Best Highlighters For Dark Skin
1 of 10Benefit Sun Beam Highlighter, £19.50
Benefit cult classic High Beam’s bronzy sister Sun Beam gives a warm, sun-kissed glow to darker skin. Dot and blend along cheek and brow bones outwards towards the hairline for an instant face lift.
2 of 10Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick Compact in Bronze, £32.50
An award-winning cult classic for a reason. With five shades in one ranging from light to dark, this compact allows for a personalised look and flatters deeper skin tones, leaving you with a super professional finish. Brush on and glow.
3 of 10Clinique Up-Lighting Liquid Illuminator in Bronze, £22
The rich hue of this illuminator makes it perfect for darker skin tones and gives a super natural look. This oil-free light-in-a-bottle can be used all over the face or on light-attracting areas to highlight and contour. Hello enviable bone structure.
4 of 10MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Gold Deposit, £23
This easy application super-soft pressed powder instantly adds a polished luminosity to the skin giving you selfie-ready skin all day. The rich gold tone of the powder makes it perfect for deeper skin tones.
5 of 10NARS Illuminator in Laguna, £23.00
Versatility is the key for this product – it can be used all over the face or to highlight; over, with or under foundation; you can even mix it in with moisturiser – it’s the Holy Grail of highlighting. Glide this liquid over the skin wherever you fancy for instant flawless sun-kissed incandescence.
6 of 10No7 Skin Illuminator Radiance Boosting Beauty Fluid in Peach, £11
With tiny light-reflecting particles of iridescent shimmer, this brush-on golden illuminator used alone or underneath foundation leaves your skin with a healthy, radiant glow.
7 of 10NYX Liquid Illuminator in Gleam, £7
An absolute steal at £7 and perfect for deeper complexions, this glide-on liquid illuminator boasts a super smooth texture and adds a glistening glow to your face or décolletage for an easy, beautifully refreshed radiance.
8 of 10Revlon Photoready Skinlights Face Illuminator in Bronze Light 400, £11.99
Worn alone or mixed in with foundation, this liquid highlighter evens out your complexion with ease, banishing dullness and adding a rich pigmented glow to deep skin tones.
9 of 10Tom Ford Illuminating Primer, £54
This little wonder serves up a universal glow suitable for all skin tones when applied underneath foundation. Combining both skincare and makeup, this long-lasting formulation protects and nourishes whilst visibly brightening the skin.
10 of 10Illamasqua Gleam Highlighter in Supernatural, £20
An essential piece for your makeup bag – this solid-yet-lightweight cream compact highlighter comes in a deep bronze tone with a red tinge for an added colour punch on darker skin.
Finding a highlighter that looks glowy, not grey, on dark skin is a hard nut to crack. Firstly, the mainstream beauty industry in the UK can have something of a blind spot when it comes to skin tones darker than a light tan. How many times have you walked into a high street store and seen twenty shades of foundation from palest ivory to er, warmest sand and then three haphazard dark shades? Secondly, finding something to illuminate warmer skin tones is itself complicated, as darker skin needs different undertones to nail that lit-from-within glow.
With this in mind, we roped in the help of our beauty intern (and owner of an incredibly radiant complexion), Roshana, to give us the low down on her favourite illuminators. From luxe to low-key, there's something for every budget, and more importantly, every complexion deeper than pale. While we’re always happy to see cult brands with great shade ranges, we’re looking forward to seeing more high street brands cater to a broader market, too.
Roshana road-tested each product for fluidity, ease of use, and the all-important glow factor before selection these top ten as her absolute must-tries. We were pleased to see some purse-friendly offerings like NYX and No7 in amongst the treat-yourself Tom Ford, and also some makeup artist favourites like MAC and Illamasqua. FYI, Roshana also name-checked NARS Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturiser as her favourite base, and is also fond of Max Factor primers. The more you know…
Gallery by Roshana Bailey-Laurence