One of my favorite ways to pass the time (that I should probably quit) is looking at the "Just Arrived" section on Sephora's website. A couple weeks ago I saw the Sephora Collection Pro Dimensional Highlighting Palette and was instantly drawn to it. The description had me immediately sold on it - this is a palette for creating a wet-looking, glossy highlight, containing three cream shades and two glaze topcoats to add a dewy glow to the skin.
I was a little concerned about the reviews on Sephora's website - right now, it's at three stars. But it was just too pretty and intriguing to pass up, and I wanted to form an opinion of my own. I'm super glad I did, because this is right up my alley. The main complaints people have with this palette is with the consistency of the formula - they compare it to those cheap lip gloss palettes you can get at places like Claire's. I don't think they're like that at all - these highlighters are quite smooth to the touch and blend seamlessly into the skin as you pat it on. It applies best with fingers, using a patting motion rather than rubbing - if you rub the product on, you'll be left with some uneven-ness (because they're more of a glossy highlight), and it'll move certain foundations around. But I've had great results with patting.
Top to Bottom: Lunar Glaze, Cosmic Glaze, Nova, Pulsar, Chromosphere
The five shades range from a clear gloss to a shimmering silver. Lunar Glaze is a clear glossy glaze, Cosmic Glaze is a similar clear gloss but with some added dimensional shimmer, Nova is a sheer pink cream shade that adds a youthful dewy glow, Pulsar looks brown in the palette but is a really pretty champagne shade when swatched, and Chromosphere is a brilliant shimmering silver. Chromosphere is a little bold, but it's still easy to sheer out for a slightly more natural look because of the super lightweight cream formula. I love using one of the two glaze shades over the cream shades for a super high-shine look that makes it look like I haven't had dry skin a day in my life.
I was worried these would feel sticky on the skin or clog my pores, but I haven't had either of those issues. They're much more of a smooth consistency, and as long as you pat it into the skin (I'm really sounding like a broken record here), it melds with the skin rather than sitting on top.
If you've been wanting to create that more editoral, glossy glow, then you should definitely pick one of these palettes up. There's two versions - I have the Cool one, but there's a Warm version, too, that looks like it would be stunning on deeper skintones. I'm really glad I picked this up to try for myself rather than letting some negative reviews deter me. I'll be honest in that they're not my most-used highlighters right now as they're not the most convenient for everyday, but I do really like them and have been coming back to them when I want to look really dewy. They're super fun to create looks with - if I can get it to show up right in photographs I'll post a look using it soon.
Have you tried these highlighting palettes yet? What's your favorite highlighting product?