Giorgio Armani’s new liquid highlighters landed towards the end of 2024, to what felt like a pretty quiet release. I didn’t even know they were coming until they popped up on their official website when I was scrolling one day. One of my goals for this blog for the next year or so is to make an effort to try any new releases from a small selection of high end brands to really get a good understanding of what new makeup is like out there, but importantly give people my honest non-sponsored opinions on expensive products that could break the bank for them so they can make more informed decisions. I find so many reviews for new high end makeup is often sponsored or gifted from the company which in my opinion can make the review feel less authentic.
Anyways back to the review, these new liquid highlighters came out in 5 different shades, from a pearly white to a deeper copper shade to hopefully cater to a large range of skin tones (I say hopefully as someone who doesn’t have a deep skin tone to know for sure). The Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Acqua Highlighter is available from Sephora Australia for $72AUD a bottle or Sephora USA for $39USD.
Application
I decided to pick up two different shades to compare, given my skin tone I picked the two lightest shade, one in Halo which is a golden pearl shimmer shade and Stellar which is a more light gold shade. They both come with relatively large doe foot applicators that can be applied directly to the face. I tried a number of different application techniques and felt either dabbing directly on to my skin or first on to my fingers and then face both worked the best for me. Trying to apply directly to a damp sponge or brush didn’t work well at all (took away all pigmentation)
The first thing I noticed is that these highlighters are very sheer, I didn’t notice any difference upon the first application and had to go in a few times before I could see it being picked up on camera. If I tried to pick it up with a brush to blend out, then even after a few applications I still couldn’t see any product show up. I’ll be honest, I was initially pretty disappointed when I was first testing these out, partially because I was going for a more full face of makeup and the highlighter fell incredibly short of what I was expecting which was something more pigmented that would reflect all my high points beautifully.
However, on the days when I was going very minimal with my makeup and just wanted a soft glow, these worked better. They give off a very subtle glow to any place you put them down, and work a lot better on bare skin because I felt if I had foundation on, the foundation would either lift off upon trying to apply the highlighter or it would essentially “absorb” the highlighter so it looked like I wasn’t wearing any to begin with. I guess I wasn’t expecting such a soft natural glow from Giorgio Armani, but like with most makeup products, there is usually always a use case for them depending on your personal needs.
Wear time
I didn’t find the wear time very impressive with these products, I got maybe a few hours of them before I couldn’t really see them reflect on my skin anymore. For some people that may be enough if all they are doing is going out for a few hours with natural skin. However for me, I work long hours outside the house and need something that hold up for an entire day better.
Overall
Generally I really love Giorgio Armani makeup products (their foundations are amazing!) but this was not it for me, the highlighters were far too sheer for my personal taste and I found the application process to be a little too intricate for my likely. I like products that are quick and easy to apply to get the results I want (as a time poor mother of two young kids, I would have felt differently about this when I was living my child free life), if I need to spend any more time finessing it to work then it usually doesn’t get used. I couldn’t personally recommend these highlighters to anyone but have outlined specific use cases above in case you are still keen!
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