Pixi Beauty is self-professed to be all about the glow. One of their cult classic skincare items is called Glow Tonic, their stick blushes are named On-The-Glow Blush, and most of their products are aimed at creating bright, luminous, glowing skin. So when Pixi collaborated on The Layers Highlighting Palette with the fun and lovely Rachel from YouTube’s RachhLoves, Liz needed it.
Price: $24
Find it HERE
Tested February-March 2020
I watch a grand total of three beauty YouTubers on a regular basis. One of them is RachhLoves. She is a fellow lover of all things highlight, so I knew I wanted to try out The Layers Highlighting Palette as soon as she announced its release. Check out her video about the palette here. I wish I hadn’t waited so long to actually pick it up, because it’s so, so pretty.
The palette, which has a great mirror inside and contains five pans of color, is designed to provide a customizable glow. It’s called “The Layers” palette because the shades are meant to be mixed and layered to create a build-your-own highlight situation, although each can absolutely be used on its own.
Lace, a creamy color with light pink tones, Zipper, an iridescent lilac with a more matte finish, and Knit, a bronzy brown, make up the top row of colors. The two shades in the bottom row, Tee, a golden shimmer, and Clutch, a slightly icier champagne, are base colors that Rachel thought would be used most, so she made the pans extra large. I love the thought that went into making this palette really multipurpose, and although not every shade will work on every person as a traditional top-of-the-cheekbones type of highlighter, I found easy ways to use them all.
To use as traditional highlighters on the cheekbones, inner corner of the eye or cupid’s bow, Lace, Tee and Clutch are where it’s at. I love them all equally. They’re shimmery without being glittery; they’re powders and are incredibly quick and easy to apply with a brush, but they have a creamy finish that lasts on the skin ALL DAY. Honestly, I haven’t tried many other highlighters that kept on glowing for a solid 8 hours and didn’t fade or dim.
Each of these shades provides a gorgeous glow with different undertones. Tee is great for a warmer eyeshadow look, for example, and I really liked mixing Lace and Clutch together on a brush and swiping it in a c-shape around my eyes from temples to cheekbones. I applied Lace with a light touch to get a soft pink glow on the cheekbones one day, and then loaded up the brush with Clutch and layered on a bit more of Tee another day to get a shiny, reflective glow that I’m totally obsessed with and would wear on a daily basis, no problem.
Zipper and Knit are the outliers in this palette, as neither are something I would wear as full-on highlight. Knit is amazing, amazing as an eyeshadow. I used it on a small brush to line along my lower lashes and felt like it made my blue eyes really pop. I spritzed an eyeshadow brush with Mac Fix+ to apply Knit wet all over the eyelids and it created a really dimensional, beautiful bronze glow.
The unicorn-purple Zipper shade is still a bit of a mystery to me. It’s ok as an inner corner highlight or a quick all over eye color, but it lacks the luster of the other shades. It comes across more matte than shimmer, but does still have a bit of glow. I tried to mix a little in with Lace but don’t think it made much of a difference in the shade once it was applied. It’s not something I will get much use out of in the context of this as a highlighter palette, and I kind of wish they had gone with a deeper gold shade here instead.
Overall, this is a versatile highlighting palette that gives me a lot of options in terms of how to use it. I was able to do a very simple, light and shimmery eye look using only this palette by applying Clutch and Tee mixed together all over the lid, popping some of Knit onto the outer corner and lower lash line, and using Lace to highlight the inner corners of the eyes.
Any of these shades can be tapped onto the center of an eyeshadow look to add a bit of glow and luminosity. I like that I could take this palette for a weekend trip or somewhere that I couldn’t pack a lot and skip having to bring separate eyeshadow.
The Layers palette lets me play with my glow on a daily basis, adding a little of one shade to a tap of another and coming up with something customizable that works with any makeup look. If you’re looking for a few highlighter options all in one place, look no further. With this palette, a dreamy, glowy complexion is just a brush swipe away.
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