Tuesday Takeover: Halima Fashionicide - Stila Glitter Underground Review

As you guys may or may not know by now, I absolutely adore today's guest poster Halima (Fashionicide), simply because her creativity and photography skills know no bounds!

I genuinely wish I could take half as amazing pictures as her, read on to see why!

The always-lovely Safiyah sent over some bits from Stila's new Spring 2017 collection, the Glitter Underground, and wow - the clue really is in the name. Safiyah sent the Heaven's Hue Highlighter in Transcendence and the Glitterati Lip Top Coat in Transcend. There's definitely a theme there, and I don't think this was accidental, as the duo ooze Unicorn and Intergalactic vibes - and well, I am a unicorn, so..

Stila's Heaven's Hue Highlighter in Transcendence 

The highlighter comes in the trademark champagne gold Stila casing. It's sleek, it's sturdy and has a handy little mirror inside. Enough about the (admittedly nice) packaging though, can we start talking about the formula instead? It's unlike anything else I've ever tried, Stila themselves describe it as a 'Bouncy-to-the-touch' texture, and they're spot on. It's nothing like powder highlighters, I'd say it's almost creamy, very, very soft and silky. I was so fascinated by the texture, I pressed my thumb into it pretty hard and left a weird looking dent. I suggest that you do not do this!

In terms of application, I found that my fingers or a beauty blender works best, but as with powder highlighters, you can pick up the product using any brush you like. In my opinion though, a nice stiff brush will pick this up best.

Heaven's Hue Highlighter Swatch - Natural light

Heaven's Hue Highlighter Swatch - Low light

As for the colour, it's 'opalescent', meaning it's iridescent basically. In the pan, it looks like a straightforward pastelly pink but when you apply to the skin you can see the shift from pink to lilac as the light moves around. YASS!

I'm pretty hard to please when it comes to highlighters, I like mine to be bold and strong, and Stila's Heaven's Hue is not that, it's subtle. So to make up for this, I applied it quite heavy-handedly with my fingers and blended it out. As the formula is so soft and not powdery, it blends in seamlessly.

Still's Glitterati Lip Top Coat in Transcend 

Ever fancied wearing glitter on your lips, but can't be arsed with the faff of actually applying glitter to your lips or feeling the horrid grainy texture every time you press your lips together? Yep, me too. Stila have an answer for that though - Glitterati Lip Top Coat.

It comes in a liquid lipstick-esque tube with a doe-foot applicator and a slight little see-through bit at the bottom, that gives you a window into it's watery formula packed with glitter. Just like any good fruit juice, you'll need to give it a good shake before use.

 

Lip Top Coat 'Transcend' swatch - Natural light

Lip Top Coat 'Transcend' swatch - Low light

The actual shade Transcend is simply stunning, and truly matches up to its name, meaning "be or go beyond the range or limits of a field of activity or conceptual sphere" i.e - it's pretty special! The shade is pink overall, with multi-dimensional glittery tones, which from afar actually looks silver.

Now, Stila say this is a Lip Top Coat, however it can be applied to bare lips too if you fancy adding a bit of sparkle. But me being the lipstick whore that I am, I just had to apply this over my lipstick! It instantly dries onto the lips with a surprisingly matte finish, yet those glitter particles start sparkling immediately. Even better, it doesn't take off any of the base lipstick as I'm applying it.

Read my lips..

And of course, me definitely being me, I had to see what other uses I could get out of this, because it truly is beautiful. So I found that it also works really well as an inner corner highlight, as you can see pictured here. You can even use it on the eyelid, but if you're applying it over some eyeshadow, I'd suggest dabbing it on with your fingers, as the applicator is wet and will start to take off some of your shadow. Can't really criticise Stila for that though, as it's not really designed for this purpose, but it's just something to bear in mind.

And that concludes my review! I will just add though that I'm glad to see Stila are starting to introduce more colour in to their range, and not just sticking to the warms and neutrals they've made their name from, the more makeup brands we have that offer consumers a choice, the better!

Stila's Heaven's Hue Highlighters are priced at £28 each with 3 different shades to choose from. As for the Glitterati Lip Coat, there are 2 shades available, both of which are priced at £18. The collection can be shopped on the Stila's website HERE or Cult Beauty HERE