For a lit-from-within look, match the product to the glow you want.
- Peach & Lily Glass Skin Luminizing Stick suits a sheer, buildable sheen you can wear bare or layer with makeup.
- L’Oréal Lumi Glotion offers a luminous tint, while Saie Glowy Super Gel can be used for all-over glow on the face and exposed body areas.
- Rhode Highlight Milk leans pearly and shimmery, with four shade options.
- e.l.f. Halo Glow Liquid Filter offers soft-focus radiance and sheer coverage when worn alone.
Choose by the finish you want, where you plan to apply it, and whether you want a complexion tint or sheer coverage alongside the glow.
Choose the finish and coverage you want
Highlighter reflects light to add radiance or definition to selected facial areas, as Trinny London’s highlighter guide explains.
e.l.f.’s highlighter placement guide cautions that highlighting the center of the forehead or oily areas can emphasize shine. Trinny London suggests turning your face slowly in a mirror by a sunny window and noting where light catches to find your own high points.
Trinny London recommends satin, luminous, or iridescent highlighter finishes for an understated look, and makeup artist Katie Levy describes cream highlighter as blending into skin for a soft, believable finish. e.l.f.’s powder guide describes finishes from soft satin to highly reflective, with the size and blend of shimmer particles shaping the result.
Levy notes that powder can settle into fine lines, especially around the eyes. e.l.f.’s powder highlighter guide says powder wears well over foundation and setting powder and can be built from barely-there sheen to a noticeable pop. A clean, fluffy brush or soft beauty sponge diffuses shimmer; light sweeps help keep the edges soft.
Levy recommends patting highlighter onto the brow and cheekbones, then tapping or buffing it until the finish looks diffused; remaining product can go on the bridge of the nose, inner eye corners, and Cupid’s bow. Levy cautions that highlighting the full length of the nose can make it look longer or oilier, so a short highlight on the bridge follows where light naturally falls.
For both effects in one routine, Levy suggests mixing a little highlighter into foundation for an all-over dewy base, then applying another pass to the high points after foundation for a more prominent accent. For a special event, she also suggests carrying a little of that glow across the face, neck, chest, and arms.
Peach & Lily Glass Skin Luminizing Stick: sheer, buildable stick
Choose the Peach & Lily Glass Skin Luminizing Stick if you like a solid stick format and want to adjust the glow in layers. Peach & Lily describes a sheer, buildable highlighting formula that glides onto bare skin or layers under or over makeup for lit-from-within luminosity. That combination fits a quick bare-skin look as well as a highlight added to an existing makeup routine.
Peach & Lily lists more than 40 skin-care ingredients in Glass Skin Luminizing Stick, including mugwort, tremella, a hyaluronic acid complex, peptides, and vegan collagen. The brand describes the hyaluronic acid complex as moisturizing skin and vegan collagen as visibly plumping it for a glowing look; it also describes mugwort as calming and soothing.
If your main goal is an all-over tint or a specific complexion-coverage effect, L’Oréal Lumi Glotion and e.l.f. Halo Glow Liquid Filter describe those uses more directly.
Peach & Lily lists the Glass Skin Luminizing Stick as a 10 g makeup highlighter, a useful size detail when comparing what to carry in a makeup bag.
L’Oréal True Match Lumi Glotion: a luminous tint
L’Oréal True Match Lumi Glotion suits shoppers who want a glow with a hint of color. L’Oréal’s U.S. product directions recommend wearing it on bare skin for a natural, luminous tint, under makeup as a glowing primer, or mixed into liquid foundation for satin-soft radiance. For an all-over healthy glow, L’Oréal recommends choosing a shade close to your natural skin tone.
For targeted highlighting, L’Oréal recommends a shade lighter than your natural skin tone, placed on cheekbones, brow bones, forehead, nose bridge, Cupid’s bow, and chin. For a natural, subtle glow, L’Oréal says fingers can warm and melt the formula into skin; its application guide recommends a damp sponge for a diffused effect, especially with foundation, and a small synthetic brush for precision.
