Is an ‘underglow’ the key to radiant skin?

Strobe, flare, holographic… These are just some of the highlighting trends that have been dominating over the past few seasons. But now, the hyper-highlight is taking a backseat to a more natural, less obviously faux glow – the underglow. It’s not about ditching highlighter altogether, but using it underneath (instead of over) foundation. “This softer approach allows the highlighter to blend with your foundation base so that everything morphs into a beautiful, radiant – but natural-looking – complexion,” explains Hourglass makeup artist Fiona Alkhooray.

You’ll need a cream or liquid formulation – they work beautifully with foundation textures, are easy to work into skin and “won’t lose their intensity underneath bases like powder highlighters,” says Alkhooray. To counteract sallow skin, choose pink tones. Burnt gold and champagne shades lift olive skin tones, while deep pink-bronze shades blend well on dark skin tones.

The age-old technique of applying highlighter to the high points of the face is still the way to go: blend over the cheekbones, brow bones and cupid’s bow, and place a dot in the dip just above the bridge of your nose. If you want even more glow, apply a finely milled shimmer powder in a ‘V’ or tick shape. Start at the inner corners of the eye, trace the highlighter down to the tops of cheeks and then up to the temples before filling the tick in. For this, you’ll find a stick cream highlighter is the quickest and easiest to control.

Apply sheer foundation (or tinted moisturizer) over the top and then buff everything together with a large kabuki brush – a heavy, full-coverage base will only dim the glow. If there are areas you would like to disguise, use concealer only – Rituel de Fille’s The Ethereal Veil Conceal and Cover is creamy and comes in shades to suit a full spectrum of skin tones; if you have oily skin, buff a translucent setting powder over the top, sticking to the nose, forehead and chin only. However, there is no need to ditch powder highlighter altogether: “To ramp this look up for evening, add an ‘overglow’ using powder highlighter applied as normal over your base,” advises Alkhooray.