All About the Face: Strobing on a Budget

If you have read the "About Me" page, you would know that my husband is a photographer. I have first encountered the word "Strobe" when he mentioned it while buying lights for one of his projects. Apparently, in photography, there is a so-called strobe lights.

By definition, strobe is a verb that is to give the appearance of arrested or slow motion by using intermittent illumination. (Ref. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/strobe)

Now, it is one of the trends in the makeup industry. Out with the contours (oh gosh!) and in with the highlights!

Honestly, because my skin is combination to oily (especially at T-zone area) I have learned to love and appreciate glowing or dewy makeup look. I just can't find time to pull out a leaf of oil control film and pat it all over the face every hour! Besides, Asians are more into that young, dewy skin. (I hope!)

So, way back before strobing even became a thing in the makeup industry, I was already sporting the dewy makeup look. As they say, "If you can't beat them, join them!" I frequent Korean Makeup stores like Etude House or The Face Shop to buy moisturizing makeup that I use everyday at work. Little did I know that it will actually be a trend some day.

So, what is strobing? It is actually just highlighting (to the max) the areas that you want to emphasize. Normally these are the highest point of your cheekbones, inner corners of your eye, cupid's bow, center of your chin, sides of your forehead atop the highest points of your eyebrows and of course, your brow bone.

Easy right? The thing is, when you watch YouTube makeup gurus, all you hear about are expensive, top of the line highlighters. Some of which are:
1.) Too Faced Candlelight Glow
2.) Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector
3.) NARS Ms. Liberty
4.) Dolce and Gabbana the Illuminating Glow
5.) Urban Decay Naked Flushed
6.) Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick
7.) MAC Mineralize Skin Finish
8.) The Balm's Mary Lou Manizer
9.) Makeup Atelier Paris Starlight Powder
10.) Makeup Forever Diamond Powder

I guess, what I am trying to say is, you don't need expensive highlighters to achieve the strobe makeup look. I can teach you how to strobe on a budget!

Anyway, here's a list of highlighters that could do a better job than those expensive ones.

1.) VMV Hypoallergenics Skin Bloom Blush in Luminous (Dye Free!) - Php1,500.00 ($33.33USD)
2.) Etude House Face Designing Brightener in Pink Beam Face- Php650.00 ($14.40USD)
3.) Em Cosmetics Chiaroscuro Stick in Medium - Php1,080.00 ($24.00USD)
4.) Em Cosmetics Makeup Mood Enhancer in Golden Candlelight - Php1,035.00 ($23.00USD)

Here's a swatch of the products I listed above. Note that these are basically great for Morena skin. If you are more of a fair or light skinned, you might want to consider a different variant. Of course there are other highlighters available in the market today, you can always opt to use whichever product you feel comfortable in.

If you want subtle, daily use highlight, I recommend both the Etude House Face Brightener and the EM Cosmetics Chiaroscuro Stick.

If you are looking for a dramatic highlight mimicking the dewy look that a summer sunset can give, you'd want to slather on the EM Cosmetics Mood Enhancer.

And if you just want to brighten up your face especially focusing on your eyes, your best bet would be the VMV Hypoallergenics Skin Bloom Blush.

Applying all these products on my face, here's my best strobe makeup look: