Yves Saint Laurent Touche Éclat Illuminating Pen
£30.50£20.50
Beauty Tips & Inspiration
Glitter-free, head-turning highlighters – tested, reviewed and beauty-editor adored
Nothing will take your skin from lacklustre to luminous faster that the right skin highlighter but with an overload of options (formulas, application methods, shade ranges, opinions and price points) vying for our attention, the actual process of identifying your dream gleam? Not so fun.
Which is why we’ve tried, tested and reviewed every possible highlighter imaginable. The best powders, molten-metal-like liquid and dewy-inducing stick balms that money can bu – and all minus any glitter or frosting.
Whether you’re in the market for a little luxury or a beauty bargain or two – here’s introducing the very best highlighters of 2024, designed to make dull, lacklustre skin sing!
SKIN TONE
FORMULA
FINISH
WHERE TO APPLY
Use highlighters to amplify the areas where the light would naturally hit your skin – the so-called 'high points' of your face (cheek and brow bones, plus the nose and cupid's bow).
7 of the best highlighters
For ‘lit from within’ skin, 24/7/365 – Yves Saint Laurent Touche Éclat Illuminating Pen
The OG of highlighters – beloved by beauty editors, MUAs and A-Listers alike – YSL’s iconic face illuminator is: available in 13 shades, multi-award winning and a best selling wand of sheer wizardry, delivering 8 hours of beauty sleep in one click! Radiance – in a pen – use it to instantly brighten your best bits (minus any shimmer or glitter) for a natural-looking, luminous finish on the fly.
£30.50£20.50
Best liquid highlighter for does-it-all dew – Benefit Dew-La-La Liquid Highlighter
The new kid on the beauty block, Benefit’s skin-loving hybrid highlighter has fast become a fan-favourite with 5-star ratings as standard. Why? Loaded with moisture-maxing hyaluronic acid and niacinamide, this easy-glide, long-lasting lightweight liquid gives golden hour glow, with a side of springtime dew. Available in six shades, this is skincare-infused makeup at its finest.
£34.00£27.20
For a glass-like glow – CHANEL Baume Essentiel Multi-Use Glow Stick
With a recent surge in popularity on TikTok, CHANEL’s Baume Stick has been bewitching beauty lovers with its one-of-a-kind ability to impart subtle, glass-like glow. How? The skin-soaking balm melts onto the skin, while the light-reflecting formula creates bounce – whether you’re a fan of Golden Light, Transparent and/or Sculpting. Used on face, lips and/or eyelids, for sheer, effortless glow (sans sparkles), from Hollywood MUAs to novices, we're yet to meet anyone who’s not been bowled over by CHANEL’s cult Baume.
Best powder for long-lasting out of this world glow –Bobbi Brown Real Nudes Highlighting Powder
Bobbi Brown’s #1 best selling highlighter fuses the benefits of a gel with a powder, gliding and smoothing skin for a flush of healthy-looking radiance, without creasing into fine lines. Available in four shades, offering up to 10-hours of glow whether applied dry (for a natural-looking ‘lift’) or wet (more sculpted, for higher impact) this highlighting power also moonlights as an excellent eyeshadow, adding luminosity to lids and ‘opening up’ the sockets (ideal for exhuasted undereyes).
For an instant flash of light – Hourglass Vanish Flash Highlighting Stick
Thanks to a unique triangular bullet – for precision application – just one swipe provides the most stunning flash of light to the skin. Yet it’s the high intensity payoff and weightless, easy-blend texture (thank you spherical microspheres) that makes Vanish Flash so very fabulous. Available in five shades and yours for unparalleled, precision glow.
Best shade range for smooth, weightless glow – DIOR Forever Glow Maximizer
A real makeup overachiever, DIOR’s Forever Glow Maximizer is a multi-use highlighter, blush, bronzer and eyeshadow all-in-one. Featherlight and easy to blend, non-comedogenic (so no clogging) it’s available in six shades. Use to highlight your best bits, as a luminous ‘blush’ or to sculpt and contour and wait for the compliments to roll in.
£36.00£30.60
Best gleam team – Charlotte Tilbury Beauty Light Wands
Tilbury’s OG highlighter – the award-winning Hollywood Beauty Light Wand (bathes you in A-list glow) proved so successful, it sparked a run of wonder wands: Goldgasm (golden hour meets candlelight); the highlighter-blush hybrids Peachgasm and Pinkgasm (for a kiss of colour); Pinkgasm Sunset – a summery sell-out sensation, plus the suits-all-skin tones Pillow Talk (a nude pink) and Pillow Talk Medium (a nude-pink peach) – ALL offering you that diva-ish, soft-focus sculpt-and-glow that we’ve come to love, and expect from our favourite highlighters.