With just some simple swipes, the very best highlighters lend immediate radiance and a wholesome glow to any look—and the flexibility is top-notch, too. We love dabbing them straight from compact to cheekbones, mixing a liquid spotlight into basis for all-over radiance, or utilizing a doe-foot applicator to intensify our nostril bridges, interior corners of our eyes, or Cupid’s bows. They’re all about providing you with simply the appropriate contact of dew or sparkle precisely the place you want it. This record covers each highlighter system—powders, sticks, lotions, and liquids—so your choose comes right down to the end you need: delicate, lit-from-within glow, or disco-ball shine. After testing numerous choices, we have rounded up the highlighters we instinctively attain for to prime off our make-up seems.
Our Prime Highlighters
Often Requested Questions
Finest General: Uncommon Magnificence Optimistic Gentle Silky Contact Highlighter
Why we adore it: Uncommon Magnificence’s Optimistic Gentle Silky Contact Highlighter is principally candlelight you may swipe on. This 2025 Better of Magnificence Award winner is powered by artificial fluorphlogopite, a lab-made mica that seamlessly blends into pores and skin whereas forsaking an ideal microshimmer. Because of its silky, semi-sheer system, you may maintain issues delicate or construct it up for a pronounced assertion. And it is available in six totally different shades, so if you’d like one thing mild and pearlescent, go together with a lighter, pearl-toned possibility like Enlighten, or if you’d like a peachier choice to go hand-in-hand together with your bronzer, Mirror is a tan-toned magnificence. In testing, our editors observed the end shifts relying in your software: A brush offers you that mirror-like sheen, whereas a moist sponge softens all the pieces right into a extra subtle, skin-like glow.
“This highlighter (I’ve shade Flaunt) is gorgeous. It’s so mild and high quality that it feels such as you’re making use of air. You solely want just a little bit to get a glimmery, shimmery—however not too shimmery—payoff.” —Ingrid Fowler, senior artwork director
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“I put this system in shade Exhilarate to the check in lots of eventualities: to the workplace on busy work days (it seemed simply nearly as good because it did after I first put it on), Solidcore exercise courses the place I inevitably overlook to take away my make-up beforehand (it seemed much more subtle and skin-like), and date nights with my fiancé (the place I, *wink*, confirmed with confidence that the system is transfer-proof). It is a dreamy highlighter, made much more otherworldly with its worth level. Highlighters with an analogous impact vary from $9 to $42, and this one, with its distinctive texture and system, falls proper within the center.” —Jesa Marie Calaor, senior magnificence editor
Most Sparkly: Fenty Diamond Bomb All-Over Diamond Veil
Why we adore it: Some folks like a delicate, dewy sheen; others need full-on disco-ball vitality. For those who’re within the latter camp, Fenty’s Diamond Bomb All-Over Diamond Veil is your lady. This superfine powder shines brilliant (sure, like a diamond) and wraps pores and skin in a 3D, light-catching veil that virtually ricochets off each floor. Regardless of the high-wattage payoff, the feel is something however gritty. It’s a jelly-like powder that feels cool to the contact and melts into the pores and skin (on the face or physique) immediately. And as soon as it units, it stays—so your sparkle received’t budge regardless of how lengthy the night time runs.
Tester suggestions from affiliate supervisor of viewers improvement Melanie Curry
“I am not an enormous fan of highlighters—a pair swatches of pink blush is sufficient to give me a pleasant, shimmery glow—however I purchased this highlighter in shade How Many Carats?! on a good friend’s suggestion, and it has been considered one of my favourite purchases this 12 months, principally as a result of it’s multi-purpose. I put on it all over the place, from my eyelids to the bridge of my nostril, and even on my collarbones and neck. It is easy to use and does not make a large number. Plus, it comes on this cute diamond-shaped compact you can simply match into any of your purses.” —Melanie Curry, affiliate supervisor of viewers improvement
Finest All-Over: Saie Glowy Tremendous Gel
Why we adore it: The Saie Glowy Tremendous Gel isn’t your typical top-of-the-cheekbones highlighter, and that’s the fantastic thing about it. Made with 75% water, this light-weight gel is designed to be combined with basis or skincare, or used as a base for all-over, glass-skin radiance. It’s additionally filled with glycerin to maintain pores and skin plump and glowy, Connecticut-based dermatologist Mona Gohara, MD, beforehand instructed Attract. As soon as the product dries down, you don’t have to fret about sliding, creasing, or flaking all through the day. Our editors love utilizing an angled or buffing brush to mix the gel throughout bigger areas for an excellent sheen, however fingers are nice for a fast tap-and-go utility once you’re brief on time.
Tester suggestions from Fowler
“This primer in shade Roseglow offers a beautiful, dewy glow, but it surely’s adequately subtle that you should utilize it throughout your face. It is an awesome base and mixes nicely with different make-up, which is commonly tough with illuminating merchandise. After I simply desire a bronzy, glow-from-within look with out doing a full face of make-up, I put on this by itself.” —Ingrid Fowler, senior artwork director
Finest Pearlescent: Victoria Beckham Magnificence Mirror Highlighter Stick
Why we adore it: Toss it in your bag, maintain it in your vainness, or stash it within the automotive—Victoria Beckham Magnificence’s Mirror Highlighter Stick is the type of do-it-all glow you’ll need all over the place. It glides onto pores and skin like a nourishing oil (thanks, strawberry seed oil and shea butter) however someway by no means seems greasy. As a substitute, it leaves behind that silky, pearly sheen you often can’t get from powder for a real, your-skin-but-glossier end our editors attain for when they need radiance that also seems like pores and skin. With two shades, the colour vary is small however nonetheless mighty: Pearl melts seamlessly into mild and medium tones, whereas Amber brings a heat, luminous glow to deeper complexions.
