The Hollywood Flawless Filter truly made a hole in the makeup industry that everyone's trying to fill in at the moment. There are so many glowy skin, filter IRL products right now that it almost makes me wonder if I need something like this.
The e.l.f. Halo Glow Liquid Filter is almost always sold out and it's supposed to be a glow booster for your most radiant skin. It's a multi-purpose product that should give you the soft-focus social filter effect IRL..even though I'm not sure what that means. It contains many ingredients well known from the skincare realm like hyaluronic acid and squalane and it should be suitable for every skin type. It comes in 8 shades, I have the shade Fair/Light which is the second lightest. It retails for €16. It is cruelty-free and vegan.
You can use it under or on top of your foundation, as a highlighter or wear it alone as a glowy skin tint. The packaging looks like a huge concealer, the container is glass which means it's recyclable and it has a huge concealer wand inside. You get 31.5ml of product which is pretty generous. It promises flawless glow and radiance. The shades are supposed to be flexible across the shade range but after my experience with the shade match I feel like we could use a little wider range especially with how well it's selling.
People are loosing their mind over these glowy hybrid makeup products and I couldn't really see why...and still can't. But the hype kind of got me and I wanted to try it out. It is very dewy but it also contains very finely mild shimmer particles so it's both dew and glow. It's more pigmented than I expected so I would appreciate a wider shade range. I felt like Fair is going to be too light but Fair/Light is a little too dark for me. The texture is quite thick and moisturizing but it blends out nicely. If you apply a little too much it feels like a thick moisturizer which is exactly the feel I want to avoid when using makeup.
For the shadematch reasons I cannot really use it as a highlighter and even if I did I feel like it would be a little too heavy to put on top of my other makeup. I prefer using is as a mixer or even better as a glowy base between my primers and foundation. I have tried wearing it on its own but once you start blending it the coverage lowest and layering it creates that unpleasant feeling of a thick moisturizing product that I don't like so there's no reason for me to use it by itself as a skin tint. Its longevity is not very impressive when I wear it by itself so I prefer to mix or layer it with actual foundations.
I don't think it effects the other base products too much and I didn't observe any changes in longevity of my makeup when using the Halo Glow under my foundation. Therefore I think it's an ok product to mix with your other makeup.
Wear test
I applied the e.l.f. Halo Glow Liquid Filter pretty much as a highlighting mixer under the foundation on top of a basic hydrating primer. I used 6-7 swipes from one dip so not too much products because I know that it can be quite heavy. I blended it out with a buffing brush from Real Techniques. It left my skin looking very dewy and provided the tiniest amount of coverage. Then I went in with a very low coverage skin tint that is not particularly dewy and that leaves a lot of space for any product underneath. The look of the tint was definitely more dewy with the Halo Glow under it and the shade match of the combination of those two products was fine as well. I applied a cream blush and a tiny bit of cream bronzer to see how they layer and it was OK. The powder also went fine on top of all these products without looking cakey or too heavy. The overall look at the end of the application was very glowy even with the powder and setting spray and I really enjoyed the natural sheen my skin had with a full face of makeup on. It makes you feel less makeup-y in my opinion.
List of used products
Catrice The Perfector Poreless Blur Primer
Trend it up Hydro Vitamin Primer
e.l.f. Halo Glow Liquid Filter, shade Fair/Light
Fenty Beauty Eaze Drop Blurring Skin Tint, shade 2
Kiko Milano Blur Me Perfecting Concealer & Eye Primer Duo, shade 01
L.YS Triple Fix Translucent Setting Powder, shade Resilience
Revlon Candid Anti-pollution Setting Powder, shade 001
Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Blush, shade Bliss
Rare Beauty Warm Wishes Bronzer Stick, shade Happy Sol
Wycon Cosmetics Draw Your Brow, shade Taupe
Beauty Bay Love Notes Palette
Maybelline Tattoo Liner Gel Pencil, shade 942 Rich Berry
NYX Cake That! Powder Eyeliner, shade Black
Rimmel Wonder'volume Thrill Seeker Mascara, shade Extreme Black
L.YS No Limits Matte Bronzer, shade Motivate (Light)
Krash Kosmetics Blow Blush + Glow blush, shade 100 grados
Essence Cookies for Santa Baked Highlighter
NYX Plump Finish Setting Spray
Fenty Beauty Mattemoiselle Plush Matte Lipstick, shade Thicc
Lottie London Gloss'd Supercharged Gloss-oil Tint, shade Drenched
Wear time 15 hours
There were a couple spots that were lacking integrity like my nose and my chin because I touch those two a lot during the day. The rest of the face is not looking THAT fresh but it's still wearable for a couple more hours. That is pretty impressive given how late it currently is as I just got home. The glow is still there and as the makeup wore off it became even more prominent. But not in an oily way, you can tell it's a glow and not oiliness which is very nice. The face looks quite heavy which can be also used by the moisturizing finish of this product. Overall though, my base looks nice and intact and the pigmentation of the blushes and bronzers is very even and hasn't faded. The quality of this foundation is well known to me and I am happy to see that the e.l.f. Halo Glow did not make its weartime worse and I can enjoy a glowy look without sacrificing the performance of the foundation's formula.
Final thoughts
Even thought the popularity of this product didn't fade and it's still being sold out over many platforms, I am not blown away. I think it's nice that there is an affordable option for this type of product and you get a lot of the product as well so if you want something like this - highlighting, glowy, lightly tinted, moisturizing "filter" you have the option without spending a ton of money.
On the other hand, I really cannot find a great usecase for it. When I use it by itself, the coverage blends away too fast and I'm left with just glowy face that doesn't last all that well anyway. If I mix it in with my foundation it works well but that is a very rare occastion for me since I usually try to cut steps from my routine and not add them. I cannot use it as a highlighter because of the shade match and the last option is using it as a base.
Honestly, that is my favorite way of using it. It doesn't compromise foundations' weartime and it does give you a more glowy look if you combine it with the right products. The moisturizing feel sometimes makes it a bit heavy after a couple hours of wear because my face just doesn't love these moisturizing products under makeup all that much. I am a little torn because I don't dislike it, I just think that I could achieve a similar look and maybe even better feel with a good liquid lighlighter or other products without needing to buy this huge overhyped bottle of tinted glow.
Do you have any experience with these "liquid filter" products? Let me know in the comments because I clearly don't think they are very necessary. Thanks for reading!