For years and years now, anytime you asked a makeup artist for a how-to about highlighting and contouring they’d usually give you the same old tip about adding highlighter from the outer part of your brow all the way around the outside of your eye. But the times they are a-changin’.
Celebrity makeup artist Rebecca Restrepo recently clued us in to the updated technique she’s been using on clients, including Alicia Keys at the “The Amazing Spiderman 2” premiere. “The new highlighting technique is to add the highlighter shade to the inside corner of the eye (the area in between the bridge of the nose and the tear duct) helping to brighten the eye and give a well rested look,” she says. “This is the modern, fresh way to highlight. I like it better because it makes the eye brighter and softens the look of the eye while still enhancing definition and pop.” One of her favorite products to use for this is Elizabeth Arden Beautiful Color Define and Highlight Eyeliner Duo.
“It tends to make your eyes appear slightly farther apart, which a lot of people with close set eyes enjoy,” explains YouBeauty Makeup Expert Emily Kate Warren. She says to use a fluffy-but-small blender brush to dust onto your tear duct area and toward the direction of the middle of your lid.
Warren also thinks there’s still an eye-lifting benefit for using light color under the brow bone as long as it’s matte—the white shimmer is so bad-90s. She likes the Benefit High Brow pencil and offers this tip: “Scribble on the back of your hand and then use an eyeshadow brush to feather it under your brow.”
And if you haven’t been into highlighting in the past, Restrepo thinks this is the perfect time to start. “Highlighting is important because it brings structure and balance to the face. When done correctly it sculpts the face while giving the skin a luminous look. I created the Elizabeth Arden Summer Escape Pure Finish Cool Radiance Highlighter for that purpose. In the summer, we are out more and showing more skin. A glow is beautiful all year round, but the summer is the perfect time to show off radiant skin.”
Needless to say, we’re definitely game for any trick this easy that makes us look younger and more radiant.
