Top 4 Highlighters

There's something you should know about me. I am obsessed with highlighters. OBSESSED! I have skin as dry as the desert, so I am the girl that piles on the glow. If you can't see my highlight from space, then I've failed. 

Since I'm always playing around with new highlighters at work, I've found four of the best, must-have, can't live without highlighters. If you don't have any of these, you're going to want to run out and snag one, or two...or all of them.

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette.

This highlighting palette is for you if you are highlight obsessed like myself. Hourglass is a luxury brand, so this bad boy isn't cheap, but it is a must-have for my full-face makeup routine. This palette includes three different lighting powders, Radiant Light, Incandescent Light, and Dim Light. Incandescent Light is exclusive to the palette, but you can purchase the other two, as well as four other lighting powders, on their own. The Hourglass lighting powders were intended to mimic different types of lighting on the skin. They're more of your 'healthy glow' powder as opposed to a really intense highlight. I typically use Radiant Light to set my foundation for a luminous finish. I absolutely love using these lighting powders as a soft, romantic highlight on brides. These powders are for you if you're looking for the perfect glow without looking like a disco ball.

Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in Opal

Now, if you are looking to be a disco ball (don't be embarrassed, I love looking like a disco ball) you need this highlighter. Becca's Opal has quickly become a cult classic in the highlighting world, and all for good reason. On the Sephora website, the color is described as golden opal pearl, and it is absolutely beautiful. As you can tell in the picture above, mine is well loved as I am close to hitting pan. This highlighter also comes in a cream and liquid formula, so there is something for everyone. 

Laura Geller Baked Gelato Swirl Illuminator in Gilded Honey

I die for this highlighter. Just like the Opal highlighter, Gilded Honey is an intense highlight. It is the perfect golden honey shade and looks absolutely stunning with a tan. Even though my skin hasn't seen the sun in over a year (#pregnancyproblems) I still wear it and it's gorgeous. I'm all about that golden goddess life.

Laura Mercier Matte Radiance Baked Powder in Highlight 01

Don't let the name fool you, this highlight is not matte, but the perfect vanilla glow. Just like the Hourglass powders, this highlight is less intense and gives more of a healthy glow. I just have a small, deluxe sample size of this highlight, but I use this often and still have so much of the product left. This highlight is stunning on fair to medium skintones; if you are tan to deep complected, this highlight will look ashy on your skin. This holiday season, Laura Mercier launched a holiday palette with this highlight, their best selling Bronze 03 shade, and their Baked Bronzing Blush in Ritual, and you should probably buy it!

And there you have it, my top four, can't live without, highlighters. If you have a favorite highlighter that I didn't mention, leave it in the comments below! 

Halloween Makeup

Welp, my maternity leave is officially over. I have to go back to work next week. I really do love my job and love my co-workers, but if I could be a stay-at-home mom, I would. The only thing keeping me from bursting into tears is the fact that it's Halloween week, and at Sephora, that means a week dedicated to fun Halloween makeup. I'm really not a fan of Halloween; it's just not my thing, but I'm always up for a reason to play around with costume makeup.

Whether you're planning on looking cute this Halloween, or like something straight out of The Walking Dead, I have some tips and tricks to take your makeup to the next level.

 Clearly, zombie makeup is my favorite considering I've done it two years in a row. I'm more of a subtle zombie, I'll pass on the wounds. Last year on Classic Horror day, I created my first zombie look (left). I opened that day and one of our managers asked me to run across the hall to the coffee shop to grab her some coffee. Homeboy behind the counter kept on giving me strange looks but refused to address the issue that my face just wasn't right. It was entertaining.

If you're planning on spending Halloween dressed up as someone, or something, dead, you want to keep these points in mind. You want to make sure your face looks as sunken in as possible. Everyone knows all about the contouring trend that swept the beauty world this past year; creating shadows on the skin to manipulate or enhance your face shape. That is essentially what you're going to do here. In true contouring, you use an ashy, grey-toned brown to contour and then use a warm brown (bronzer) to add life and warmth to the skin. Throw out that bronzer step because we want to look like death! Use a grey, matte eyeshadow to heavily contour your cheekbones, and hollow out the eye sockets. You can also mix a deep purple and reddish-brown shadow together (always matte!) and apply to the eye sockets and around the nostrils for a more sickly look. In my looks, I used Anastasia's Sienna and Makeup Geek's Duchess for that step. Use a light hand here, you don't want too much color around your eyes. To keep the eyes dark, go all out with a black smokey eye. Don't worry about making it look perfectly blended, the more it looks like you got punched in the eyes, the better! I used a black gel eyeliner as a base and blended everything out with a matte black shadow. Keep your skin fair with little to no warmth, the dead do not have a killer tan! Finish off your look by lining and filling in your lips with black eyeliner. I added a deep purple lipstick in the very center of my lips for a little extra dimension. I'm obsessed with this one. This year, I wanted to add some fake blood around my mouth for a little something extra. I wasn't about to spend money at a special effects store on fake blood so I took some dark red lipstick, smeared it on my fingers, and then smeared it around my mouth before I put on my lipstick.

The ever popular mermaid. And for good reason. Who doesn't want to look like a mythical creature from the sea? I, myself, would love to be a mermaid. Except for the water part. I hate getting wet. I'll just sunbathe on a rock. 

This makeup look is super simple. I did a really easy eye look with purple and turquoise eyeshadow, pearlescent glitter and false lashes. I then took different shades of pink, purple, and turquoise eyeshadows and, again, contoured my face. Unlike the zombie look, go crazy with the shimmers. The more of a glow you have going on, the better. During this step, you want to make sure you're starting with the lightest shades first and blending the darker shades in as you go; it's always easier blending dark colors into light. You can also lay down a piece of fishnet before you place the eyeshadow on your face to create a scale-like appearance. If you choose to do this, I recommend putting down a white base first (something like this) as it will allow the scales to show up a lot better! Then it's time to get creative. Glue sequins, pearls, rhinestones, whatever you want, to your face using lash glue. Finish your look off with a fun lip color. I used Kat Von D's Coven lipstick with a hint of Bite Beauty's Violet in the center.

I was really feeling the colored contour, so I took inspiration from my mermaid look and created this Woodland Fairy look. The day of Halloween is the only day of the week we are allowed to ditch our not so flattering uniform and wear a costume. I wasn't about to spend an arm and a leg on a costume, so I threw on a camel colored top, black leggings, a black tutu, and a pair of boots and called it a Woodland Fairy costume. I threw some extension in my hair and braided in a few pieces of fake greenery I had laying around the apartment. 

For this makeup look, I created a dark green smokey eye with winged liner and false lashes. I used different shades of green to contour, again using a mixture of shimmer and matte shades. I started with light greens, blending in the darker greens as I progressed. I used a dark, forest green eyeshadow just in the hollows of my cheekbones for a little extra drama. For the lips, I wore a basic nude lipstick, and later in the day, ended up adding some glitter on top. I'm almost positive I used this glitter liner. Using something like a glitter liner on your lips will help to ensure the glitter stays on! Just wipe the liner on your finger and tap on your lips!

And there you have it! Three super easy Halloween makeup looks! If you recreate any of these looks, I want to see them! If you post them on Instagram, make sure you tag me (@jenna__anne). I'm looking forward to seeing what looks I come up with next week. Follow me on Instagram to see the results!