Review, Swatches | KIKO Ultimate Glow Highlighter in shade 01 Champagne

This is my second KIKO review in a row. There are two more to come. You can tell they are having a sale.

KIKO has recently launched a few new products within their permanent range, and I decided to try the highlighters.

The shade 01 Champagne is a very light, yellow based champagne. Maybe white gold would be a more appropriate description. And I would say the finish is shimmery. Not metallic, not glow-y, not shiny, just shimmery. The highlighter almost looks like a transparent base with shimmer particles on top (note: shimmer, not glitter; it’s not gritty at all).

This is not one of those dense, creamy, metallic highlighters, even though it looks like one in the pan. The texture is actually kind of powdery, it feels thin, and the shimmer feels loose. On the skin, it doesn’t particularly blend in or look very natural, even though the effect is subtle. It just looks like a lot of shimmer is sitting on top of the skin. A light application doesn’t emphasise skin texture, but because this is a subtle highlighter I kept applying more, and with any powder, the more you layer the more it will make fine lines more obvious. After 10 hours, the shimmer dispersed and migrated considerably (used with a dewy foundation and no setting spray) and the shine itself had faded considerably.

This looked like it could be applied wet without damaging the pan, so that’s what I did. And indeed, a wet brush did not damage the product. Applied that way, the shine was more intense, the shimmer was more contained (throughout the day, not just upon application) and the overall effect was more skin-like.

Fading was still extremely noticeable after 10 hours, but the shimmer did not migrate and the overall look of the highlighter throughout the day was much better. I guess that’s the way to wear it then.

The packaging is a mirrored grey plastic, with a mirror inside, and contains 10,5 grams of product – which is higher than typical.

I’m coming to the conclusion that KIKO isn’t great at making highlighters. They are usually more on the subtle side, and more about shimmer than sheen. Longevity isn’t great either. Although this is a relatively inexpensive option, there are a lot better highlighters out there for less (look at Catrice, Wet n Wil, NYX, etc). And KIKO has a lot of other great things to offer from both their regular line and limited edition collections, so I’d say save your money for that, this item is an easy skip.