“Charlotte Tilbury’s Newest Highlighter Is the Only Powder I’ll Put on My Fine Lines”
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A little over a month ago, ahead of the official launch of Charlotte Tilbury’s new Hollywood Glow Glide Face Architect Highlighter, a messenger knocked on my door and handed me a small bag that was the color of Charlotte Tilbury’s signature burgundy packaging. I’d been given a heads up that it contained a makeup product “that would illuminate the skin as well as the best Hollywood lighting,” and I was scheduled to interview Tilbury about it later that day.
I opened the bag and found a bunch of sleek gold compacts that housed pressed powders in a range of shimmery shades, from a pale champagne to a golden bronze. I thought, Wait, they’re powders? Hmm...
Making the case
I haven’t used powder in years. It makes my skin look dull and feel dry. I tossed my last one after I looked in the mirror halfway through the day and saw that it had settled into lines and pores I’d never noticed before. Typically, to make my skin glowier, I sweep on a cream highlighter or a gleamy balm.
I said as much when I connected with Tilbury. “Normally I would agree. Mature skin with a lot of fine lines? Maybe don’t use powder. Because some of the stuff that’s out there doesn’t do people many favors. It just accentuates the lines,” she says. “And it makes women feel disempowered. They think it’s their fault. But it’s the product's fault.”
I opened the compacts again and swirled the pad of my fingertip along the powder. It felt soft, velvety, almost creamy. “I have a total obsession with powders. But the minute I would suggest one to someone, they’d go, ‘Oh, I look creepy and dusty. It gets patchy. I don’t know how to blend it right, and it gets everywhere,’” she says. “So I’ve created one that doesn’t drop down the face, doesn’t get patchy, and is so easy to blend that you can apply it with your finger.”
The special sauce
I swiped the satin formula on my finger across my cheekbone. No tap, tap, tap of a special brush needed. No instructions to blend it with a dab of moisturizer or finish with a setting spray. No question of how much to use or whether I’d overdone it. Just one simple swipe. I’d forgotten how fast and foolproof a powder can be.
Tilbury had gone on to explain that the unique texture of this powder is made with hydrating plant oils (like squalane), mica, and high-quality, very finely milled powder spheres that offer a soft-focus glow and flex with your skin. “It’s the opposite of a chunky shimmer that goes on unevenly and sits in lines,” she says. (There’s another ingredient in the formulas that Tilbury wouldn’t divulge other than to say that she has the world’s supply and that it’s what makes the skin look smoother and more sculpted.)
Charlotte’s application and shade tips
“People tell me that they could never look like J.Lo, and I say, ‘Yes, you can. You just need to know the tricks,’” Tilbury says. “Anyone can use makeup to make their eyes look bigger, brows lifted, nose slimmer, cheeks higher, jawline sculpted, and pores blurred.”
To lift the cheeks: Tilbury suggests smoothing the highlighter along the top of the cheekbones.
To lift the brows: Sweep highlighter under the brow bone and above the center of the brow.
To widen and brighten the eyes: Add a bit of highlighter to the inner corners of the eyes, blend up to the crease, then swipe along the lower lash line.
To slim and lift the nose: Run a thin line of highlighter down the bridge of the nose, then add the tiniest dot to the point of the nose.
To make lips look a bit fuller and lifted: Put a touch of highlighter on the bow of the upper lip.
Then, to make the jawline look more sculpted: Sweep highlighter along each side of the jawbone.
The seven shades flatter a wide range of skin colors, but don’t feel like you have to be locked into a particular shade. Tilbury herself is obsessed with a few: “I’m a bit pale because it’s winter, so I’m gravitating to Moonlit Glow right now. But I also use Pillow Talk Glow, which I often swipe across my eyelids. It’s like putting a pink light on your skin—which everyone from eight to 108 can use.”
Hollywood Glow Glide Face Architect Highlighter
Sephora
$48.00
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