Beauty Trends

5 shade-shifting beauty buys to take your glow galactic

If you thought your highlight couldn’t get any higher – prepare to think again. The otherworldly allure of unicorn-inspired, holographic highlighters may have taken make up looks to supernatural new heights but the latest cohort of shade-shifting, metamorphic glow-givers has arrived – and they’re ready to take your gleam galactic.

And it’s not only cheeks getting the interstellar treatment – these next-generation illuminators will transform lips and lids too, granting prismatic radiance that will make onlookers feel like insignificant earthlings, mesmerised by your hypnotic tractor beams of light…

Blazing the trail of this trend is BECCA’s eagerly anticipated {Light Chaser Highlighter for Face and Eye}, an innovative powder that shifts from one sublime shade to another, creating captivating, kaleidoscopic colour dimension when struck by the light. It comes in six hypnotic hues that must be seen to be believed – including golden champagne with hidden flecks of bellini peach, and a silvery opal streaked with jade green – we think it’s the make up encapsulation of the beautiful aurora borealis.

Next in the luminous line-up is Laura Geller’s {20th Anniversary Baked Gelato Swirl Illuminator – Diamond Dust}, a limited-edition incarnation of the super-celebrated, buttery soft powder. Like crushed diamonds for the complexion, this ethereal, opalescent dust is made with patented technology that lets the shade shift from blue-pink to violet.

For holographic glow that’s a little more ‘grown up’, Kevyn Aucoin’s {Molten Lip Colour: Top Coat} lends sophisticated, shade-shifting shimmer to bare lips or takes any lip hue to prismatic heights – it comes in lilac-hued ‘Cyber Opal’ and icy blue ‘Cyber Sky’.

To finish off the light-reflecting radiance, NYX Professional Makeup’s {Duo Chromatic Illuminating Powder} shines a super-natural spotlight on your favourite features. Silky and shade-shifting, this powder contains light-scattering pearls for a multi-dimensional lustre. Available in five shades (think dusky roses and iridescent lilacs), the only downside is deciding which one you need first – with such a purse-friendly price tag, it’s hard to find a reason not to buy all five…



Verity Douglas

Verity Douglas

Content Editor

Cult Beauty’s Content Editor and a Cult Beauty OG, Verity loves nothing more than the marriage of language and lip balm. A quintessential Libran, she’s a self-professed magpie for luxury ‘must-haves' and always pursuing the new and the niche — from the boujee-est skin care to cutting-edge tech. Balancing an urge to stop the clock with her desire to embrace the ageing process (and set a positive example for her daughter), Verity's a retinol obsessive and will gladly share her thoughts about the time-defying gadgets, masks and treatments worth the splurge...