Benefit Watt's Up! Highlighter: Champagne glow, achieved!

Cheeks

Feb 14

I think that a lot of Filipinas are wary of highlighting and illuminating products because these might make them look oilier than they already are. It's not like the weather is forgiving, no? Which may be why there's that semi-obsession with a matte face devoid of anything that remotely glows.

But I think that's an awful way to go about face makeup. Faking a glow is the best thing you can do for your face - it makes your skin look healthier, more natural, just a subtle leap ahead of ordinary and blah. Ever heard of the Benefit Watt's Up! Highlighter (P1,600)?

Before anything else, I would like to apologize for yet another Benefit rave. The brand gave me a bunch of stuff for free so you might think I am biased - but I get a bunch of stuff for free and I don't rave about all of them. So. With that out of the way, let's proceed to the review!

What I LOVE about the product:

This cream-to-powder higlighter is the perfect champagne shade that works with my skintone, plus it has no visible sparkles! It just looks like a fine sheen of light just happened on your skin. Soft-focus, indeed.

Unblended

Blended

The stick form makes it super easy and quick to use. I just swipe it in the right areas and blend with my fingers. The other end has a pretty good sponge tip, but I only use it if I want to be precise about small spots like the upper lip and brow bones.

It stays put all day. It doesn't smear around so the highlighted places stay defined.
No breakouts.
Doesn't disturb the makeup underneath.
It's Benefit so it goes without saying - gorgeous packaging.

How I highlight - I always do the squiggles in white for basic highlighting. The ones in yellow, just once in a while when I want a super glowy face. I just want to emphasize the bones and planes of my face since I have chubby cheeks and a round shape! Blending is important!

Basic - do a C shape from the highest point of your brows to just a little under your eyes

Voila! Seamless but the glow is there.

What I don't like about the product

Frankly? Nothing I can think of.

Neutral

Expensive at P1,600 but you do get 9.4 grams. Quite a lot.

Recommendations

If you find yourself suffering from dull skin and if you want to define your face more, the Benefit Watt's Up! Highlighter is an excellent solution. :) It won't make you look oily, plus its practically invisible unless the light hits it. I swear highlighting really makes a difference!

Tip: you can also use a bit of this under your eyes, on top of or mixed with concealer, to get an extra luminizing effect on your eyebags. You can also mix it with lipstick to lighten it and add a sheeny finish. :)

Verdict

Love love it. Triple love it. You know I've actually had Watt's Up on my desk for a month before I started using it? I just didn't think I needed it, what with all the other luminizing products already in my routine. But when I took a moment to apply it, mostly out of curiousity, I was like, wow. Why didn't I use it sooner?

Watt's Up also looks excellent on bare skin. Sometimes when I go out I just use SPF, concealer, then Watt's Up and the results are pretty good. It's great. You must try it.