Who Wants to Make Their Cheekbones POP?!?

Tips for Choosing the Right Highlighter Colors for Your Skin Tone

If we wonder about the potential legacy of the Kardashian family, it is certain to mention “contouring” to one level or another. After all, how many of us even thought of the use of highlighting makeups, foundations, and other products in order to create all kinds of visual trickery on our faces? However, the “genie is out of the bottle” where highlighting is concerned, and so it is a good idea for beauty enthusiasts to know all about it.

Highlighting is as it sounds, and uses makeup products to attract the eye and/or the light and change the immediate appearance of the face. As a prime example, a line of highlighter artfully drawn along the upper edge of the cheekbone while a contouring product is applied just below can create an illusion of both higher cheekbones and a thinner face.

Yet, if you attempt such trickery with makeup in the wrong colors, the results can be a bit disastrous. As the team at Allure noted when saying, “When it comes to highlighting and contouring, there’s a fine (sometimes bronzer-caked) line between enhancing your features and painting on an entirely new face.”

In other words, it is best to consider the use of highlighting as a way to accent or, well…to highlight the areas of the face that would benefit most from it. Do you need to do it? No, of course not, but it can be a lot of fun to make the most of natural bone structure or even give it a boost with well-chosen products.

That’s where the trickiness of the situation comes in. Why? Because there is such a profound number of options available! Before we can guide you through the “where” of highlighting, we need to help you answer these questions:

• How do you figure out your skin tone?
• How do you figure out your undertone?

With those questions answered, we can move on to two more:

• Which highlight colors are right for your skin tone?
• How many shades lighter should a highlight be?

And then we can dig a bit deeper into the formulation of a highlighter (cream or powder) and how to apply it properly and for best results.

So, let’s start with tone and undertone.

Related: Makeup for Your Skin Tone

How to Figure Out Both Your Skin’s Tone and Undertone

Every skin has tone and undertone, and as one beauty expert said, “Used to be we needed to know our skin tone mainly for foundation, but now we also need it for all the various creams—BB, CC, etc.—and for making good choices when it comes to other colors, like those in eye shadows, blushes, lipsticks, and even clothes,” as well as highlighters and contour makeup.

Understanding your skin tone and undertone is essential to knowing just how to highlight. Imagine having very pale skin and using a darker color to highlight or having an olive complexion and attempting to highlight with a pink hue…it wouldn’t work.

So, you must start with tone. This is at the surface of the skin and will change all of the time. Spend an hour in the sun and skin tone is changed. Experience seasonally dry skin or a condition like rosacea, your skin tone changes yet again. However, you must understand your natural tone.

To do that is simple – take a very close look at the area around your jaw as it is least affected by periodic changes in tone. You will see skin that is either fair, light, medium or dark.

Fair is pale skin that burns easily, light is a bit more beige or yellower than fair, medium is a bit darker with olive undertones, and dark skin is deeply colored in brown to blue-black hues.

So, what are undertones? Well, that last tone – dark – was described using undertones. They are subtle hues that might be noted as shading in your general skin’s tone. And, while tone changes, undertone doesn’t. This is why most use their undertones as a guiding factor in everything from makeup to clothing colors.

Choosing makeup that accents your undertone always generates flattering looks. As our beauty expert from earlier explained, “It’s important to understand that these two colors can be different. Whereas the surface color of your skin may appear reddish or ruddy, your undertone may be golden or yellow.”

Generally, undertones are defined as temperatures, including:

• Neutral/Moderate – These are olives or a balance of both cool and warm hues
• Warm – These are golds, peaches and yellows
• Cool – These are red, pinks and blues

Not sure about yours? You can use these steps to help:

• Check out your veins – Turn a wrist up to the light and look for veins. If they are mostly blue or purple, it signifies cool undertones, but if they are greenish, it means warm undertones. A blend of both? It means neutral undertones.
• How does your skin react to sun exposure? Does it burn or bronze? Most people who can be exposed to the sun without burning, i.e., bronzers, are typically those with warm undertones
• Do a “sheet test” by holding a blank sheet of white paper close to the face. If it seems to dull your complexion, you are probably warm undertoned. If there is no difference, you are probably neutral, and it improves your complexion, you are cool undertoned.
• Gold or silver? Do you look better in silver jewelry? That means you have cool undertones. If you look better wearing gold, you have warm undertones.

Once you have figured out both your tone and undertone, we can use the expert advice to select the right highlighters.

Choosing Highlighter Colors for Your Skin Tone

The true pros over at Makeup.com highly approve of highlighting, saying “with all-over dewy, radiant skin an official year-round staple in the makeup category, highlighter is becoming as classic and essential as blush and eyeliner.”

