Reader question: How to achieve dewy, glowing skin

Sep 26

I love the look of fresh, dewy and glowing skin. Can you give me a few products that will help me achieve that? Thank you. - Therese

Hi Therese! I love this question because I love glowy skin as well. I don't understand the obsession with matte skin because our skin is not matte in its natural state. Nothing screams *makeup* than a face that's covered in a blanket of matte powder, for me! Shine is fine as long as you're able to control it and place it strategically on your face.

A dewy-looking face starts with good skin, of course, so make sure that your skincare routine is up to spec. I find that using serums make a huuuuge difference - try the Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate or the Shu Uemura Tsuya Skin Serum (which I am testing recently). These work super well! As for makeup, there are many products that you can use to achieve a glowy face. The trick is to use only one or two of them at any given time, depending on the look you want to achieve.

Face Base: for an all-over glow

A thin, light-coverage foundation can deliver dewy skin simply because it allows our natural skin to shine through. Remember, in order to achieve dewy skin, you must not cover up your bare skin with too much makeup. Light, illuminating makeup will just enhance your skin, not blot it out.

The Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Brightening Makeup gives such a nice dewy finish. If you want something with even lighter coverage, try the VMV Hypoallergenics Skintangible SPF30 which is a tinted moisturizer with SPF30.

Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow + Palgantong

Go for translucent finishing powders just to set the foundation without giving any extra coverage. I love the Palgantong Theatrical Powder for this purpose! If you're into pressed powder, try mineral with some shimmer in it.

Illuminating Powders: Extra enhancement on top of a matte or satin face base

These are powders that contain shimmer so fine that you can apply them in broad sweeps all over your face, just to get an overall glow. They're best on top of heavy-coverage foundations to sort of make them look more like skin.

The Guerlain Meteorites Perles in Teint Dore 03 is the perfect example - it's almost invisible except the skin just gets a subtle ethereal glow. The MeMeMe Goddess Rocks gives a more obvious shimmer, so best to apply it with a big kabuki brush only on the cheekbones and center of the face.

Meteorites

Goddess Rocks

Highlighters

Highlighters bring light to the face because they contain shimmer. When highlighting, focus on only the high points of your face to enhance your bone structure while making your skin glow at the same time. I love the Benefit Watt's Up! Highlighter because it looks so natural and blends beautifully on skin! You can also DIY by using a shimmery champagne eyeshadow (powder or cream).

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!

Shimmery Blushes and Bronzers: Glow-from-within color

No one wants shimmerbombed cheeks, especially if they tend to be oily! So use shimmery face color in moderation. A light layer is enough to give you a natural, glow-from-within flush. Tip: don't apply too close to your nose - try to start farther back from the apples of your cheeks, then brush upwards to your temples.

Here are some of my fave shimmery blushes.