I’ve actually been avoiding the Anastasia Beverly Hills Amrezy Highlighter* since it launched a few weeks ago! It came to the ABH UK (and US) website on Valentines Day along with new bronzers, liquid lip shade extensions and the fast becoming a favourite Soft Glam Palette*…I’ve been using the palette so much over the last few weeks, read more about it and see swatches here!
Why was I avoiding the highlighter though??…I don’t need to tell you how many highlighters I have already (self confessed highlight junkie…I think most of us are and don’t get me wrong, it did excite me but still) and obviously that wasn’t really going to stop me, what was though was the shade. As gorgeous as it looked in the pan, it also looked very gold and potentially way to dark for my pale-ness!
ABH Amrezy Highlighter is a collaboration with US Influencer and Instagram star Amra Olević aka Amrezy, who started out as a Makeup Artist and now has over 5.5 million dedicated followers or ‘Rezy Riders’ as they like to be known as. Amrezy has caught the attention of ABH before and released an eyeshadow palette which really took her to the next level success career wise! Between a super influencer who ‘lives for the perfect glow’ with a makeup background and ABH a brand who knows their highlighting stuff, this was always going to be the perfect collab match! Amrezy was going for a luminous glow with a natural, second skin finish ’sun in a compact’ (sounds amazing, but also a bit alarm bells for my pale self!)…let’s see if it is!
The packaging is beautiful sleek black with metallic rose gold detailing and feels weighty/ well put together. Great size/ quality mirror…it definitely feels secure/ the palette protective enough to travel with. The powder itself pressed in to a really pleasing on the eye balls waved design which shows off the glow perfectly!
Described as a light brilliant gold illuminating powder and is of course cruelty free…there’s no denying the ABH Amrezy is a beautiful looking highlight! So what made me finally pick it up and give it a go?? I saw fellow pale people Jkissa and Leigh Dickson use it on YouTube! After initially writing this highlight off as being too gold and too dark for me, I’d seen people with a similar skin tone to me rock it and I had hope! (I had also seen ABH’s Alyssa (@alyssamarieartistry) apply it who’s fair too, but she’s still a bit darker than me) It looked so good on pretty much everyone I’d seen wearing it, but would it work for me? Even having fair skin (KVD Light 43 warm, Too Faced BTW Snow, Huda Beauty Faux Filter Panna Cotta, MAC NC10/15), I do still like to wear a more gold tone highlight a lot. Especially as I have a golden undertone to my skin and wear a lot of warm toned eye makeup too, I just have to be careful not to go too gold/ dark or it just end up looking like a muddy mess! I’ve swatched ABH Amrezy against two of my other favourite gold toned highlights (Becca Moonstone and Mary Luminizer from The Balm are also both great paler gold options) to compare…
So as you can see from the swatches, ABH Amrezy is actually lighter in tone to either of my other two light gold obsessions that work well on my skin tone…didn’t expect that at all! It is still light gold (so maybe not one for you if you prefer icy hues – I do myself sometimes and love Ofra’s Glazed Donut Highlight* for that when I do!) but definitely has more of a lighter, champagne feel to it. I’ve swatched it on my skin too, just a small amount (it’s super pigmented)…I wanted to swatch it on foundation free skin for this pic (so don’t mind the bit of redness/ texture) so you could see the true shade/ tone…and there’s loads of full glam swatches around.
You can see from the face swatch (and this makes me so happy!!) that the shade works great! Looks even better over my usual base/ full makeup (kind of my skin tone and gives more glow than too much actual colour) and applies beautifully! It’s an ultra smooth formula and gives that perfect wet look highlight rather than shimmer and glitter…so hard to capture properly in a picture! You only need a tiny amount for that lit from within look and it builds amazingly well for a blinding glow. I’ve been testing it out with a few different brushes, but find the best to be something a firmer and on the smaller side. My favourite so far is the Morphe M335 Chubby Buffer Brush*…it gives precise placement of your highlight, seamlessly blends it out and almost polishes it one to the skin for a believable glow rather than seeing a tonne of product sat on top of your skin. I do really like ABH’s highlighters in general, but the formula of the Amrezy is something else! It feels even smoother and weightless on. I’m impressed how they’ve come up with a shade that could work for pretty much any skin tone, but more shades in this formula along the line would be amazing!!
I’m not a Rezy Rider, but Amrezy definitely knows what a highlighter should be! That combined with being cruelty free and the Anastasia Beverly Hills quality has me obsessed! I shouldn’t have had the fear about this, it’s stunning and I love how it looks on my skin! It lasts so well…it out lasts a few of my other ride or die favourite highlighters in terms of wear time actually and it’s almost like the glow improves the longer you wear it. It’s super pretty initially and melts in to your skin anyway as you apply it, but yeah it looks even better once you’re finished with the rest of your makeup and it’s had time to settle.
Strong statement, but I think I’ve found my new highlighter obsession! If you’re unsure about it for whatever reason, or similar to me have been wondering if it would work for you or not…chances are it will. It’s limited edition too, so if you think you want it don’t hang around…miss it, miss out! The Anastasia Beverly Hills Amrezy Highlighter is available now from the Anastasia site (UK / US), BeautyBay* and Cult Beauty*.
Will you be picking this up? And also…what’s your favourite highlighter formula/ brand?
Lyd x
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