Bronzer Vs Highlighter
Foundation and concealer can often leave the face looking flat or one-dimensional, especially if you need the correct shade match. However, you can bring life back into your complexion through an array of cheek products.
Bronzers and highlighters are designed to bring warmth, dimension, and structure to your face. They pair well with other makeup products, such as foundations. Also, they’re available in a wide range of shades and finishes.
What is the difference between bronzer and highlighter?
Bronzers offer a range of brown tones to warm the skin and achieve a sun-kissed complexion. Highlighters bring out the cheekbones and help reflect light, adding dimension.
These products are commonly applied to the cheeks and other high points of the face, such as the forehead, brow bone, chin, and nose. You can even apply these products to the neck to ensure a consistent color match for your complexion.
What else should you know about bronzer and highlighter before adding them to your routine? Finding the correct shade and formula of bronzer or highlighter can create a glowing and sun-kissed skin tone.
What Is Bronzer?
Bronzer warms up and bronzes the skin. However, it’s often confused with contour because they are placed in a similar facial area. The primary difference between bronzer and contour is the undertone.
Contour is cool in tone and used to sculpt your bone structure, while bronzers warm up the skin, much like a natural tan. So, bronzer is a standard complexion product to deepen and add warmth to your complexion.
How To Pick The Right Bronzer
It can be challenging to choose the right bronzer because some formulas can appear orange on certain complexions or gray on others. Therefore, finding the right shade, formula, and finish for bronzer is crucial.
Shade
Nowadays, numerous beauty brands offer a wide range of bronzer shades to match various skin tones and complexions. However, you’ll notice some bronzers can look too orange on a pale face or too red, gray, or translucent on darker complexions.
Select a shade that complements your skin tone. For example, bronzers can be 1-3 shades darker than your complexion to add warmth without looking stark. Additionally, bronzers are available in a range of warm-toned brown hues.
Formula
Bronzers are available in various formulations, including powder, cream, and liquid. Traditional bronzers are available in a powder form and are great for normal to oily complexions. Meanwhile, cream and liquid bronzers offer a more natural appearance on the skin.
Creams and liquids are outstanding for mature or dry skin types. To promote longevity, you can also use a cream/liquid bronzer under a powder bronzer.
Finish
Finally, bronzers are available in an array of finishes. The most common finishes are matte and shimmery. Matte or shimmer-free bronzers can work for all skin types and tones.
They will add warmth to the skin without highlighting unwanted texture.
Shimmery bronzers are great if you want to skip highlighter because the glitter within the bronzer will reflect light.
How To Apply Bronzer
Bronzer can be intimidating to apply because you’ll want to avoid creating a muddy complexion. So, having a good brush and tailoring your application to your face shape is essential.
We’ll go over some tips below, but here’s a visual tutorial from Nina Ubhi on YouTube.
Use The Correct Brush
What is the best brush for bronzing? A helpful tip for beginners is to invest in an angled cheek brush. This tool will provide a foolproof method to achieve a chiseled appearance.
Additionally, medium-sized brushes will enable you to control where you apply your bronzer, ensuring it doesn’t appear too warm or muddy.
Analyze Your Face Shape
Bronzer will minimize the appearance of larger facial areas, so you’ll want to apply it according to your face shape. It’s a great product to create balance within your facial structure.
For example, if you have a small forehead, you’ll want to avoid applying too much bronzer here. Likewise, if you have a strong jaw, you may want to add bronzer to add more shadows.
Forehead, Cheeks, & Jaw
The three main areas where you can always apply bronzer are the forehead, the hollows of the cheeks, and under the jaw.
You can think of applying your bronzer in a 3-shape to hit these three areas. This is where the sun is most likely to tan your skin in real life.
Dab, Avoid Swiping
Finally, you’ll want to pat or dab your bronzer into place rather than swiping. Swiping on bronzer can move the foundation or concealer underneath and create patchy results.
What Is a Highlighter?
