How it’s happened that I don’t own a single rainbow highlighter (until now) is beyond me, but hey – here we are! I have to say, when one of my favourite brands decided to put out a rainbow highlighter with their latest collection, I was all over it – I had to have it!

Too Faced‘s Life’s A Festival collection focused on rainbows and unicorns, and one of the items that caught my eye the most was this Rainbow Strobe Highlighter. I just loved the idea of just putting a straight rainbow pattern on my face! But you do always have to question if it’ll come out just as pretty as you imagine it will.

The Rainbow Strobe Highlighter is infused with rose quartz to add some love energy to your makeup but I wouldn’t say that it actually does anything – just makes for cutesy marketing! They do claim it has a prismatic effect, and for me that basically boiled down to discovering that there are bit of finely milled glitter that are in the formula.

Too Faced encourages you to use a flat brush the width of the pan in order to get the full on rainbow effect. They do also make a rainbow brush that perfectly matches the size of the pan and all of the stripes, but I opted to only buy the highlighter and use one of my existing makeup brushes.

I had mixed feelings when I initially swatched the product. I expected the colours to come through a lot more. As you can see on the left, there is a hint of rainbow, but it’s quite pale. I suppose that’s what most people are going for when they want a rainbow highlighter – something subtle and not too in your face. I’m the opposite I suppose – I wanted something a little bit louder! You will have to layer the product a bit in order to get the effect you see on my arm.

When the colours are swirled all together, you get more of a pale-golden sheen. This is where the glitter sparkles are a lot more obvious, and I think it’s because they get knocked loose in the pan a bit more.

I first tried out the rainbow highlighter on my temple in this video, and you can see how it’s there… but it’s still what I would call a hint of a rainbow – it’s definitely on the sheer side of things. I also found that application was a little bit difficult: you have to have a brush that’s wide enough for the pan (which is not something most people have I don’t think) and you have to layer it on a lot in order to get the rainbow to show up. Also, the first few times I applied it I would it to be a bit chunky and the edges definitely needed blending out. Oddly, hard-pan formed pretty much instantly in the compact itself, but I didn’t notice much of a difference in colour payoff.

It was almost comical to me how the highlighter had SO MUCH more impact when I swirled it all together and applied it to my cheekbones. I actually gasped with shock the first time I did this because the light reflect from my cheekbone was so strong, it looked like I had applied five times the amount of highlighter that I normally would. This is also when I noticed that there were pieces of glitter in the formula. I can barely even express just how LOUD the highlighter looked swirled together. If you’re looking for a booming highlighter – this one will definitely deliver.

Final Thoughts

In terms of the Too Faced Rainbow Strobe Highlighter delivering a rainbow effect on my face… I’m not totally sold, but for me that’s because I wanted something a little bit stronger in pigmentation. However, this product really shines when you swirl the whole thing together. The highlighted effect is really, really strong that way, obnoxious even! Just be aware that there are glitter particles in it (that doesn’t bother me, but I know not everyone is keen on that).

The Too Faced Rainbow Strobe Highlighter can be purchased on sephora.ca for $38 CAD or on sephora.com for $30 USD.

This post contains affiliate links.

With the launch of their Life’s A Festival collection, Too Faced added another highlighter into the mix – the Unicorn Tears Iridescent Mystical Bronzer! Too Faced already has a fairly enormous range of bronzers, however this one is limited to the collection and won’t be around forever!

Too Faced says that: “for the first time ever we’ve combined the effects of the warm bronzer of sunlight, the ethereal glow of moonlight and the twinkling effect of starlight together for a unicorn of a bronzer and a festival glow like nothing you’ve ever seen.”

They also describe it as a satin bronzer/holographic highlighter infused with their festival scent (which was, at one point, labelled as a unicorn scent. Haha!). A few things on that though – the highlighter is not holographic and this definitely does not smell like the rest of their Life’s A Festival collection which is more of a sweet tarts smells. The bronzer smells like the rest of their cocoa-infused products – like chocolate!

Those nitpicks out of the way, the product itself is incredibly interesting. This is definitely one of the deeper bronzers in my collection – which means it will definitely work on someone who is a medium skintone. On me, at my winter palest, this is verging on far too dark and I have to use an extremely light hand and blend it out with my foundation sponge. This is not a complaint – I love bronzer and am more than happy to work with the product, but if you’re someone who is pale and wants something easy, this may not be what you’re looking for in a bronzer.

