your skin will look UNREAL glazed with my highlighter stick.
Glazed Goddess is a sheer champagne shade with Glow-Light Mapping Mesh Tech™. It’s a single, universal shade to give every skin tone an Ibizan goddess glow – one glaze fits all! The formula has a second-skin finish and glows like skincare, creating pools of beauty light that make your skin appear fresh from a facial, just-landed from a summer vacation and bathed in constant golden hour rays!
With 92% Skincare Ingredients, it glows like skincare! Darlings, my Unreal Highlighter Fresh, Healthy Glow Stick is like the glow that you get when you apply your moisturiser with the addition of UNREAL Glow-Light Mapping Mesh Tech™ to create a universal your skin glow. No unflattering pigments. No powdery texture. Just 100% unreal glow that looks gorgeous on everyone! It melts into your skin to create a super-fresh, seamless, healthy-looking glow that looks as if you’re glowing from within, and the best part… It nourishes as it glows with hydrating skincare like hyaluronic acid and vitamin E! You can even wear it without makeup to give your bare skin a high-gloss finish… Imagine it catching the light as you step off the plane!
So darlings, if you’re looking for a super-flattering, super-flexible highlighter that you don’t have to worry about not suiting your skin tone, Unreal Highlighter Fresh, Healthy Glow Stick will look unreal on you!
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Face Kit
$136.00$122.40
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Lip Kit
$54.00$51.30
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Hollywood Flawless Filter: Hollywood Glow + Real-Life Filter Effect
6.5 Deep: neutral tan bronze for dark skin with a cool/neutral undertone
7 Deep: warm bronze for dark skin with a neutral/warm undertone
8 Deep: rich warm mahogany for deepest skin with warm undertones
Beauty Light Wand: High-Gloss Beauty Star Glow
Goldgasm: molten yellow gold
Peachgasm: golden peach
Pillow Talk Medium: rich golden peach
Unreal Highlighter Fresh, Healthy Glow Stick: Dewy Summer Glow
Glazed Goddess: universal shade for all skin tones
Model wears: Beauty Light Wand in Peachgasm
Hollywood Flawless Filter: Hollywood Glow + Real-Life Filter Effect
5 Tan: golden peach for tan skin with a neutral/warm undertone
5.5 Tan: neutral caramel beige for tan skin with a neutral/warm undertone
6 Tan: warm amber for tan skin with cool/neutral undertones
Beauty Light Wand: High-Gloss Beauty Star Glow
Goldgasm: molten yellow gold
Pillow Talk Medium: rich golden peach
Unreal Highlighter Fresh, Healthy Glow Stick: Dewy Summer Glow
Glazed Goddess: universal shade for all skin tones
Filmstar Bronze & Glow Face Palette: Blockbuster Red-Carpet Glow
Medium-Deep: pearlescent copper gold
Model wears: Beauty Light Wand in Goldgasm
Hollywood Flawless Filter: Hollywood Glow + Real-Life Filter Effect
4 Medium: olive beige for medium skin with a cool/neutral undertone
4.5 Medium: golden beige for medium skin with a warm undertone
Beauty Light Wand: High-Gloss Beauty Star Glow
Spotlight: soft champagne gold
Pillow Talk: cool pink glow
Unreal Highlighter Fresh, Healthy Glow Stick: Dewy Summer Glow
Glazed Goddess: universal shade for all skin tones
Filmstar Bronze & Glow Face Palette: Blockbuster Red-Carpet Glow
Fair-Medium: pearlescent light gold
Model wears: Beauty Light Wand in Pillow Talk Original
Hollywood Flawless Filter: Hollywood Glow + Real-Life Filter Effect
1 Fair: neutral beige for fairest skin with a cool/neutral undertone
2 Fair: golden beige for fair skin with a warm undertone
2.5 Fair: golden beige for fair skin with neutral/warm undertones
3 Fair: warm peach for fair skin with neutral/warm undertones
Beauty Light Wand: High-Gloss Beauty Star Glow
Spotlight: soft champagne gold
Pillow Talk: cool pink glow
Unreal Highlighter Fresh, Healthy Glow Stick: Dewy Summer Glow
Glazed Goddess: universal shade for all skin tones
Filmstar Bronze & Glow Face Palette: Blockbuster Red-Carpet Glow
Fair-Medium: pearlescent light gold
Model wears: Beauty Light Wand in Spotlight
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Face Kit
$136.00$122.40
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Darlings, Beauty Light Wands are simply magic. Whether you love blushing shades like Pinkgasm or Pillow Talk or the golden glow of Goldgasm or Spotlight, you will be obsessed with the way these beauty wands light up your cheeks and give you cheekbones that glow forever!
Deep Skin: Highlight with Pillow Talk Medium and blush with Pinkgasm Sunset
Tan Skin: Highlight with Goldgasm and blush with Peachgasm
Medium Skin: Highlight with Spotlight and blush with Pillow Talk Medium
Fair Skin: Highlight with Spotlight and blush with Pinkgasm
See them on your skin tone, darling...
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With over 30 years experience, Charlotte Tilbury MBE is the world's number 1 makeup artist and British beauty entrepreneur. Charlotte established Charlotte Tilbury Beauty in 2013, which is now a record-breaking beauty brand that has won over 400 awards.
