Anastasia Beverly Hills Glow Kit in Gleam

Last year, Anastasia Beverly Hills came out with their Glow Kits, which are highlighter palettes. They finally became available online at Sephora earlier this year (and is carried at select stores), so I picked up both because, you know, you can never have enough highlighters. The Glow Kit is described as "four velvety powders that instantly cast a lit-from-within glow. Complementing shades can be layered together to brighten cheekbones and décolletage, or worn separately over eyelids, brow bones, and inner corners. Results are flawlessly incandescent." The Glow Kit currently comes in two colour waves: That Glow, which is darker and more golden, and Gleam, which is lighter and more pinked. Gleam is housed in a grey ombre cardboard case; the four shades included come in removable magnetic pans. Each Glow Kit contains a total of 29.6 grams of product (7.4 grams per shade), and retails for $52 CAD.
Hard Candy, Mimosa, Starburst, and Crushed Pearl

Hard Candy is a light-medium warm golden pink with an iridescent pink-peach shift in a metallic finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, finely-milled, almost buttery texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is lighter and more pink than Anastasia Beverly Hills Peach Nectar, warmer and more peach than Anastasia Beverly Hills Riviera, darker and less iridescent than Urban Decay Fireball, brighter and more yellow than Hourglass Brilliant, and more pink than NARS Jubilation #2.

Mimosa is a light-medium warm golden peach in a metallic finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, finely-milled, almost buttery texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is lighter and more muted than Anastasia Beverly Hills Peach Nectar, darker and more peach than Becca Champagne Pop, more peach than MAC Global Glow, darker and more peach than MAC Soft and Gentle, and more golden than NARS Jubilation #2.

Starburst is a light warm peachy beige in a metallic finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, finely-milled, almost buttery texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is darker and more peach than Anastasia Beverly Hills Starlight, darker and more peach than Anastasia Beverly Hills Crushed Pearl, more muted than Becca Opal, less golden than Becca Champagne Pop, and warmer than MAC Soft and Gentle.

Crushed Pearl is a light warm pinked champagne beige in a metallic finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, finely-milled, almost buttery texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It is lighter and more beige than Anastasia Beverly Hills Starburst, more pink than Anastasia Beverly Hills Bubbly, darker and warmer than Anastasia Beverly Hills So Hollywood, lighter than MAC Soft and Gentle, and lighter than Becca Opal.

When the Glow Kits were first released, I wasn't that interested in them because I have way too many highlighters as it is and didn't care for travel-size palettes of them. But I was doing my friend's makeup and noticed that she had both Glow Kits, so I used them on her to see how they performed in real life. Not only did I discover that they are full size highlighters (and in magnetized pans, so you can remove them if you so wish), but they look stunning on the skin, like glowy and shimmery and "strobed," but not scary intense or ultra-metallic so they aren't hard to blend out or emphasize skin texture. They're so smooth and so soft and so pigmented, and very silky but not as creamy as, say, Becca's Illuminating Skin Perfectors, which can almost deposit too much colour in one go. There is literally nothing bad I can write about these. The shades in Gleam really fill a hole in ABH's original Illuminator line-up, and they're perfect for those who like peachy-pink tones in their highlighters. Plus, at $52 for 29.6 grams of product, the value is downright incredible.