What I'm Not Buying: Makeup Geek Highlighters

Makeup Geek recently announced that they will be releasing a total of 13 highlighters, seven signature and six duochrome, "soon."

And I won't be buying. 

As I've mentioned several times before, I really like Makeup Geek eyeshadows. I've tried their shimmer, matte, duochrome, and foiled formulas, and their mattes are easily my favorite from their line, followed by foils. Not every single shadow has been a winner, but overall, they are fantastic quality. What I like best about Makeup Geek are their prices, but as the brand has expanded their range and launched more products, prices have steadily increased. 

And I would say that's the biggest factor as to why I'm not buying these highlighters. They are $20 each and have 7 grams of product, which is steep for the brand. When Makeup Geek CEO Marlena announced the highlighter release on her YouTube channel, after mentioning the price, she mentioned the highlighters contained 7 grams of product, and said, "which is a lot for a highlighter."

Actually, no. It's not. 

Let's look at the highlighters in my collection:

• Becca highlighters have 8 grams of product 
• Laura Mercier Matte Baked Radiance highlighter has 7.5 grams of product
• Estee Lauder Modern Mercury has 7.5 grams of product
• Anastasia Glow Kits contain 7.4 grams of product in each highlighter 

The Makeup Geek highlighters have less product than every single highlighter in my collection. Now, the Makeup Geek ones don't have significantly less product than all of these, but saying that 7 grams is a lot for a highlighter simply is not true. 

I believe Marlena said that because she knows people are going to be angry about the cost of these highlighters, and that's understandable. Makeup Geek got its start being an affordable, high-quality brand, and now it seems they want to move to mid-end territory. And that would be fine if the products were wildly available in Sephora, Ulta, and department stores so that people could test them in person. But when you're an internet brand, people buy off of chance, reviews, and good faith. 

To be fair, Makeup Geek blushes are only 4.5 grams of product for $10 just for the pan, or $15 for the pan and a compact. Since the highlighters have more product and come in a compact, the price increase does make sense practically, but it also moves Makeup Geek out of the affordable category that they're known for. 

Added to that, Makeup Geek is currently selling the Kathleen Lights Highlighter Palette, which contains 3 highlighters at 7 grams each for $39:

Since these highlighters are the same size as the individual ones, it would make sense that this palette would cost $60 if each highlighter was $20. However, each highlighter in this palette essentially costs $13, and had Makeup Geek charged that for their individual highlighters, I think they would be more enticing. 

Another thing that's worth mentioning is that part of the reason I'm not at all excited by this release is that, frankly, Makeup Geek is really late to the game in terms of releasing highlighters. I think I purchased my first highlighter in 2012, and the hype around them has been amped ever since. At this point, almost everyone who wants a highlighter has them in spades in their collection. And I just don't see enough innovation with the Makeup Geek offering to be intrigued to add yet another one. 

But nonetheless, let's talk about the positives. Something I love about Makeup Geek is that they are very tuned in with accessibility to all consumers and therefore make products that will flatter several skin tones. 

When Kathleen Lights's palette was released, many people complained that it was too dark (a complaint I found incredibly annoying), and Kathleen mentioned that she wanted to create a palette that would work for everyone, not just people with light skin.

And I appreciate that the Makeup Geek highlighter launch includes shades that will flatter deeper skin tones. 

Arguably, the most interesting aspect of this release will be the duochrome highlighters, which, again will work for many skin tones:

But even this isn't all that exciting because of the Anastasia Beverly Hills Glow Kit in Moonchild.

This palette was released several months ago and costs $40 for six shades at 4.2 grams each. 

I've toyed with purchasing Moonchild for a while, just because I know I would love to play with it, and I honestly don't have anything else like it in my collection. What holds me back is that I can't really know how much use I would get out of it. Since it is exclusive to the Anastasia Beverly Hills website, I can't swatch it or try it on my skin, and I'm afraid that the colors simply won't flatter me. 

The Anastasia Glow Kits are also made in China, which I am personally not a fan of, and everything from Makeup Geek is made in the US. Frankly, if the Makeup Geek highlighters were cheaper (again, around the $13 range from the Kathleen Lights palette), I probably would have considered purchasing one of the duochrome shades. But since I can get Moonchild with six shades for the price of two Makeup Geek highlighters, I'm inclined to go that route. 

Finally, Marlena made a point in the announcement video to tell costumes to scrape the top layer off of the product before use because it will be hard from stamping in the design. I thought that was a pretty bizarre thing to say because that shouldn't be a requirement to use a product. On the one hand I appreciate her telling her customers that tip, but I also don't think scraping a layer of product off to be soft and usable should be acceptable. 

It will be interesting to see where Makeup Geek goes in terms of if they want to stay an affordable brand or if they want to venture into mid-range territory. When asked a few years ago if Makeup Geek was going to be widely available in department stores and in Sephora, Marlena said no because of how much money those retailers take from the brands. If this doesn't change, I find it hard to imagine Makeup Geek ever really transiting into mid-range. Part of the cost of those products is the convenience to test in-store, so for Makeup Geek to creep into that price range without that convenience is pretty disappointing for me. 

More than anything, Makeup Geek is just a little too late to the highlighter game for me to really be interested in this product. I have too many beautiful highlighters that I love for these to be all that desirable for me. And I won't be buying.