Charlotte Tilbury Bar of Gold Highlighter ♡ Swatches & Before + After Application Comparison

Charlotte Tilbury Bar of Gold Highlighter was first released in 2013 as part of The Holidays Collection, it was a Limited Edition product that Charlotte Tilbury occasionally brings back as a 'back by popular demand' item. 

I bought my Bar of Gold Highlighter from Nordstrom in 2015, at the time of my purchase, this product was marked as a Limited Edition item with limited quantities and it made me think that if I don't buy this, it will be gone forever. 

As you know, I buy majority of my makeup based on the packaging and the Bar of Gold Highlighter is one of those products that I must have in my collection because the packaging is to-die-for, or at least I think so at the time of my purchase. I admit that I haven't give this highlighter much attention since my purchase because it's not as amazing as expected, but I have recently started using this highlighter again and I find that I actually quite like it. 

So today I am sharing with you an overall review of the Charlotte Tilbury Bar of Gold Highlighter, I feel that the packaging isn't as luxury as expected, but the product quality deserves a mention on my blog. Plus, I love Charlotte Tilbury and I want to review as much of her products on my blog as I can, after all it's my all-time favourite beauty brand!

Charlotte Tilbury Bar of Gold Highlighter

Charlotte Tilbury Bar of Gold Highlighter

Charlotte Tilbury Bar of Gold Highlighter

Charlotte Tilbury Bar of Gold Highlighter

Charlotte Tilbury Bar of Gold Highlighter features a light-reflecting ingredient that lift dull skin and sculpt your cheekbones to perfection. It claims to create a radiant, glossy complexion in just five gentle strokes across the cheekbones, temples, nose and cupid's bow with its delicately-fine, softly-glided formula. This highlighter is idea for lifting and illuminating dull skin and hides imperfections with its' luxurious pure gold pearls.

As mentioned earlier, I bought this highlighter purely for the packaging and it turned out to be a huge disappointment as the actual product looks nothing like their promotional photos online.

In Charlotte Tilbury's promotional photos, the highlighter looks like an actual bar of gold, it looks luxurious and I imagined that if it's not made in a glass material, it would at least come in a plastic compact like all her other products; but the highlighter arrives in a cardboard box type of material, it didn't even come with an outer packaging. The gold packaging looks expensive, but the overall feel of the product felt very cheaply made.

I feel that if Charlotte Tilbury makes the Bar of Gold Highlighter in a plastic casing, it would make a huge difference on the overall appearance because the actual highlighter and the design is beautifully made.

Charlotte Tilbury Bar of Gold Highlighter

I love all types of highlighters, depends on the occasion, I like the ones with a sheer pigmentation that applies with a subtle glow, but I especially love the ones that are very pigmented and applies with a blind-ya-eyez glow on the cheek. My highlighter could be popping or it could be a hint of glow, either way, my only expectation is that it must look natural.

Charlotte Tilbury Bar of Glow Highlighter is made with a very finely milled powder that glides on the skin soft and so smoothly. When I swipe my finger across the highlighter, the colour is shown as a super pigmented white gold and when I apply the highlighter on my cheekbones with a fan brush, the pigmentation is very sheer, but you can still see the glow, it looks very subtle and natural.

You can build up the highlighter to add that extra glow on the cheek, but you cannot pack-on the product to get that blind-ya-eyez super pigmented glow effect.

Charlotte Tilbury Bar of Gold Highlighter

Charlotte Tilbury Bar of Gold Highlighter

Here is a before and after application comparison of the Charlotte Tilbury Bar of Gold Highlighter. I am not sure if you can see the difference on your screen, but on my computer screen, it shows that the right photo has that subtle glow on the cheek.

The comparison photos were taken in-door on a sunny day without flash and please keep in mind that I did smooth out my skin in both photos, but no extra glow effects was added. If you are able to see the glow on the picture on the right, that is the actual result of after applying Bar of Gold.

Overall I love the product quality of the Charlotte Tilbury Bar of Gold Highlighter but I definitely think that Charlotte Tilbury could do better on the packaging because no one expects to get a cardboard box packaging from such a luxury high-end brand. Plus, I just cannot imagine mixing Charlotte Tilbury and bad product packaging together because all her other products, even non Limited Edition ones feels and looks like the price you pay for, all her other products feels expensive, looks luxurious and they are always perfection. Don't you think?!