Super Extra Flare Highlight Technique Is Makeup’s Hottest Trend Right Now

Makeup trends are changing faster than ever before. Just as we’re getting the hang of highlighting and strobing, a new thing called flare highlighting is taking center stage.

An Instagrammer who goes strictly by the name @thestudyofmakeup is teaching us amateurs how to go big on highlighting and how to make it so extra. Her Barbie-like selfies have been getting a lot of attention online and for good reason: Her makeup looks gorgeous, and her highlights are causing actual lens flare.

Highlighting is the use of luminous makeup to create a very fresh, dewy, and illuminated look.

The glow that good highlighting brings can really accentuate the best parts of the face. This is why a lot of makeup lovers spend hours practicing the perfect highlight. Now, they have another level to aspire to as the flare highlight becomes more and more popular.

The flare highlight is very noticeable against matte skin.

Flare highlighting definitely isn’t for fans of the no-makeup makeup look. But those more adventurous with their beauty routines might enjoy this fresh idea. How does @thestudyofmakeup do it? She has a few techniques, plus one rather unexpected prop. She told Allure:

“Most people apply their highlight with a large fan brush, I use a very dense, wet eyeshadow brush.”

Using the eyeshadow brush condenses the pigment and centralizes it, so you can apply the product exactly where you want it to be.

The more concentrated the highlighter, the better it can reflect light.

@thestudyofmakeup’s highlighter of choice is Makeup Revolution’s $7 Blushing Hearts Highlighter in Goddess of Love. According to her:

“It’s triple baked for maximum pigment pay-off and luminosity. I have never found anything else like it.”

She also loves Makeup Revolution’s Triple Baked Rainbow Highlighter likening it to pixie dust and calling it “magical.”

Icy white highlighters are more effective for the flare highlight technique since white reflects light better than the pink or gold shades.

The highlight is often placed on the highest part of the cheekbones, along with the brow bone, above the brows, and on the tip of the nose. These are the areas of the face that catch the most light.

But @thestudyofmakeup’s finishing touch is the one that really does the job.

The makeup enthusiast uses Swarovski crystals and places them on her cheekbones and sometimes on her chest. She told Allure:

“The inspiration came from a crystal tiara that I was gifted by my boyfriend for our anniversary. Every time I wore it, it would sparkle and flare from the lights and reflect rainbows. So I thought, ‘What if I placed a crystal in the center of my highlight and tried to capture the lens flare?'”

And this is how she achieves the almost blinding flares in her selfies.

What do you think of this new highlighting technique? Would you be up to trying it? Let us know in the comments below!