“I’m not huge on heavy powder highlighters for my on a regular basis glam, so this light-weight cream in shade Pearl is my candy spot. It offers that your-skin-but-better sheen that really seems like pores and skin. I simply faucet it in with my fingers over blush and bronzer, and each time it leaves probably the most pure, streak-free glow. Plus, it’s so compact and simple to throw in your bag for touchups on the cheekbones and even the lids all through the day.” —Lily Wohlner, commerce author
Finest Brightening: Armani Magnificence Luminous Silk Acqua Highlighter
Why we adore it: You’ve most likely heard of Armani’s Luminous Silk Basis, however the Luminous Silk Aqua Highlighter deserves simply as a lot hype. It doesn’t cowl like a concealer, but it surely does brighten in a means that makes your complete face look extra awake. The system is filled with micropearls that give an ethereal, lit-from-within glow wherever you faucet it. The doe-foot applicator makes it simple to swipe any of the 5 colours alongside the cheekbones or dot into the T-zone beneath basis for further radiance. You possibly can even dab product onto your Cupid’s bow and interior corners of the eyes—principally wherever you need {that a} brightening impact is truthful recreation.
“Highlighting my face is all the time a tightrope act. I would like my pores and skin to look moist—no seen glitter, please—however I do not need it to really be moist, lest my hair drive me bananas when it is sticking to my face. Few formulation can do each, however Armani’s Highlighter in shade Halo does it effortlessly. It might look very sparkly in its tube, however when it spreads throughout pores and skin, its microfine shimmer creates a light-catching sheen quite than sparkle streaks—then it dries all the best way down with out shedding any of its shine. Miraculous.” —Nicola Dall’Asen, senior information editor
Finest Multipurpose: Haus Labs Bio-Radiant Glassy Highlighter Balm
Why we adore it: There’s simply one thing deeply satisfying a couple of good multi-stick, and Haus Labs nails it with the Bio-Radiant Glassy Highlighter Balm. This chunky crayon glides over lids, cheeks, lips, and even collarbones with zero tug, forsaking a juicy, hydrated sheen. The system reads like skincare, because of sea fennel extract, hyaluronic acid, squalane, and wakame extract (a mineral-rich marine algae), so it melts in like a strong serum and leaves a glassy, light-catching end. For those who choose a shine with out shimmer, Clear Glass is your minimalist match. Desire a contact extra sparkle? Glassy Pink Opal provides a delicate, rosy-gold twinkle.
“Primarily based on the sheer quantity of shimmery base merchandise available on the market this 12 months, it seems that 2016 referred to as—and is giving us our highlighters again. Again then, I most well-liked a extra iridescent gleam with a purple, pearlescent base, however after attempting all six shades of the Haus Labs Bio-Radiant Glassy Highlighter Balm, Glassy Pink Opal appears to be extra my velocity in 2025. I like how simple it’s to use, too. I skip a brush and immediately coloration it onto my cheekbones, Cupid’s bow, and down my nostril for a delicate sheen that hits the sunshine juuuust proper.” —Sarah Kinonen, affiliate magnificence director
“Highlighter is again, child! I merely love how this balm accentuates the pores and skin, whether or not you desire a delicate or intense quantity of radiance. For my low-maintenance days, I’ll attain for the shade Clear as a result of it provides that pure dew on contemporary pores and skin, and if I’m sporting a little bit of make-up, the Topaz shade provides that golden hue to the excessive factors of my cheek for a sun-kissed look.” —Bianca Richards, social media supervisor
Often Requested Questions
How we check and assessment merchandise
When Attract exams a product, our editors take a look at it from each angle in an effort to finest serve you. We assessment elements, scrutinize model claims, and, when mandatory, look at peer-reviewed scientific and medical research. Along with testing every product that is included in every assessment, we depend on specialists who form their fields, together with dermatology, beauty chemistry, and drugs, to assist us vet the elements and formulation.
For our record of the very best highlighters, we thought of every product’s efficiency throughout 5 major classes: product elements and efficacy, packaging, perfume, texture, and product put on. Each product was decided to have excelled in every class by our editorial staff of in-house writers and editors, in addition to contributors, together with particular consideration from dermatologists. To study extra about our reporting and testing processes, learn our full critiques course of and methodology web page.
Our employees and testers
A magnificence product is a private buy. You could be looking for a face cream to handle persistent dryness or a brand new nail product so as to add to your Sunday self-care routine; chances are you’ll merely be searching round for the most recent launches to hit the hair market. It doesn’t matter what you search or your particular person wants and issues, Attract needs to make sure that you’re keen on something we suggest in our tales. We consider that having a various staff of writers and editors—along with the wide selection of outdoor testers and business specialists we repeatedly name upon—is important to reaching that purpose.
In any case, can we actually say a skin-care product is the “finest” for folks over 50 if the one testers we have solicited opinions from are of us who’ve but to hit 30? Can we actually deem a high-end diffuser worthy of your hard-earned money if it is by no means been examined on curls? We’re proud that our employees spans a variety of ages, pores and skin tones, hair textures, genders, and backgrounds, which signifies that we’re in a position to pretty assess any magnificence product that comes into the wonder closet.
Prepared, set, glow! Dig into our dewy pores and skin necessities:
