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

Etude House Highlight Me Body-balm

After a reasonable while resisting the temptation of Gmarket, I decided to make a small order for the sake of research of my blog.

(ok ok, and my own shopping curiosity...)

I often check out if Etude House has some new additions to their line. It is difficult to keep track of their latest releases by their website (etudehouse.co.kr), because they do not seem to update recently about their new releases.

So I often look at the gmarket shop and click on 'recently listed' to see if....something is recently listed is new.

They actually had something interesting last time. They added a new body-oriented line with products for slimming, toning and other body related cosmetics under the name 'Hot & Cool'.


Also, a body highlighter that looks rather similar to Benefit's line: The cute retro inspired girl and a brightly coloured box.

The message is as cute as ever: Brighten your body, brighten your charm.

It is not really promising you the world or worldpeace or to be as bright as Einstein, but your charm will be brightened.

(mmm, I'm not sure about charm aspect, but I'll get the idea).

First, the fact I was lured in was of that wonderful bunch of extras Etude House promised me. Anyway, I have ordered from Etude House before, and they can be fickle with their promises (or, I have misread something in Korean that has some regulations about shopping for at least a certain amount of cash before receiving them).

They promised me this:

Looks lovely, ah?

And all I got was this:

It contains 2x 2 ml of their Total Age Repair line.

I am not going to complain further about this...but you can see the difference between the promise and the actual delivery.

I have more things to be slightly iffy about.

I have made a picture of the side of the box. It is quite large and bulky, which I normally do not mind, as long as it has as much inside as what it looks like.

In this case, there is a whole lot of empty space, or space that has a powder puff inside.

That powder puff also is incredibly useless to me, because the actual product is a bodyBALM. How on earth would you like to apply a bodybalm (read: CREAMY product) with a puff that targets for POWDER?

However, I am also quite happy about the actual product...(I put this in large letters, because the texture and consistency of the balm is actually really workable and gorgeous).

Only, I would say that is too subtle for body highlighting!

(Did I actually use the word subtle and highlighting in one phrase? I always mention how glitterly and too shiny some products are)


It makes a fantastic FACE highlighter in my opinion....

The balm gives a sheer white glow on the skin. There are not obvious sparkles or specks to be seen, just a subtle glow that can enhance cheekbones, browbones or the cupid bow of the lip.

If you still like to use it for subtle body highlighting, the collar bone around the neck or you can shade and highlight the cleavage for optical volume, or place some highlighter on the shins of your legs to make them slimmer.

I have found this tip on glamourmagazine online: 'Can you guess which beauty tip these Victoria's Secret models use here to look a bit sexier?", which uses body highlighter as well (here).

Well, if they would actually NEED it to look sexier...blah...(chants: not jealous, not jealous).

Anyway, it is also a relief to know that these women are prepped for a fashion show (and are in the makeup seat for quite some time).

Overal conclusion:
Positive:

• The product itself is such a lovely, whitish highlighter that suits a large variety of complexions and skintones due to its sheerness. 
• I believe it is more suited for facial highlighting, but it can be a subtle and delicate body highligher as well.

• The texture is quite balmy, thus perhaps people with combination or oily skin will prefer to opt for a powder highlighter instead
• The can is cute looking with the retro image
• The price is reasonable: around $9 including shipping. 

Negative:

• The can is too bulky, with little product inside
• The powder puff is absolutely useless
• Etude's gmarket shop does not have it listed anymore(?)