Their advice for selecting a highlighter includes the following tips:

• Fair skin – Should “opt for highlighters with a pearlescent, icy-silver or champagne sheen”
• Neutral skin – Should “pair well with highlighters that have gold-bronze or iridescent undertones”
• Deep skin – Those with beautiful dark skin tone should go for “variations of rose gold or bronze work wonders on darker complexions. Just be sure to look for options that pack a ton of pigment and steer clear of frosty, opalescent shades

The team at Marie France Asia said that you should 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).” They compared this to choosing undereye concealer.

And as to undertones? Interestingly enough, you can use very basic advice on this one and simply opt for highlighters that have a hint of your skin’s undertone. As an example, if you have a cool undertone, look only to the highlighters that mirror that – but at a few shades brighter. If that seems too vague, consider you can lean more towards the pink hues for the cooler complexion and more towards the yellow hues for warmer undertones.

And the pros at Loreal added one last caveat about the type you choose – powder or cream – saying, “your highlighter doesn’t look as great as it could? The issue could be that you’re using it with the wrong foundation. In general, you should pair like formulas with each other. If you’re using a powder foundation, then use a powder highlighter. If you’re using a liquid foundation, then use a liquid highlighter.”

And what about that? How do you know which to choose? Let’s review that quickly before learning how to apply your look.

Related: How to Choose the Right Contour Colors for Your Skin Tone

Cream or Powder Highlighting…Which is Best?

As the team at MyGlamm explains, “Highlighter can come in different forms like powder, cream, and liquid,” and selecting the right one is a bit tough. They all have their pros and cons and work best for different purposes. However, it is best to choose based on skin type. For example:

• Liquids – Work best for normal to dry skin and give a natural “dewy” finish
• Creams – Ideal for normal to oily skin and give a glow without adding any sort of sparkle
• Powders – Can work on all skin types and give a shimmery finish

Once you have found a shade that works with your current skin tone and your permanent undertone, it is time to work on your highlighting skills. We highly recommend investing in a highlighter stick to carry with you and use to do some “touch ups” throughout each day.

Learning to Highlight

As one expert said of highlighting, “Applying highlighter is not simply a matter of swiping the stuff on the cheeks and forehead and going about your business. In fact, if you’re not strategic and careful in your application, you could end up looking a bit disco ball-esque (not a great look).”

As is so often the case with many things in life, it is best if you follow specific steps to get optimal results. Below are the steps needed to prep for the best highlighting outcomes, but first assemble your supplies. They include:

• Cleanser and Moisturizer
• Moisturizer
• Primer
• Foundation
• Blending sponges and brushes – Especially powder and blender brushes as well as finer brushes for targeted applications of highlighter in powder form
• Highlighter

Once you have all of your supplies, it is time to begin!

Related: Eye Makeup Tips for Mature Skin

Cleanse and Hydrate

Experts at Cosmopolitan say that “properly hydrated, moisturized skin is the key to a glowy finish,” and that means step one is to clean the face and use an illuminating moisturizer.

Prime

What did we do before the appearance of facial primers? These make the ultimate base on which to do everything from light to heavy makeup applications. They ensure the surface of the entire face is smooth and even, and can even be worn on their own to give a gentle radiance to the face. However, they also help keep makeup in place throughout the day or night.

To get the best result with your highlighting, always do a layer of primer and even consider a light-infusing option if available.

Foundation

Radiant finish foundations are ideal for the times when highlighting is to be done as they support that glowing look your carefully placed highlighting is to create. Apply evenly and blend fully to create a very balanced look.

The team at TrendSpotter says that “a liquid foundation tends to result in a smoother finish than a powder-based one.

Conceal

Once the foundation is done, concealer can be dabbed beneath the eyes and anywhere else you might normally need it to cover unevenness or dark spots. It can also be used to frame the face and underline specific areas, such as along the forehead or chin. For example, you can use a lighter concealer to sort of map out the areas you are going to highlight and then blend.

Highlight

Now is the time to begin to bring out the different areas and add a dewy glow to the entire face. You want to consider the spots that should catch the light. This means you can use strokes along the cheekbones and both above and below the arch of each eye brow to lift it gently.

Add a fine line along the bridge of your nose if you wish to make it appear a bit thinner or to really pronounce the end of the nose.

Highlighting can even be done to the mouth and will add a bit of fullness when you dab it into the cupid’s bow area at the center, top of the upper lift. It can also be used to emphasize the lower lip by dabbing a bit on the chin.

Use it to brighten the eyes instantly by putting a small dab at the innermost corner of each eye as well as on the center of the upper eyelid.

Always, and that should read ALWAYS fade the highlighting product into the skin using your fingertips to gently dab and blend. You never want bold stripes to appear anywhere on the face.

No one can be an instant expert at highlighting, but if you just use the tips here and do some experimenting, you’ll soon be able to give your face a tremendous radiance and enhance the areas you really want to pop!

Related: Contour, Highlight, and Bronzer, Oh My – Working with Your Face Shape

More Great Highlighter Colors for Your Skin Tone Resources:

How to Contour and Highlight Your Face With Makeup

7 Places on Your Face to Apply Highlighter

5 Highlighter Mistakes You Could Be Making