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When Selena Gomez launched Rare Beauty in 2020, it revolutionized the makeup market: the formulas, the eye-catching packaging, and most importantly, the ethos of the brand, which is about embracing our own uniqueness and being comfortable in our own skin.
Selena Gomez shared:
“Rare Beauty is breaking down unrealistic standards of perfection. This is makeup made to feel good in, without hiding what makes you unique—because Rare Beauty is not about being someone else, but being who you are.”
Selena has always been very open about her insecurities growing up in the industry and trying to fit a certain standard of beauty. From being body-shamed to her journey with mental health, Selena has always embraced being imperfect in the industry, and Rare Beauty encapsulated this beautifully: finding beauty in your own imperfections.
When Rare Beauty came out in 2020, my all-time favorite product was her liquid blushes. Even though it was the year of the pandemic, these were constantly sold out, and they still are. I also got the liquid highlighter, although I didn’t find myself using it as much as I thought I would.
In mid-December 2022, Rare Beauty released four beautiful powder highlighters, called the Positive Light Silky Touch Highlighters. When I inquired about them, the girl told me that they had sold out the night before and that it was very hard to keep them in stock. Over the course of 2 months, I went to different Sephoras across Los Angeles and as expected, I only found one or two left.
I was lucky to buy one in the shade Mesmerize, a gorgeous rosy gold champagne color. I had already tried my fair share of gold highlighters, so this was perfect for me. But if you’re looking for a more dramatic color, the swatches shown on the Sephora website do a pretty good job showcasing the intensity and different colors.
The shade Flaunt is more noticeable than Mesmerize because it has more gold in it, but regardless of your choice, any highlighter you pick will look stunning! Because of the limited stock, I was only able to try these two shades.
It’s very rare (no pun intended) for me to buy highlighters. In order to pique my interest, it really has to really stand out from the crowd — and Rare Beauty did a commendable job in creating these. From the first moment I swatched them at the store, I was instantly sold.
It has the feel of a liquid highlighter but in a powder formula, which I hadn’t seen before. After buying it, I swatched other powder-based highlighters at Sephora, but the formulas and the specks of shimmer are usually too thick, so you can tell right away that they’re powder-based.
The best way to describe Rare Beauty’s Positive Light Silky Touch highlighter is smooth with a glass-like finish and a very lightweight formula. It has finely milled shimmer and gives you a wet finish with a glassy shine and natural looking glow. It’s also incredibly soft to the touch. Like, how on earth did they formulate it? I’ve never seen anything like it on the market.
Also, unlike other highlighters, this one doesn’t accentuate your texture and blends really well with powder and cream-based formulas. From personal experience with other powder-based highlighters that I tried in the past, sometimes there was a very noticeable streak on the temples and upper cheeks, but not with this one.
The Positive Light Silky Touch highlighters pack a punch but because they don’t have specks of glitter, they look very subtle and are easily buildable. It’s very likely that you’ll want to apply more than one layer. Even when I apply three, it doesn’t look overdone or too much.
If you wear no makeup and you only wear this, I’m pretty sure 99% of people wouldn’t be able to tell that you’re wearing highlighter.
I came across this review on Sephora which I thought would be worth sharing:
“Let me just start by saying I have never experienced anything like this before. These highlighters are out of this world. And I’m a huge makeup collected I’ve tried everything from Mac, Becca, nars, Estée Lauder. U NEED THIS.”
The last time I purchased a highlighter was the Diorskin Nude Air Glowing Gardens Illuminating Powder (now discontinued) in 2020, but after trying out Rare Beauty’s, any other highlighter pales in comparison. My hat goes off to Selena and the Rare Beauty team for creating these!
In the picture below I’m wearing the highlighter in my car with no direct light.
This is what it looks like when the sun hits my face!
Rare Beauty’s Instagram and Tik Tok accounts also encourage people to use their liquid highlighter underneath the powder highlighter if you want to beam to the next level.
If you’re looking to add a new highlighter to your arsenal, I can’t recommend these enough! Rare Beauty products are great for beginners, so if you’re scared of applying highlighter, know that it’ll be very hard to mess up! And if you’re intimidated by highlighters, as you read above, because of the formula, it’ll be very hard to overdo it.
The only con about these highlighters? “They’re extremely fragile and they break down really easily,” said one employee. While I was reading the reviews, I noticed a few of them said the highlighters had been delivered broken. This is why, upon checking out at the register, I asked the Sephora employee if she could open it up to make sure the highlighter wasn’t broken. So if you’re planning on traveling with it, take good care of it!
You can get Rare Beauty at Sephora or through Rare Beauty’s website.
Rare Beauty Instagram
Rare Beauty Tik Tok
