Saturday 8 October 2011

Becca Illuminate Wash in Moonlit

Another member in my Becca family: a illuminator, or highlighter this time.

This one was the promised freebie from Zuneta if you decided to purchase the Lost Weekend Palette I blogged about a couple of days ago. I am familiar with Becca's powdered highlighters/colour embellishers and I also have a liquid bronzer in my collection (that one I review later).

As for this one, I consider most of Becca's highlighters that I already have to be incredibly natural looking, so I was curious how this one would live up to the liquid highlighters I already have.

The first thing that I saw is that the size was not the biggest one. I sized the tube (middle) up against the quintessential MAC lipstick (left) and the Dior Serumdrape lipstick:


Ok, it is a freebie so I shouldn't complain, and I often find Becca products to be really economic in usage.

 Opening the tube displays a brush-like wand. You can use it like that, but for hygienic reasons I suggest a tiny drop from the tube itself, because you do not want to affect the highlighter with germs that come from your skin.


Sorry for the quality of the photos: my newer camera is not living up to its expectations right now.

The ingredients: feel free to click on the image for a gigantic photo:


I decided to compare the Becca Illuminator with my other liquid highlighters. I picked the most familiar ones, and skipped the Body Shop, for instance.

I left out my powder highlighters in this comparing post, because the idea behind a liquid highlighter is different from a powdered highlighter. Also, I want to keep it focused on one type of product.

So, from left to right is the Becca one, the MAC lustre drops in Pink Rebel, and the Benefit High Beam freebie I received with the British Glamour some time ago:


Same order: unblended: (again, click on the picture for a closer view)


The photos are still not brilliant, but they really represent the lustre or metallicness of the products really well.

1. Becca is in my opinion the most natural looking one. It has a dash of shimmer, but doesn't really veer to the metallic side. I use this one when I want a really true highlighter that will look natural and not made-up in full sunlight.

2. MAC Pink Rebel has been my favourite highlighter from last year. It is rather gold compared with the others. It is actually a rose gold, and has more metallicness in it than Becca. still, it is not that silvery/metallic as the Benefit High Beam.
You can see it is makeup if you take a mirror in front of you and see yourself in direct sunlight, so others close to you with a sharp view will see it as well. I love this one for an evening glow, and to bring out highlights when on photos, because then it just looks natural.

3. Benefit High Beam: I understand that this was a revolutonary product when launched in the 90s (??) and it probably looks delightful in nightlight and photos, but I honestly wouldn't purchase a whole bottle for myself with the better and natural looking hightlighters available these days. It plainly looks quite white, metallic and somewhat silver. I think it only limits itself to a small amount of skintones, being the cooler, lighter types or the ones for a dramatic sculpting effect (for pictures or night-life).

To justify my point I show you the products sheered out:

 

1. Becca: The side on the left isn't the most focused one, true. However, I think the Becca has the ability to give out a glow instead of a sort of metallic sheen. So it renders itself perfectly for daylight, sunlight and closer enounters when still want to look as a non-madeup girl (or boy). 

2. MAC Pink Rebel: That one is already more visible as being makeup and has that slight gold sheen on the light complexion of my arm. I still think it is lovely when I want to look glowy and slightly made-up, because it does give out a bit more shimmer/glow than Becca's Illuminator

3. Benefit High Beam: I already made my point clear why I am not a fan of High Beam and this picture justifies my point. I have a neutral to slightly cool (NW 20-ish) skintone and even then it looks quite silver and slightly glittery on my skin. I don't think it flatters me.

 Conclusion:

I am really delighted with my new Becca Illuminator freebie. It might be small but it spreads out easily and gives out that incredibly natural dew that can stand the test of direct sunlight. I think this one will be a repurchase when finished, but although small, I think I can get quite some use out of it because it is an economic product.
 I also think that it is an incredibly universal glow that can be applied to almost every skintone/deepness without looking fake. It simply gives out a glow
My MAC lustre drops are still my favourite for a tad more shimmer/definition, but for a natural look I would absolutely veer to the Becca Illuminator.

You can buy this one from Zuneta or the Becca site for $23, and probably some more places :D. If you buy from Zuneta, it might be handy to visit the beautybible site first for 10% discount, or the code is ZBEAUTYBIBLE

5 comments:

Jamilla Camel said...

really pretty! Thanks for the review!

Mai said...

thanks for the review (: it good

CMPang x

sizbelle said...

i like the becca one based on your swatch as it indeed more natural looking. tried the benefit high beam but it seems more suitable for makeover or photoshoot

BV said...

Is this product part of Becca's normal line up? I have the shimmering skin perfector which I use everyday but I would like to try something like this... I think the Becca product looks lovely! I now having Highbeam (recent acquisition) and I am wondering what all the fuss is about. I don't fancy it.
Cheers
BV

Emeconeme said...

Interesting post. You've helped me a lot. I agree with you, High Beam is too metallic and whitish.

You have an amazing blog. Mine is in English too, you can stop by anytime.

XX from Spain.