Too Faced Candlelight Glow Highlighting Powder Duo

Too Faced is a brand that has been around for years (remember their old square eyeshadow duos?), but I never really looked into their products until recently when they started getting more and more raves. I purchased several of their products over the past couple months, one of them being the Candlelight Glow Highlighting Powder Duo. I was originally intrigued with their original Candlelight Powder, but when I went in store to swatch it, this one caught my eye instead (I might still get the original one, but y'all know I have a thing for brighter, more shimmery highlighters). Candlelight Glow offers "a more ethereal glow by using 'Photolite' technology which diffuses harsh light, giving your skin a soft, youthful luminosity." Candlelight Glow is packaged in a round cream and gold mirrored compact with a candelabra embossed in the powder. Each compact contains a total of 10 grams of product, and retails for $38. 
Candlelight Glow
Candlelight Glow swatches (shade #1, shade #2, and shade #1 + 2 mixed)

Candlelight Glow includes two shades. The first shade is a pale champagne gold, and the second shade is a pale gilded rose. Both of them have a frosted finish. When swirled together, the two shades create a pale champagne beige. It has a silky, finely-milled, almost buttery texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is similar to theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer and Becca Moonstone, much lighter and less golden than MAC Global Glow, more golden than MAC Soft and Gentle, more frosted and more golden than MAC Lightscapade, more frosted and more golden than NARS Albatross, and lighter and more frosted than Hard Candy Tiki.

Sephora states that "the sheer golden powder warms skintone, while the gilded rose formula brightens and illuminates," but I find the difference between the two shades to be too subtle to really see a difference on the skin, so I like to use the two shades swirled together. I don't think the golden side "warms" the skintone, because it's just too light... but both shades do brighten and illuminate beautifully — it goes on smooth and silky with full colour pay-off. It's a softer powder formulation, too, so it feels creamier and is thusly easier to execute and manipulate on the skin. Texturally, I would say it's more powdery than Becca's Shimmering Skin Perfectors (which feel almost creamy), but more velvety than baked powders like MAC's Mineralize Skinfinishes. However, like all shimmery, bright highlighters, this one should be used with a light hand, because as much as Too Faced says that these shades are "sheer," they actually pack quite a punch. It can go anywhere from soft and "candlelit" to bright and shiny, so use accordingly (my favourite way of using this is with a small duo-fibre brush like MAC's #159, dabbing it in the powder, and then buffing it on the skin so it looks more diffused). Fans of theBalm's Mary-Lou Manizer or Becca's Moonstone Shimmering Skin Perfector will love this one.