Fenty Beauty by Rihanna Killawatt Freestyle Highlighter in Metal Moon and Trophy Wife

In September, Rihanna launched her cosmetics line called Fenty Beauty, which caused something of an explosion in the makeup industry and online beauty community as everybody went crazy over it; there was no social media platform that wasn't saturated in photos, videos, reviews, and swatches of Fenty Beauty products. Rihanna has stated that "Fenty Beauty was created for everyone: for women of all shades, personalities, attitudes, cultures, and races. I wanted everyone to feel included; that's the real reason I made this line." Rihanna launched a base range of seven makeup formulations and six makeup tools that, with the exception of a single lip gloss, are focused on skin. 

This range includes two individual shades of Killawatt Freestyle Highlighter, which is described as "a weightless, long-wear cream-to-powder hybrid" that "ranges from subtle day glow to insanely super-charged shades that were designed for all skin tones." It "keeps skin lit beyond sundown with its weightless long-wear formula… that instantly melts into skin and blends with almost zero effort." They are housed in a white mirrored octagonal compacts with the Fenty Beauty logo in grey on the lid, with secondary packaging that features a black-and-white graffiti design. Each Killawatt Freestyle Highlighter contains 8 grams of product and retails for $42. In North America, Fenty Beauty is available exclusively in-store and online at Sephora, and online at Fenty Beauty.

Metal Moon and Trophy Wife
In daylight: Metal Moon and Trophy Wife
In direct sunlight: Metal Moon and Trophy Wife

Metal Moon is a pale warm muted white with a champagne gold pearlized sheen in a satin-frost finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has medium-high pigmentation and semi-opaque to opaque buildable colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is warmer and more golden than Fenty Beauty Fire Crystal, lighter and cooler than Fenty Beauty Hu$tla Baby, warmer and more metallic than MAC Lightscapade, warmer and more muted than Becca Pearl, and warmer and more muted than Jeffree Star Ice Cold.

Trophy Wife is a medium warm brightened yellow gold with an intense sparkling metallic finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily, though there is some minor glitter fall-out. It is darker and more yellow than MAC Beaming Blush, lighter and more yellow than MAC Gold Deposit, darker than Jeffree Star Summer Snowcone, darker and more yellow than Becca Prosecco Pop, and darker and brighter than Becca Champagne Gold.

I realize that I'm posting this review two months after these launched and there are hundreds of reviews for these highlighters out now, but I figured I'd put in my two cents because I've been wearing these for a several weeks and have really given them a solid test run (plus, I already took the photos). First, I want to note that these are not cream-to-powder. They are a soft, finely-milled powder so they feel creamy, but they function and apply as powders. I say this because that description of "cream-to-powder" almost deterred me from checking these out as I am strictly a powder girl. So in case there are people like me out there, I just wanted to clarify that. On that note, Trophy Wife has gotten more hype than anything else in the Fenty Beauty range, probably because it was included in all the PR packages that they sent out, so every "influencer" or "beauty guru" got their hands on it. While I think Trophy Wife has a gorgeous sparkling metallic finish and the formula is smooth and beautifully pigmented, it's a really difficult highlighter for most skin tones to pull off. Rihanna's whole credo with this line is that it's "for women of all shades, personalities, attitudes, cultures, and races," but Trophy Wife will flatter a very minimal amount of people, at least on its own. It is too yellow for the majority of skin tones, and also way too glittery for most people to use outside of a nightclub setting. That having been said, it is one of the most unique shades I've seen in a highlighter formula, in both the colour and the finish. Like, when you have it on, everyone knows it's Trophy Wife. (I have also used it as an eyeshadow, and while it is really, really pretty, the glitter particles do come loose and I have found that they can get into the eye very easily, so definitely use a good glitter glue or eye base first.) Basically, if you want bling for your face, get Trophy Wife.

The other shade, Metal Moon, is on the opposite spectrum of Trophy Wife. Soft, understated, delicate. It looks white in the pan, which can scare off a lot of people, but it's actually very wearable across all skin tones because it's so soft and blendable. It leaves a velvety lustre on the skin, but it's very natural — this is ideal for mature or textured skin, or for those in more conservative work environments, or for someone who likes a subdued or no-makeup makeup look. The white base gives it some brightness, but it actually leaves a soft pearlized champagne gold sheen on the skin — it's not really a lit-from-within glow so much as a smooth, illuminated, healthy-looking complexion. All of a sudden, I get where the name comes from. Skin looks like it's softly lit under moonlight. And there's something truly beautiful in that kind of subtlety.