I first got into makeup around 2015, when the highlighters had nothing subtle about them. If you know anything about that era, you know we loved to glow. I mean a stripe of shimmery powder right on the tops of our cheeks, glow. No blush paired with a cool-toned contour to boot. As a result, I collected highlighters like Pokéballs, and even today, next to blushes and lipsticks, they are among my favorite products to obsess over in my makeup collection.
Now, while I don’t recommend that people buy more makeup than they can realistically use in a lifetime, I like to think of my vanity as an archive of makeup eras past. I have everything from Laura Geller’s famous Gilded Honey (which has recently been reformulated and re-released) to the now-discontinued Marc Jacobs glow drops. In short, I’ve experienced every phase of highlighting trends since makeup became popular online. With that context, I can confidently say that my 2026 highlighting routine is the best of them all. The biggest shift has been moving away from obvious shimmer and toward a glow that looks like it's coming from your skin rather than sitting on top of it. “More recently, the inspiring looks are resonating more with natural finishes and a more subtle, fresh look—think: quiet luxury, but beauty,” Lisa Payne, Head of Beauty at Stylus, previously told MC.
