theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer

I purchased Mary-Lou Manizer during the last theBalm sale on Hautelook. It usually retails for $24 but with the Hautelook discount I only paid $12. Let me tell you, it’s totally worth all the hype. I’ve been using it religiously this past month and I absolutely love it! It’s better than I hoped for or expected.

Mary Lou-Manizer doesn’t look very special in the compact — it’s your typical golden champagne color — but this bad gal is crazy pigmented.

theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer

Here’s a quick comparison of Mary-Lou Manizer with some of the other golden/warm highlighters I had in my stash. I’ve gotten rid of a few of them since purchasing Mary-Lou Manizer.

As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, I didn’t really care for the Wet n Wild Reserve Your Cabana powder. My skin eats anything glowy or dewy so I found Reserve Your Cabana very powdery and matte on my skin.

Clockwise from top left: theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer, Prestige Pure Shimmer, Wet n Wild Reserve Your Cabana, LORAC Spotlight

The LORAC Spotlight powder had much nicer texture but the color was too bronzey for me.

The Prestige Pure Shimmer powder isn’t something that I hear much about but it’s always been my favorite drugstore highlighter. It’s nicely pigmented and isn’t chunky, glittery or chalky at all. Just a pretty, pure shimmer as the name says.

Left to right: LORAC Spotlight, Wet n Wild Reserve Your Cabana, Prestige Pure Shimmer, theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer

The first time I tested out Mary-Lou Manizer I was shocked. Just take a look at that swatch. The pigmentation is insane! I was very worried about using the powder on my face because it looked so frosty metallic in the swatch. Next to Mary-Lou Manizer my other highlighters look very matte and super subtle.

Left to right: LORAC Spotlight, Wet n Wild Reserve Your Cabana, Prestige Pure Shimmer, theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer

Have no fear though! All you need to use is the tiniest bit to make an impact. When I use Mary-Lou Manizer I only touch the very tip of my brush against the surface of the powder to pick up an itty bitty amount of product. That’s enough to add oomph to my cheekbones and give my face that much sought after luminosity. Once it’s blended out it looks so naturally glowy, not over the top at all. The texture’s fantastic, so creamy smooth for a powder and easy to blend.

LORAC Spotlight (left), theBalm Mary-Lou Manizer (right)

theBalm’s Mary-Lou Manizer is seriously an awesome highlighter that, in my opinion, deserves all the hype and accolades it receives. And it’s such a great value! Given how little I need to use per application, this compact will probably last me forever. It’s easily become my favorite higlighter.

I haven’t tried Mary-Lou Manizer as an eyeshadow yet but if it looks as pretty on the lids as it did in that heavy swatch it’ll just be another reason to love this powder.