Charlotte Tilbury products are everywhere; you will most likely have seen brands ads on a screen near you, on billboards, concession counters in big department stores, shops appearing on city high streets, on the telly and possibly on your BFF’s lips!
There is no doubt that Charlotte Tilbury’s product packaging looks a million dollars and it was designed to lure you in with the promise that you will both look and feel like this is also your net worth!
But are the products worth the hefty price tag? Or can we get cheaper alternatives or better value for money? I will be discussing this over the next few blog entries giving you some cheaper but just as effective, if not better, alternatives.
I have set out some alternative options below for Charlotte’s illuminating primer called ‘Wonderglow’. It’s price tag of £39 is a big wad of well earned cash in return for 40ml of ‘glowy primer’, so check out these legendary alternatives that come at an attractive price point:
ILLUMINATING PRIMERS
How to Pep Up Dull Tired Skin
DUPES FOR: Charlotte Tilbury’s ‘Wonderglow’
What is It?
This is basically a light reflecting primer. What is a light reflecting primer? A product that promises to brighten your face giving you the illusion that you are ‘lit from within’ and wandering around with your own personal film crew complete with lighting, camera assistant and personal makeup artist and living your best life on 10 hours sleep a day! And who doesn’t want a product that does that, huh?! Light reflecting primers usually have light reflecting particles that give the illusion of being candelit or in soft focus. Charlotte’s blurb promises the following:
Wonderglow creates a radiant looking, candlelit, goddess-worthy canvas for your makeup. The magical formula hydrates and blurs the look of imperfections for a gorgeous, soft focus, glowing finish, with 100% of women agreeing their skin was radiant and appeared more youthful* after applying Wonderglow!
*Tested on 32 women over 1 week
L’Oreal Lumi Magique 20 ml - £8.99 Boots or Look Fantastic Not so much ‘cult’ as yet but definintely worth a mention. I really like this L’Oreal product for it’s effect and especially for the price point. It’s very light to wear on the skin and does a lovely job adding luminosity, particularly for those skins that don’t get to see the light of day due to a job or lack of sleep, poor diet, and so on. I don’t use it as a primer as such but simply to add luminosity if I feel my skin needs to liven the hell up and look perky! It claims to add hydration for up to 8hours and it blends seemlessly into the skin. Superb under liquid foundation or used before applying BB/CC creams. Great value product!
MAC Strobe Cream in Original or Gold 50ml - £21.25 Debenhams and John Lewis cheapest or mini travel size 30ml £12.50 from Look Fantastic
A favourite of Kylie Minogue amongst many other A list fans and makeup artists worldwide. Not only are the top ingredients of MAC’s iconic ‘Strobe Cream’ extremely similar, if not exactly the same, to ‘Wonderglow’ but it’s hard to tell both products apart when applied to the skin. Packed with skin goodies like Green Tea and natural antioxidants to brighten, nourish and protect the skin, Strobe Cream also promises to brighten the complexion and improve skin tone courtesy of the rich botanicals and slow time release to ensure prolonged moisturisation. You can see more of the benefits of this little beauty on the MAC website or at Look Fantastic. More of a moisturising product than a primer, you can wear this alone for the ‘I wake up like this every day…honest I do’ look or you can mix it with your moisturiser if you want to lessen the ‘glow’ or mix it into your foundation for a ‘glowing’ effect. You can also use this on top of foundation - just dab a few dots onto your high outer cheekbones et voila! A suberb legendary product at almost half the price of ‘Wonderglow’. What’s not to like?!
NARS Illuminator - 30ml Debenhams and John Lewis cheapest at £20.40 or £23 from Look Fantastic
Like MAC, Nars has been setting makeup trends for over 20 years now. Many of their products are as legendary as MAC’s which is why the brands have lasted the course in an ever growing market place with Indie brands popping up almost daily. Brighten and illuminate your complexion with any of the Nars Illuminator shades (there are 4) but the one that is closest in appearance to Charlotte Tilbury’s Wonderglow is ‘Hot Sand’. It applies beautifully sheer with a transluscent finish and like MAC’s Strobe Cream, can be worn alone, mixed with moisturiser or foundation. A beautiful product for summer and those natural ‘no makeup’ days. The shade ‘Copacabana’ is particularly pretty on very fair and pale skin tones. And then of course, you have the famous ‘Orgasm’ which is a fabulous peachy pink with shimmer. Refreshed, radiant and glowing.
Elf Beautifully Bare Glow Lotion 25ml - £9 from Feel Unique
This micro shimmering pearlised lotion is infused with skin goodies like Vitamin E, Orange, Lemon and Grape Extract to give you instant hydration, highlighted and glowy looking skin. Why not mix it in with your moisturiser or foundation to get more of an illuminating tinted moisturiser effect.
Clarins Beauty Flash Balm 50ml - £27.20 All Beauty
An oldie but a goodie! To to be clear: there are NO light reflective particles in this product. No shimmery pearl to give you that ‘highlighted’ effect but you will certainly look luminous for hours when using this cult product, trust me! Beauty Flash Balm has been an Award Winner for decades and you won’t be disappointed should you try this. This is an incredible and iconic product that boosts radiance - in a flash - it tightens and reduces the appearance of fine lines, it minimises signs of fatigue, it can be used as a ‘pick me up’ mask if you are in a rush off out, and overall it gives you softer, smoother more radiant looking skin. It truly is the ultimate pick me up for skin…..but it also keeps your makeup in place beautifully which is the bonus with this wonder product! It’s like Spanx for the face basically. Everyone should try it at least once! Makeup artists have used this for decades as a multipurpose ‘one stop shop’ skin care and primer rolled all into one tube of fabulousness.
! CAUTION !
Stay away from anything pearlised or labelled ‘illuminating’, ‘glowy’ or ‘dewy’ if you have oily skin or blemishes or other lumps and bumps you would prefer to hide.
You don’t want to ‘highlight’ any issues that you prefer to stay hidden.
Under no circumstances apply a highlighting product on unprepped oily skin or you will look like you ran 5 marathons on the equator wearing a woollen onesie…!!! NOT a good look……you have been warned :)