Choose Lumi Glotion when a soft tint and adaptable application matter more than a pinpoint highlight or a pearly, visibly shimmery finish.
L’Oréal also lists face-and-body use on areas such as the collarbones and shoulders. For cheek contour, its directions suggest choosing a shade one or two steps darker than your natural skin tone.
Saie Glowy Super Gel: a flexible gel for face or body
Choose Saie Glowy Super Gel if you want a gel-format glow you can wear in several ways. Saie’s Mini Glowy Super Gel directions place the gel after serum, oil, or untinted moisturizer. Saie lists using the gel alone, under foundation or tinted SPF, over makeup, or mixed into foundation, with all-over use on the face and exposed body areas such as the chest, collarbones, shoulders, and legs.
Saie’s Glowy Super Gel Duo instructions recommend one to two pumps all over as a first glow step, blended with fingertips or the Big Brush, sold separately. The duo directions also describe topping a finished look with the gel as a spot highlighter or mixing it into cream makeup or skincare to boost glow, giving shoppers a targeted option and a way to blend radiance into a cream base.
Saie’s 2026 Glowy Super Gel Duo contains one full-size product and one mini, giving shoppers two sizes in the set.
Rhode Highlight Milk: pearly shimmer in four shades
Rhode Highlight Milk fits a shopper who wants a pearly, shimmery finish and a product that can extend beyond the face. Rhode describes it as a hybrid luminizer for bare skin and makeup, with a naturally luminous finish. Its official Highlight Milk page lists four shades: 01 and 02 have sheer milky bases with soft shimmer, while 03 and 04 add tint for a warmer, more dimensional glow.
Rhode identifies a ceramide trio as moisturizing and smoothing skin and helping reinforce the skin barrier. The maker also describes a mineral complex as helping defend against free radicals, and lists vitamin E and glycerin among the key ingredients.
Rhode’s directions place Highlight Milk on bare skin, over skincare and under SPF, or mixed with foundation or tinted moisturizer to sheer out coverage and add a pearly finish. Rhode also recommends combining it with face or body moisturizer for a soft, luminous finish.
Rhode names the décolleté, chest, and legs for all-over glow, making its face-to-body directions useful when those exposed areas will be visible alongside the face.
e.l.f. Halo Glow Liquid Filter: soft focus with sheer coverage
If you want a glow product that explicitly offers a complexion effect, e.l.f. Halo Glow Liquid Filter is the most direct match in this group. The official product page describes soft-focus radiance and says wearing it alone gives sheer coverage. It also lists 15 flexible shades, giving shoppers several tone and undertone options.
e.l.f. also lists Halo Glow Liquid Filter as suitable for dry, oily, and combination skin. The product page lists a $15 price and says customers can request a refund within 30 days if they are unhappy with their shade choice. e.l.f. describes the product's glass container as recyclable.
The directions cover several levels of makeup. e.l.f. says to wear the product alone, under or over makeup, mix it with foundation for a dewy finish, or apply it as a highlighter on the high points of the face. In e.l.f.’s four ways to use Halo Glow guide, the brand describes solo wear as a light, filtered glow with sheer coverage, similar to a subtle skin tint for days when you want to skip foundation.
For solo wear, e.l.f. suggests placing a few dots with the doe-foot applicator and blending them with a makeup sponge for a light, filtered glow.
The same guide describes applying it under foundation as a luminous base that adds subtle glow to the makeup over it.
Match the pick to your routine
For an adjustable bare-skin highlight in a stick, choose Peach & Lily Glass Skin Luminizing Stick. For a soft color tint or a glow mixed into foundation, choose L’Oréal Lumi Glotion; for multiple face-and-body uses in a gel, choose Saie Glowy Super Gel. Rhode Highlight Milk is the pearly option with four shade variations, while e.l.f. Halo Glow Liquid Filter is the clearest choice for sheer coverage with a soft-focus glow.