| Review | Charlotte Tilbury Brightening Youth Glow

| Review | Charlotte Tilbury Brightening Youth Glow

If you follow Charlotte Tilbury, celebrity makeup artist and the queen of the Hollywood glow,  you probably have a life-long obsession with achieving her signature glow. When she came out with this primer, I KNEW I had to try it! Lately, I have been really getting back into my primers, especially the glowy ones. There are a shocking amount of illuminating primers on the market and many of them I love. Since Charlotte Tilbury is known for her celebrity glow, I came in having very high expectations for this primer. 

The Charlotte Tilbury Brightening Youth Glow retails for $55.00 USD for 1.35 oz and is available at Nordstrom, Beautylish, Charlotte Tilbury, and other retailers. No doubt getting that Hollywood glow comes at a price. Her brand is definitely in the luxury category of makeup but from my experience, well worth the price. You seem to get a very fair amount of product for the price. I would say over 1.0oz is pretty generous for a luxury brand, considering the standard is usually 1.0oz. The packaging is a sleek plastic tube with a rose gold twist off cap, identical to the Light Wonder Youth-Boosting Perfect Skin Foundation (one of my favorites). I enjoy this packaging because it is incredibly travel friendly and easy to use, with the spout tip that dispenses a precise amount of product. 

Like I mentioned previously, I am kind of a self-proclaimed glowy primer connoisseur. Not only do I own them but I collect them because with winter and my dry skin, I would do anything to maintain my glow. This particular primer is not only marketed as a illuminating primer but an anti-aging and color-correcting skincare product as well! If you have been following the blog or me for a while, you will know that I am also obsessed with makeup-skincare hybrids, so this product is really up my alley! 

THE GLOW

Let's talk about the glow that this product gives. It is subtle, natural, and very healthy looking. The white pearl with a very subtle pink reflect running through is ultra-fine and the product is very sheer. The runny fluid texture easily glide all over the face and absorbs very quickly. Once it is absorbed, it almost "sets" or dries down to a smooth skin-like finish but still maintains a nice glow, without the tackiness or wet texture that you commonly associate with a glowing primer. It seems to hydrate and smooth out texture, which is always a good thing. This glow is very fresh and very subtle, reminiscent of my longtime favorite primer the Burberry Fresh Glow Luminous Base (check out my full review here). Like the Burberry, I prefer to mix this product into my foundation for extra glow. It really helps my base look luminous but still very natural and healthy looking. 

This primer has very minimal oil-controlling properties. The primer controls oil for 4-5 hours with powder but throughout the day, my oil (which is pretty minimal since I have dry skin) starts to come through. I recommend powdering your skin to help minimize oil. 

THE SKINCARE BENEFITS

According to the description on the Nordstrom's website, this primer is supposed to:

Its powerful ingredients improve redness and skin discoloration by controlling skin's production of melanin, and instantly blur away blemishes, cancel shadows and even out the skin's complexion. An anti-shadow eraser filter optically softens lines and undereye bags. After four weeks, your skin tone is lifted and brighter, and signs of aging are visibly erased. It goes to work instantly, leaving skin radiant, balanced and healthy. Over time, your skin tone is balanced and brightened and skin is left more supple and elastic.

4 weeks! Hmm...it is very possible that this product can improve my skin in 4 weeks but it could also be possible that my skincare routine is doing the work too. I am not going to be stopping my skincare routine any time soon and I honestly can't see myself using this product for 4 consecutive weeks, including days when I don't wear makeup, like on weekends, because I don't particularly like the feeling of this product alone on my dry skin. It's more "mattified" finish makes my dry skin feel a bit dry without foundation or a base product on top. Additionally, I know many of us who have fairly extensive makeup and skincare collections often don't stick with a a product for a whole 4 weeks. So while I am curious about the skincare claims of this product, I won't be testing the effects of continuous 4 week wear, plus it's just not realistic to test this product for 4 weeks because I don't see myself ever using this for even 5 consecutive days. As far as the skincare claims go, I don't think anyone is actually buying this product based on its skincare claims however, I have noticed my sun spots lightening significantly since using this product. To be honest, I think it is largely due to my skincare regimen but a little extra skincare treatment in my makeup routine never hurts! 

I enjoy this product a lot however, it isn't what I expected it to be. I thought it would be similar to the texture of the Wonderglow Instant-Soft Focus Beauty Flash but it has a much more mattified (more like skin-like and soft-focused) finish than I expected, instead of glowing and moisturizing. I was hoping it would look more glowing without product on top but it seems to gravitate more towards a smoothing and oil-controlling primer finish. I do like it as a primer because it does offer a very natural glow and a smoothing effect. It makes my foundation look very flawless and fresh, plus it increases the wear-time of my base. I prefer this product mixed into my foundation because I think the glowing finish is more noticeable and the long-wearing properties are more prominent. I think it is a very nice product but not particularly unique to my collection of glowing primers. I do recommend this product but I personally prefer other glowing primers to this one, I feel this will work better on a normal to oilier skin type. For the price, it seems to do something similar to many other glowing primers on the market, plus a bit smoothing and oil-controlling. While I like it, I don't see myself repurchasing it but it is a very nice primer! 

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