Apart from bold brows, warm toned eye makeup and matte lips, the biggest makeup trend of the last two years or so is, without a doubt, highlighter. I remember the days before everyone knew what a highlighter was, when we couldn't tell our bronzers from our contouring products. The Kardashians changed all of that, and our makeup lives were forever changed.
As a makeup lover and beautyblogger, I have a bunch of highlighters in my stash. Nars' Albatross and Urban Decay's Sin are probably my favourites out of the bunch, but the highlighter I'm reviewing today gives those a run for their money at about half the price tag. Let me introduce you to BE Creative's baked highlighter in 01 Mirage.
This baked highlighter was initially launched as a limited edition product early 2016, but it became such a cult fan favourite that BE Creative has brought it back - sounds good! I don't have a lot of experience with BE Creative's products, but they make my favourite contouring powder so my interest was piqued. Not that this product didn't strike my fancy of its own accord. Baked highlighters always look so gorgeous, with their marbling of colours, and Mirage is no exception. Its sandy champagne shade did look a bit too warm for me, at first glance. I figured the colour would look better in summer with some tan, but that was before I swatched it.
Prepare yourself to fall in love.
This is absolutely one of the most beautifully smooth, glitter free, neutral toned soft gold highlighters I have ever seen. You only need the tiniest amount of product to get this gorgeous glow, and the product itself isn't actually super pigmented. I hate it when highlighters are so pigmented that you almost see a stripe of product on your cheekbone rather than a glow that reflects the light in certain positions. Mirage basically looks like pure glow.
In addition, the powder isn't pressed/baked so hard that you need to vigorously rub the surface to get enough product off, Mirage works like a charm. I used a small fan brush to lightly apply Mirage to my cheekbones and the tip of my nose. First an underexposed pic to fully show the effect of the highlighter, then a pic in normal light.
Mirage is, without a doubt, my perfect highlighter. Not too "made up", but still quite visible, perking up my complexion with a neutral-warm champagne glow. The colour works like magic for me, perfectly matching my skin tone. The colour match makes the highlight look as natural as possible while keeping that mirror-like reflective surface quality, when the light hits my cheekbones. Trust me, you're going to want to swatch this baby next time you visit Ici Paris XL.
The BE Creative highlighter retails at €17,95. Not exactly drugstore pricing, but still vastly more affordable than my other favourites from Nars and Urban Decay which will cost you about €30. Also, the pan is positively HUGE so you get pretty amazing value for money. Honestly, I can't see any cons here, if you love this type of neutral-warm toned highlighter (also very similar to The Balm's Mary Loumanizer), you'll need to check Mirage out. Available at Ici Paris XL, in stores and online.
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