Comparing my top 3 favorite highlighters: Becca Champagne Pop, The Balm Mary Lou Manizer & Kiko Water Eyeshadow in 208 - Review & Swatches + Dupe for Estée Lauder Heatwave & MAC Whisper of Gilt!

Highlighters are a must in everyone's collection simply because they bring life to your skin, give you that beautiful youthful glow and make you look healthy and radiant. Today I want to share my top 3 highlighters which are all nice and intense and have the most beautiful sheen without being sparkly or glittery at all which is what you want when going for that "glowing from within" look.

You've seen Champagne Pop many times before on my blog, so I wanted to dedicate an entire post to it; but instead of just showing it I thought it would be much more interesting to see it compared to other popular highlighters, so that's what I did!

Becca Highlighter in Champagne Pop in collaboration with Jaclyn Hill

This photo is from my post about Strobing. Here I used a cream highlighter as a base
and applied Champagne Pop on top.

left to right: Becca Champagne Pop, The Balm Mary Lou Manizer, Kiko Water Eyeshadow in 208

left to right: Becca Champagne Pop, The Balm Mary Lou Manizer, Kiko Water Eyeshadow in 208
 Yes, my Mary Lou Manizer is completely shattered :( so sad.

You can already tell by looking at them in the pan that Champagne Pop is more peachy/pinky, Mary Lou Manizer is more neutral/beigy and Kiko 208 is more golden. Check out the swatches to see how they apply:

top to bottom: Becca Champagne Pop, The Balm Mary Lou Manizer, Kiko Water Eyeshadow in 208

The above photo shows the 3 highlighters from a bit more far away because I feel that way you can see their intensity best. Mary Lou (middle) is by far the most intense one out of the 3! It's also the lightest one.

I've heard people say that Champagne Pop and Mary Lou Manizer are very similar which I disagree with. I think you can see from the photos that they are in fact pretty different. They are all equally beautiful, just not similar whatsoever. One is your peachy highlighter, one is your classic beigy highlighter and one is your golden highlighter.

So of course from a makeup lover's perspective I recommend all 3 :) but if I had to recommend just one it would probably be Mary Lou because it goes with everything and it's so intense that a little bit goes a long way, so you really get a bang for your buck. But then again, it's all down to personal preference. If you love that golden glow, you might prefer the Kiko 208 eyeshadow or if you love that peachy glow, you'll wanna go with Champagne Pop.

Another thing that sets these 3 highlighters apart from one another is the price: Champagne Pop is the priciest ($38.00), Mary Lou runs second ($24.00) and Kiko 208 is the most affordable ($14.00).

Btw if you didn't know, the Kiko eyeshadow is actually a dupe for both Estée Lauder Heatwave and MAC Whisper of Gilt. They are pretty much identical (just google swatches of these and you'll see. Unfortunately I don't own HW or WOG). I just thought I'd mention it because the Estée Lauder one and the MAC one are extremely hyped and popular and both were limited edition, so if you want something that is almost the exact same for a fraction of the cost, you should totally get the Kiko one!