Let's face it. It's all about the highlight.
Most beauty looks aren't complete without a glow. There are so many products out there to help you get your glow on. However, in my humble opinion, having a great highlight is more so about technique than anything else.
Here's a go-to guide to make sure your highlighting game is always on point:
Choose a highlighter that is best for your skin type.
Oily skin may do better with a powder highlight (which may come up patchy on dry skin). On the other hand, dry skin may do better with a liquid highlighter/illuminator. Normal skin can probably do well with both options or even with a layering of the two.
Choose undertones that will complement your skin.
Sonjdradeluxe/YouTube
Olive/Medium Tones:
Opt for soft gold, peach, and other warm tones. It will give your skin a natural sunkissed glow.
Nikki Perkins/YouTube
Deep/Dark Tones:
Deep golds may work really well but bronze, copper, and rose gold tones will complement your skin on a whole other level that you'll appreciate.
Use the right brush.
The right brush can make the difference between you looking a mess and looking like a golden goddess. Opt for either a fan brush, a small tapered (smaller at the tip brush), or an angled brush that can precisely apply your highlighter. This is especially important for the high points of cheeks.
Only apply highlight where the light or sun hits your face naturally.
These areas are typically the highest points of your cheeks, your forehead, the bridge of the nose, your chin, and right above your top lip. By no means do you need to highlight all these areas; play around until you find what you like. For instance, I don't like to highlight my chin because it's an oily area of my face and draws way too much attention when highlighted. Take the time to figure out which places accentuates your look the best.
Makeup is never one size fit all and highlighter is no different. Play around with where you place your highlight until you find something simple.
Start lightly and build up the color.
With all the high-intensity highlighters on the market right now, it's easy to get a little overboard with the glow. Being light-handed with the highlighter instead of piling on a bunch of it at once will look much more natural and appealing.
Pretty much every highlighter on the market is building, so take your time.
Spray your brush with setting spray if you want an intense glow.
Applying highlighter with a wet brush (specifically powder versions) makes a noticeable difference. Your highlighter tends to look much more cohesive and appears to melt into your skin. It a sense, it makes your skin look like liquid metal in the best way possible.
Use these tips next time you highlight and I promise your glow will be blinding.
Featured image by Nikki Perkins/YouTube
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While speaking to xoNecole, Eva shares that she’s a lot like the beloved 1994 character in many ways. “Lyric is so me. She's the odd flower. A flower nonetheless, but definitely not a peony,” she tells us.
“She's not the average flower you see presented, and so she reminds me of myself. I'm a sunflower, beautiful, but different. And what I loved about her character then, and even more so now, is that she was very sure of herself.
"Sure of what she wanted in life and okay to sacrifice her moments right now, to get what she knew she deserved later. And that is me. I'm not an instant gratification kind of a person. I am a long game. I'm not a sprinter, I'm a marathon.
America first fell in love with Eva when she graced our screens on cycle 3 of America’s Next Top Model in 2004, which she emerged as the winner. Since then, she's ventured into different avenues, from acting on various TV series like House of Payne to starring on Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Je-Caryous Johnson Entertainment
Eva praises her castmates and the play’s producer, Je’Caryous for her positive experience. “You know what? Je’Caryous fuels my audacity car daily, ‘cause I consider myself an extremely audacious woman, and I believe in what I know, even if no one else knows it, because God gave it to me. So I know what I know. That is who Je’Caryous is.”
But the mom of three isn’t the only one in the family who enjoys acting. Eva reveals her daughter Marley has also caught the acting bug.
“It is the most adorable thing you can ever see. She’s got a part in her school play. She's in her chorus, and she loves it,” she says. “I don't know if she loves it, because it's like, mommy does it, so maybe I should do it, but there is something about her.”
Overall, Eva hopes that her contribution to the role and the play as a whole serves as motivation for others to reach for the stars.
“I want them to walk out with hope. I want them to re-vision their dreams. Whatever they were. Whatever they are. To re-see them and then have that thing inside of them say, ‘You know what? I'm going to do that. Whatever dream you put on the back burner, go pick it up.
"Whatever dream you've accomplished, make a new dream, but continue to reach for the stars. Continue to reach for what is beyond what people say we can do, especially as [a] Black collective but especially as Black women. When it comes to us and who we are and what we accept and what we're worth, it's not about having seen it before. It's about knowing that I deserve it.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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Feature image by Leon Bennett/WireImage
