The Rare Beauty highlighter review that keeps coming up in beauty circles points to one consistent truth: the Positive Light Silky Touch Highlighter has earned its place at the top of a very crowded field. But it does not stand alone. From a cult powder hybrid to a balm stick that behaves like a skincare product, the best highlighters of 2026 span a range of textures, finishes, and price points, and knowing which formula suits your skin makes all the difference.
What the Rare Beauty Highlighter Review Keeps Getting Right
The Rare Beauty Positive Light Silky Touch Highlighter is powered by synthetic fluorphlogopite, a lab-made mica that blends seamlessly into skin and leaves behind a fine microshimmer rather than visible glitter. Its semi-sheer formula is buildable: a brush delivers a mirror-like sheen, while a damp sponge softens everything into a diffused, skin-like finish.
According to Ulta Beauty, the Positive Light Silky Touch Highlighter has won the Allure Best of Beauty Award three years running (2023, 2024 and 2025) a consistency that is harder to pull off than a single-year win. In testing, senior beauty editor Jesa Marie Calaor wore it through office days, workout classes and evenings out, confirming the formula is transfer-proof and holds its finish across every scenario.
The shade range covers six options. Rare Beauty lists them as Enlighten (cool champagne), Exhilarate (champagne gold), Flaunt (true gold), Mesmerize (rose bronze), Reveal (warm copper) and Reflect (deep bronze), a spread that covers cooler pearl finishes through to deeper, bronzed tones. Priced at £28, it sits comfortably in the middle of the market.
The Rest of the Edit: Formulas Worth Carrying in Your Pack
For a powder that behaves like a cream, the Smashbox x Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed Highlighter (£42) remains a reliable choice. Its hybrid texture starts as a pressed powder but melts into skin on contact, blending without harsh edges or patchiness. Tester Katie Gunderman noted it holds up in heat, a useful quality when you are moving and sweating rather than sitting still.
The Chanel Baume Essentiel (£49) takes a different approach entirely. A twist-up balm stick, it glides over foundation without disturbing it, making it straightforward for touch-ups on the move. The finish is sheer and dewy rather than glittery, which suits anyone after a natural, hydrated look rather than something that announces itself from a distance.
At the liquid end of the range, the Charlotte Tilbury Beauty Light Wand Highlighter (£44) has a sponge-tip applicator that makes placement easy and precise. Its key ingredients include silica and lindera extract, and the formula is lightweight enough to blend onto eyelids, the inner corners of the eyes, the Cupid’s bow or the collarbones, as well as the cheekbones. Seven shades are available, and several double as a soft blush.
Rhode’s Highlight Milk (£28) is the most skincare-adjacent product on this list. Formulated with glycerin and a ceramide trio, it functions as a glowy primer: smooth it over bare skin before foundation, mix a few drops into your complexion products, or tap it onto the brow bone as a final step. It is more subdued than traditional highlighters, but tester Catharine Malzahn found it kept dry skin hydrated and makeup smooth across a full day.
The Westman Atelier Lit Up Glassy Gel (£47-£48) is a gel formula in a stick format, combining the convenience of twist-up application with a jelly finish. Vitis grape extract provides moisture, and the formula comes in six shades including a translucent iridescent balm. Social director Kassidy Silva uses it as a way to keep highlighter controlled: two swipes along the upper cheekbones, blended with fingers, rather than a heavy-handed build-up.
New York City-based makeup artist Katherine Dorn advises applying highlighter to the brow bone, inner corners of the eyes, the top of the cheekbone, down the centre of the nose, and the Cupid’s bow. For oily skin, she recommends powder formulas and restraint with placement. For dry or mature skin, she reaches for cream or liquid formulas, sometimes mixing highlighter directly into foundation for an all-over glow rather than a concentrated point of light. The finish, she says, should look like the skin is doing the work, not the product.
