The Surprising Place You Should *Always* Apply Highlighter — & It'll Transform Your Eye Makeup
As far as day-to-day makeup goes, brow highlighter often gets overlooked. But it actually makes a big impact, especially if you've highlighted other parts of your face. Although brow highlighters come in many forms, the best brow highlighters are typically creamy, jumbo-sized pencils, since their thick, pointed tips make it easy to get in right under the brow arch. Not only can you use them to highlight your brow bone, but you can also glide them over your waterline and smudge them in the corners of your eyes to really tie the look together.
Another tip: Since dedicated brow highlighters are pretty niche, eyeliner and/or eyeshadow sticks can work equally well in their stead. Just look for a soft, blendable formula, a shade that complements your skin tone, and a hint of shimmer, though matte shades work great for defining your arches and masking overgrown brow hairs, if that’s a priority for you.
Scroll on to shop five of the best brow highlighters you can get on Amazon — and which you’ll grow to love just as much as every other brow product in your arsenal.
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01The Overall Best
With its super creamy formulation, impressive pigmentation, and chubby point, this NYX pencil has all the trappings of an ideal brow highlighter. It’s technically an eyeliner/eyeshadow pencil, which explains why its 24-shade range includes colors like lime, cobalt, and velvety purple. But there are lots of brow bone-appropriate shades to choose from, like Cottage Cheese (creamy, pearly white), Milk (opaque, matte white), Yogurt (shimmery nude pink), or Cashmere, the champagne-gold pictured above. At just under $5 a pop, you can collect a bunch with some reckless abandon. I have a habit of picking one up on approximately every fifth drugstore visit.
- Available shades: 24
02Runner Up
Another brow-highlighter-that’s-not-technically-a-brow-highlighter: This Julep eyeshadow stick. This is designed as an eyeshadow, complete with a handy blending sponge on the other end. But like the NYX pencil, the formula is smooth and creamy, the rounded tip fits nicely under your brow arch, and lots of the shimmery neutral shades make ideal highlighters — like Warm Gold, Pearl, Sand, Desert, or the Champagne linked above. The waterproof formula applies like a cream but sets to a powder, so it’ll last for hours — and if you do wear it as its intended eyeshadow, it won’t crease. It’s hypoallergenic, too, so it’s a safe choice for people with sensitive skin and eyes.
- Available shades: 25
03Best All-in-One Palette
This L.A. Girl brow palette is a great choice for people who value consolidation and efficiency (that’s you, Capricorns), cute little kits (probably Cancers), or just prefer powder highlighters over pencils or creams (a sign-neutral inclination). Each kit contains two powder shades to fill in your brows, a colorless wax to shape and tame them, a glitter-free powder highlighter, and a teeny-tiny spoolie, angled brush, and tweezer. The tin case and mirror make this ideal for travel, or just throwing in your bag for emergency midday/midnight touchups.
- Available shades: Light and Bright, Dark and Defined, Medium and Marvelous
04Best Brow Pencil & Highlighter
Another NYX win: This two-in-one brow contour pencil. One end of the retractable stick features a waxy, pointed pencil to shape and fill your brows, and a smooth, rounded highlighter on the other. The highlighter shades are designed to complement each brow shade, which takes a lot of guesswork out of the equation. Reviewers say this is an especially useful tool for brow beginners, thanks to its easy application and overall no-brainerness. It comes in eight shades, which is generous enough to suit pretty much every skin tone/hair color combo out there.
- Available shades: Ash Brown Medium Beige, Auburn Soft Pink, Black Golden Peach, Blonde Ivory, Brunette Cream, Espresso Light Beige, Soft Brown Rose, Taupe Vanilla
05Best Splurge
At $23, this highlighting pencil from brow experts Anastasia is among the more expensive brow highlighters you’ll come across. But as is always the case with Anastasia, you’re getting what you pay for: This two-for-one features a matte pigment on one end for defining your arches, and a shimmery highlighter on the other. (Use the shimmer first if you’re going for a subtler effect, or second to amp up the intensity.) Reviewers confirm that both ends glide on easily, blend beautifully, and last all day, and that the matte side is pigmented enough to totally cover up stray brow hairs. Just be sure to invest in a big sharpener — the brand makes a great one — to get a nice, smooth point and prevent the tip from breaking or serrating.
- Available shades: Matte Camille/Sand Shimmer, Matte Shell/Lace Shimmer
