“Lowlighter” Is The Soft Girl Makeup Trend You’re About To Obsess Over

Highlighter has been a major glam category for years now.

Around 2016 (when YouTube gurus reigned supreme), beauty lovers were obsessed with glistening shine on the high points of their cheeks, below the brow bone, and on the cupid’s bow for a look that was often described as “blinding.”

In 2024, the trend has become a bit more subdued — less about intense highlighters, and more of a focus on a softer glow by way of dewy balms and shimmer-filled liquid formulas.

Lately, however, a hot new (makeup) bombshell has entered the villa: “lowlighter.” Here’s everything you need to know about the rising trend.

What Are “Lowlighters,” Anyway?

While highlighters are filled with radiant glitter and fine-milled shimmer, lowlighters don’t contain any of that. But the overlap is that both highlighters *and* lowlighters result in a brightened complexion.

The lowlighter category has one main goal: to create a “lit from within” glow, as if you’re draped in the softness of candlelight. And it does this via either complexion-enhancing concealers that cancel out dark spots on the skin, or skin-blurring blushes that add a soft flush.

While traditional highlighters are losing their place in the makeup spotlight, total glam girls like Megan Fox, for one, have recently turned to lowlighters to give their skin that extra glow.

Here, the actor is spotted without a hint of shimmer or shine on her complexion, instead wearing the Rodial Banana Lowlighter ($49) for under eyes that look impossibly light and bright.

Hello, Soft Girl Complexions

Brands are getting in on the trend. Rodial has a collection of Lowlighter concealers for different skin tones, and Danessa Myricks Beauty has recently launched the Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder Lowlighters ($25), aka skin-blurring balm-to-powder blushes that enliven the complexion.

Of course, flushed cheeks and seriously bright undereyes are a bit different by nature, but both result in the same thing: skin that looks filled with life and dimension (without any unwanted shimmer and shine).

And thus, lowlighters are truly the essential item for the total soft girl minimalists of the world who love the look of highlighted skin without the sparkle. Subtle