A Trio of Sparkly Highlighters: Benefit Watt's Up!, Koh Gen Do Maifanshi Aqua Illuminator, NYX Liquid Illuminator

Sunday, March 16, 2014

I recently realized that I had a few peachy/champagne highlighters sitting around and thought I would swatch them and compare them for a blog post. I'll be honest, I rarely wear any sort of shimmery highlight. I find the sparkles in my Guerlain Meteorites and NARS Light Reflecting Pressed Powder to be more than adequate! Since I have some pretty generous pores which create some less than perfect texture and often times develop quite a shine on the tops of my cheeks and nose, I usually skip the sparkle. That is, unless it's a super rainy day out and I know I won't be caught like shirtless Edward, then perhaps I'll run a tiny bit of BECCA Pressed Shimmer Powder in Nymph on my cheekbones.

Benefit Watt's Up! Soft Focus Highlighter $30 for .33oz. The only one of the three that I'm comparing today that comes in a cream formulation, in the shape of a soft smudgy stick.

Koh Gen Do Mafanshi Aqua Foundation Illuminator in IL01 Sheer Beige. $39 for .61 oz. The full sized version comes packaged in a pump bottle. Out of the three highlighters, this one is the most suited for mixing into foundation due to its consistency. It also comes in another pearly shade.

NYX Liquid Illuminator in LI02 Gleam. The most budget friendly of the three at $7.49 for 0.6oz. The application is not the best though, with my bare fingers and a soft brush, I noticed that it had a tendency to lay in patches and really skip during application.

Left to right: Benefit Watt's Up!, Koh Gen Do Maifanshi Aqua Illuminator in Sheer Beige and NYX Liquid Illuminator in Gleam

As you can see, the Benefit is the most creamy and also the most pigmented and frosty. The KGD Illuminator is sheer but has really large sized particles of sparkle, definitely something I would use with extreme caution if you intended to apply over foundation and even mixed into foundation. These are really eye attracting, near holographic in intensity, large sparkles. As I've mentioned, the NYX is the most patchy to work with by itself, but mixes nicely into foundation. The NYX is also the darkest in color of the three, nearly copper.

Do you have a favorite liquid highlighter? Or a powder one? I love seeing summer collections with beautiful big pans of shimmery highlighters with gorgeous etchings (I'm looking at you, Estee Lauder) yet I must admire from afar, since I know I won't wear them!

Products featured were GWP samples and press samples. This post contains affiliate links. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.