Warm light.

As you all noticed, I pretty much stopped posting beauty reviews last year because of....obvious reasons lol. But it's a new year and while we're still in a pandemic, I feel like it's more okay now to go back to normal blogging about beauty reviews and all that. Because of the hiatus, I now have a whole lotta backlog posts to do so brace yourselves for Backlog Beauty, a series of beauty reviews I should've published last year or the year before that but I didn't or wasn't able to. Most of the beauty products I'll be reviewing in Backlog Beauty are from previous collections that may or may not be available anymore.

Just note that not all beauty reviews will be part of Backlog Beauty. I'll try to alternate between new and old products to keep things fresh and interesting.

For the first post of Backlog Beauty, I will finally feature a highlighter I bought back in 2019. The reason why I didn't open this product asap was because I wanted to finish up my current highlighters first, like the Benefit Cosmetics Watt's Up and Tweezerman Eyehance. Unlike those two, this highlighter leans more on the warmer, golden side and isn't a stick form.

This is Ellana Minerals' Loose Multipurpose Pigment in Inspiration. A little description from the Ellana Cosmetics shop: 

"This reflective and luminous pigment will surely give you an instant glow. Use on eyes, lips, cheeks, hair...anywhere! This pigment can be applied on its own or mixed for a custom color. Bring out your creativity and create endless numbers of looks with this pure pigment that now comes in a mini mirror jar with more product!"

Inspiration is described as golden beige pigment with a satin finish. The product comes in a small screw-top jar with a sifter inside to avoid product spillage. Packaging-wise, I think its very cute and eye-catching although it can be a bit messy in application as compared to a pressed or liquid-to-powder highlighter.

For application, I tried using a fan brush first but my brush wasn't really able to pickup a lot of product. So to intensify it more, I used the ultimate tool: my finger! I definitely got a more pigment using my finger (perhaps a little over too much haha) but if you're more into subtlety, using a brush will yield a softer, barely there highlight.

Inspiration was a delight to work with. Since it didn't have any chunky particles, the pigment glided easily on the skin and blended easily and quickly. In my opinion, this looks best with tanned skin as it gives that bronze-y summery glow on the skin. Inspiration may look a bit too yellow or warm on those with pale or fair and cool skintones.

I also love it as a browbone and inner eye highlight because it just catches the light beautifully. A little bit of this can instantly bring a bare face some warmth and glow without being too blinding. Honestly, it's just such a pretty highlight that I think it'll look gorgeous as a highlight on the lid (ala halo eye) or even as a body highlighter! Dust it on your collarbones and shoulders and bam! Golden goddess in a snap, honeyy!

Compared to Watt's Up and Eyehance, Inspiration definitely packs more punch but I think I like it suits my skintone more. I'm so glad I went with this than a frosty cool-tones highlight! Definitely gonna add this to my makeup kit asap! 

PS. Just checked Ellana Cosmetics' Shopee page and found that Inspiration is still available! Get it while it's still in stock and on sale! (Not an affiliate link, btw, jsyk.)