Essence Make Me Glow baked highlighter review

Do you remember the hype the Essence Pure Nude highlighter got? Well it looks like Essence has duped themselves with their newly released Make Me Glow highlighter. This highlighter is part of their new fall/ winter 2022 update collection and I was intrigued the minute I saw it. Not just because it looks so similar to their OG, but also because this is super affordable. And Essence can do good highlighters. So I wanted to try this for sure. Let’s find out whether this is any good.

Review: Essence Make Me Glow Baked Highlighter

So this retails for €4. That is an absolute steal when it comes to any highlighter. It is simply one of the most affordable highlighters I have tried in a long time. I have tried several Essence highlighters over the years and overall they are mostly good. Not great, but definitely workable products that are very pretty on. I have had this highlighter in my Shop My Stash/ Everyday Makeup Drawer since the start of the month and so I have had a good enough chance to give this a whirl.

What does this highlighter have to offer?

The minute I spotted this I knew: this looks like a Pure Nude dupe. Now the Pure Nude highlighter that caused such a hype in the online beauty community was discontinued in my country before I could ever try it and before it became a hype. The reason I didn’t buy it? It was too dark. And this also looks like it may not work on me. Now that I have tried it I can say that this is a great, more subtle highlighter that goes with nearly everything you do. It will not give you the kind of glow you can see from outer space but that is not what this is meant to do?

What is this highlighter like?

In these past two pictures I tried to capture the shade this powder has. Above you can see the shade when it hits the light. This is what the shade looks like when there is no direct light and you can really see the undertone. As you can see here, the Make Me Glow highlighter has a deeper, skin tone like base, with a light champagne shine to it. And it is gorgeous on. I feel I can wear it with any makeup look and I have been wearing this most on days where I want to wear highlighter but I don’t want it to be too obvious.

What does this highlighter swatch like?

I think this swatch shows you what this shade can do. You can see some areas where the light doesn’t hit the swatch directly and you can see the skin tone like undertone. But when it does hit the light, it looks quite light and even cool toned. The texture of this product is soft but not too powdery or creamy. It has a baked formula which means you can get some fall out if you don’t tap off your brush (I am not a huge fan of baked cheek products) and I feel they can get hard pan a little bit more quickly over time than other cheek products. But that is based on my overall experience using baked cheek products, not for this one in particular.

What does this look like on the cheeks?

Sadly my camera does not like picking up highlighters on my cheeks when I just take a picture. If you want to see what this can actually do, then please watch my Essence fall/ winter 2022 update video. There you can see it live in action and you can see much better what this actually does on my cheeks. I also wore this in many of the videos I filmed and posted in recent weeks so you can definitely see how it sits on my cheeks as well. But I already mentioned that this is soft and natural looking. This is a subtle, candelit glow that looks very pretty.

My final thoughts

The Essence Make Me Glow highlighter is a great product that is quite possibly the standout product from the new fall/ winter 2022 Essence update. Much else from the collection didn’t appeal to me but this? This is very pretty. Is it a must have in my makeup collection? No. I have plenty of highlighters in a shade like this and so I don’t know how much I will wear this after testing it out. But it is a product that performs well, is affordable and gives you a very pretty glowy finish that is never too much and goes with all the looks you can do. What’s not to love?

Would I recommend the Essence Make Me Glow highlighter?

If you missed out on the infamous Pure Nude highlighter but you are looking for something like it, this may be a nice one to try. Since this only comes in the one shade, I am not sure this will work for everyone. The undertone blends into my skin tone very nicely but there can be a darker cast if your skin is lighter than mine. If your skin has more depth than mine, you may struggle with this looking ashy on you. Therefore I feel this is best for people with fair-light-medium skin. Your undertone doesn’t matter much as the shade is a perfect blend between cool and warm.

Would you like to try the Essence Make Me Glow highlighter?