Highlighters are light-reflecting products to bring out your favorite facial features. You can think of a highlighter as a topper to your bronzer and blush. It’s usually a lighter shade than your complexion to create a dewy and hydrated appearance.
The highlighter is applied where the sun hits the skin at the highest points of your face, such as the cheekbones.
How To Pick The Right Highlighter
Highlighters are unique because they’re available in a wider range of shades and undertones. You can even shop for unique shades, such as blue or pink. However, a lighter bone shade or gold hue is the most popular.
Shade
You’ll want to choose a highlighter suitable for your skin tone. For example, darker complexions may suit deep shades of highlighters, such as gold, while lighter complexions can opt for a paler hue.
It’s also crucial to consider undertones and choose one that flatters your features. A highlighter can reflect light or provide a color shift with unique shades.
Formula
Highlighters are also available in multiple formulations, like bronzers. You can choose from a powder, cream, or liquid highlighter. Most highlighters have shimmer and glitter to add dimension to the face.
Liquids and creams can be layered under a powder highlighter or foundation for an all-over glow. Powders can work for all complexions because highlighters can be applied sparingly.
Finish
We mentioned that most highlighters have a shimmer or glitter finish. However, some cream formulas will act as a face gloss, allowing you to achieve a highlighted effect.
This will give a glass skin appearance rather than a sparkling shimmer.
How To Apply Highlighter
Thankfully, highlighter can be simpler to apply than bronzer. Highlighter is used sparingly on some regions of the face to create dimension.
You want to apply areas to smaller facial features to create the illusion that they appear more prominent.
How you apply the highlighter can also depend on your formulation. The top of the cheekbones is the most common area to use a highlighter.
We’ll go over some tips below, but here’s a visual tutorial from Nina Ubhi on YouTube.
Under Foundation
Cream and liquid foundations can be applied as makeup prep and under foundation. This tip is ideal for dry to normal skin types that want to achieve a dewy complexion.
You can also mix these highlighters into a matte foundation formula for added glow.
Applying foundation over highlighter can create a glow-from-within finish.
High Points Of The Face
An easy way to apply a highlighter is to focus on the high points of your face, regardless of the formulation. Popular areas to add highlighter are the cheekbones, brow bone, temples, bridge of the nose, chin, and cupid’s bow.
You can add a highlighter to areas you want to bring attention to or where the sun naturally hits your face. Also, highlighters are quite pigmented, so a little goes a long way.
Can You Wear Bronzer & Highlighter Together?
Bronzer, highlighter, and blush are the trifecta of cheek products. You can easily pair these products together to add life, warmth, and glow to your skin.
However, you can also wear these products separately for a more natural finish.
You can make your favorite facial feature stand out with the right bronzer and highlighter combination.
How To Wear Bronzer & Highlighter
You can apply bronzer and highlighter together on top of bare skin or foundation. However, you’ll want to pat your products if you wear foundation to avoid moving it and creating a patchy effect.
Another helpful tip is to work with a light hand, as you can always add more products if needed.
Apply Bronzer First
You’ll want to warm up your complexion before applying a shimmery highlighter. Dab your bronzer into the hollows of your cheek, the top of the forehead, and under the jawline. This will create a sun-kissed canvas for your highlighter.
Applying highlighter first can result in a shimmery mess and create an unflattering appearance. However, bronzer can also have a shimmer, and you can choose to skip out on highlighter.
Dust Highlighter On Top
Once you’ve achieved your bronzed complexion, you’ll want to add details with highlighting. So, lightly dust a highlighter on the cheekbones, brow bone, cupid’s bow, etc.
You can also accentuate the inner corners of the eyes for added visual impact.
Another helpful tip is to add a small amount of highlighter wherever the sun hits your facial structure.
Takeaway
Bronzer and highlighter are two complementary cosmetic products.
Bronzer will add warmth and a subtle bronze tone to the skin. It can also minimize the appearance of some facial regions and lightly sculpt your bone structure.
Bronzer will add warmth and a subtle bronze tone to the skin. It can also minimize the appearance of some facial regions and lightly sculpt your bone structure.