Swatched out you can see the difference in the shades. The bronzer is more shimmery than satin and the highlighter portion is essentially their Unicorn Tears highlighter. Swatched together the bronzer pales out a touch, but not too much, and it gets imbued with the sparkle from the highlighter. The point of this bronzer, in my eyes, is that the shades are not meant to be used independently which is fine by me because I like swirling my brush in a compact without having to be worried about staying inside the lines.

I apply my bronzer in the “3/backwards 3” area on my face: my temples, backs of my cheekbones and along my jawline. And on first application it was too strong, so I had to blend it out with my foundation sponge. But wow… what a difference in colour from what I normally wear in bronzers. This IS like sunlight and moonlight mixed together. It does veer more warm than cool, but you can absolutely see the different dimensions on your face.

One thing worth pointing out is that there is particle glitter in this formula, and it all comes from the unicorn head highlighter. I didn’t initially notice it when I tried it on in my video (see that try on here), but after closer inspection upon wearing it several more times, I could see that there was definite shimmer wherever the bronzer had been applied. This doesn’t bother me – I am a glitter freak after all – but for those not keen on glitter particles, this is not the bronzer for you.

Final Thoughts

Wow – what an unexpectedly fun product! I have no idea how Too Faced pulled off a sunlight/moonlight Unicorn Tears bronzer, but they did actually nail it! The shade, although wearable for me in the winter with a light hand and some extra blending, will be best suited for me in the summer when I’ve got more colour on my complexion.

The Too Faced Unicorn Tears Iridescent Mystical Bronzer can be purchased at sephora.ca for $38 CAD or on sephora.com for $30 USD.

The product featured in this post was sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.

While it was hard to narrow down exactly which items piqued my interest the most in the Too Faced Life’s A Festival collection, it had to be said that the Unicorn Highlighting Sticks were definitely near the top of that list!

The Unicorn Highlighting Sticks come in two shades – Unicorn Dreams (golden rose) and Unicorn Tears (opalescent blue) and both are touted as having a pearlescent gloss finish. (I would say yes to the pearlescent and no to the gloss – which is a good thing! I don’t want these to be glossy on my cheeks!) They also come with 7 grams/0.24 ounces of product, which is a substantial amount.

The most fun aspect of these is that the bullets are shaped like unicorn horns! I love that knotted/rope-type twist to them – it’s really cute! It’s also not awkward or detrimental towards application, which makes it a unique twist on an otherwise standard cream highlighting stick.

Too Faced Unicorn Highlighting Stick Swatches

Swatched out, you can see their pigment and colouring is strong, but not over the top – which is perfect for a highlighter. I was expecting Unicorn Tears to appear more like their lipstick of the same name, but it’s really more of a blue tinted highlighter without the additional purple that the lipstick has. Unicorn Dreams is gorgeous – a deep pink with a golden glow. While both highlighters have a shimmer/sheen to them, neither of them have any particles of glitter.

On the cheeks, Unicorn Dreams is easily my favourite. It was creamy and easy to apply (I swiped it on to my cheeks straight from the bullet and blended it out with my fingertips). The colour is BEAUTIFUL! It’s not a shade I would normally reach for, but I found myself completely enamoured with its highlighting prowess on my cheek!

Oddly enough, Unicorn Tears didn’t wow me as much as Unicorn Dreams did. While I like the colour, I did find it was a bit more subtle than I was expecting, especially given how intense the original arm swatch appeared. I felt like the texture on Unicorn Tears was a bit stiffer and harder to blend out. It’s beautiful, but it just wasn’t as impressive as Unicorn Dreams.

Final Thoughts

Unicorn Dreams is the clear winner between these two for me. I love the golden pink hue that it adds to my cheeks, and I feel like the highlighting capabilities are stronger as well. Unicorn Tears might be best suited to someone who wants to try out “off colour” highlighters, but doesn’t want anything too bold. For me though… I’ll definitely be sticking with Unicorn Dreams!

The Too Faced Unicorn Highlighting Sticks can be purchased at sephora.ca for $39.00 USD each or on sephora.com for $28 USD.

If you want to see the bulk of the Too Faced Life’s A Festival collection in action, look no further than this video!

The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.