Disclosure: This post contains some Amazon affiliate links.
e.l.f. Shimmering Facial Whip in
Lilac Petal is
frequently mentioned as a cheap dupe for the much beloved but very expensive High Beam highlighter from Benefit. I'll be the first to admit that I am pretty liberal with applying the term "dupe". I'm no stickler. If it's basically the same and performs the same function, I'm fine with it. Nevertheless, after comparing these products (and two other pinkish highlighters I own), I have some mild reservations about calling them dupes. They can be used for the same purposes, successfully, but there are some significant differences. Rather than a dupe, I'd say that the e.l.f. highlighter is a good product, and a reasonable alternative to the Benefit version. A near dupe, maybe. Since I'm convinced that there are cheap options that are comparable to almost all higher-end beauty products, and since
I'm on a weird quest to determine which e.l.f. products are decent and which ones are shit, this kind of comparison is my idea of fun. Wheeeeee.
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| Left to right: e.l.f. Shimmering Facial Whip in Lilac Petal, Benefit High Beam, Stila All Over Shimmer Liquid Luminizer in Pink Shimmer, Pixi Brightening Primer in Pearl Essence |
I threw two other similar highlighters into the mix, just for the sake of completion, and in case anyone else has them and would like to see how they fare. None of these are dupes. You can see just from the photo above that the e.l.f. highlighter is quite a bit pinker than the Benefit or Stila, and it is pinker than the Pixi option too, though the bottle for that one is opaque. On to the swatches!
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| Top left to bottom right: Swatches of e.l.f. Shimmering Facial Whip in Lilac Petal, Benefit High Beam, Stila All Over Shimmer Liquid Luminizer in Pink Shimmer, Pixi Brightening Primer in Pearl Essence |
Let me break them down one by one - I'll end with e.l.f.
