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Posts: 1,713
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

It's my third day wearing this, so I think that I am ready to review. At first glance, I did not think that this was much different from other illuminaters I have tried. It has a "sheen" not a sparkle or glitter, but if you look very very closely, of course there are small particles causing the sheen. I think that the mica is much, much more fine than in other "highlighters" or "illuminaters" and that is why you do not see a sparkle even in the sun.

I noticed that my skin looked good and had that "glow from within" look to it when I used it, but wasn't sure how much of it was the powder versus just a good skin day, so yesterday I applied to only half of my face. My other half wasn't dull, but the illuminated side (cheekbone and nose only) had more definition and it made it look like my cheekbones were more pronouced. Sort of how a contouring powder will give depth, the illuminater makes the cheekbones pop. Really nice.

As far as the glow from within, it looks like a sort of shine to me. Not in the greasy face shiny nose sense, but you know when you wash your face with a clarifying cleanser and it gets very tight and taut and gets a dry shine to it? That's what this illuminater reminds me of. So over my Amazonian clay foundation which normally gives me a perfect but "matte" finish, this gave me a dewy finish. So my skin looks really good I feel. I actually applied more of it than people recommended because I was only applying it to my nose, brow and cheekbones and didn't mind a little too much in those areas.

I compared to a few things that I already owned and the closest I got was Mally's Browlighter. Side to side on my arm, they looks somewhat similar even though one is a powder and one a pencil. Unfortunately, Mally's Browlighter contains talc and I believe it also contains parabens. It the sun I could see miniscule sparlkle in Mally's Browlighter but barely... so I did prefer the It Illuminater over this after all.

I think that if you are new to illuminators, the IT HD is the one to try. If you have dull skin as i feel I do, it is really helpful. It didn't call attention to my wrinkles, but it didn't disguise them either, lol. I did think that it called attention to my large pores around my nose, so will be careful not to apply it there. Brush would be great for both this powder as well as any finishing powder.