Drugstore holiday collections really tend to surprise me every year. I feel like there's always an absolute gem from the drugstore that I buy sometime around Christmas and this year is no exception.
The Rival Loves Me, which is a Rossmann's makeup brand, came out with their Glitter All Around Me holiday collection. All very sparkly and festive, there was a pallete in the collection, glitter mascara, eyeshadow brush, lip kit, glitter liner and the bouncy highlighter. I hope I didn't forget anything. They didn't have testers in the store (thanks covid...) and Bouncy Highlighter just sounded like something I need and oh boy...I did need it.
The Rival Loves Me Glitter All Around Me Bouncy Highlighter is an incredibly reflective highlighter with the most interesting texture. I got it somewhere around 100 Crowns, it's very affordable and you get 8g of product.
It comes in a black compact with a glittery lid. On the inside there's a decent mirror and the most incredible highlighter you've ever seen. The base color of it looks gold/champagne. But once the light hits it you can see kind of silver and blue and green reflects in it. It really catches your eye.
Now let's talk formula. It looks great but you know, that might not be enough. The texture is very similar to the Fenty Beauty Diamond Bomb highlighters. It's that almost gel to powder formula. It feels incredibly smooth and lightweight when you touch it. It swatches almost wet. It's very hard to capture on camera but it looks amazing. Of course, it's quite a glittery formula. These gel-based highlighters which look almost wet on the skin usually tend to be more glittery because with tiny glitters you can really mimic the effect. I wouldn't say it looks bad or too chunky. The glitters are very fine and they give you that ultra reflective finish.
I've had this highlighter for weeks at this point and I've been wearing it quite a lot. One thing about it is that it doesn't stay super shiny and full of tiny glitters all day. They eventually just start to fall off but it still leaves you with nice and quite blinding glow after many hours of wear. I would reapply and set with a setting spray if you want the initial effect for a longer period of time.
There was only one shade but since the formula is quite glittery and the base color is not opaque, I feel like it would suit many skintones. The silvery glitters may create a little bit of a cast on deeper skintones but I did not test that so you might have to try out for yourself. It did not create a stripe on my cheeks so it's not too dark for pale skintone for sure.
Demo
I actually used this highlighter in a video recently, so check it out if you want to see how it performs. I think the video gives it more justice than the images. It's really hard to photograph such an interesting and reflective texture.
Final thoughts
If you have a chance to get this highlighter, go and get it now. It's so good. If you really want that Fenty style wet beautiful diamond-like highlighter, look no further. This is seriously it. Last year Essence did it and this year Rival Loves Me. The drugstore brands are really coming out with these textures.
It looks great on its own or you can use a very subtle highlighter as a base and just tap a little bit of this one on the highest points of the cheeks and you have a little more subtle effect that is stunning once it catches the light. There's really so much you can do with it. It's also a beautiful eyeshadow topper.
Just the amount of ways you can use it justifies the price and I haven't been this excited about a highlighter in a while. It is really a one of a kind special product and I am afraid that they won't bring the formula back to the regular product range. So snatch it while you can!
Have you found any new drugstore gems this holiday season? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!