Do you remember the good highlighter resurgence of 2017? Team Allure can’t ever forget. That 12 months, we tested 310 recent highlighter submissions for Better of Beauty (a staggering amount in comparison with the previous 12 months’s 44). As one in every of the testers within the growing category, I quickly discovered that I prefer a highlighter with finely-milled shimmer (versus chunky glitter) that offers me a natural-looking, not-at-all-greasy glow.

Through the years, I’ve added quite a number of to my regular rotation, but one literally outshines all of them: the Rare Beauty Positive Light Silky Touch Highlighter. Housed in a pink compact with an enclosure that snaps shut, this powder highlighter sweeps on as light-as-air powder before quickly melting onto skin. Its velvety-soft texture? That’s the boron nitride within the formula, explains cosmetic chemist Ginger King.

The brand claims it’s transfer-proof, smudge-proof, and water-resistant — lofty guarantees that King says are possible due to its hefty use of silicone and polymers. It also comprises tapioca starch. “Yes, the tapioca like that of a boba drink,” King says. “It absorbs oil for longer wear.”

My go-to shade is Exhilarate, a champagne that appears cool against my medium-tan skin. I might typically apply the Rare Beauty highlighter with the Sigma Beauty F03 High Cheekbone brush or any small fluffy brush I could get my hands on. I’d flippantly swirl the comb across the domed pressed powder and sweep it along my cheekbones and browbones with short, quick strokes. Makeup artist Joseph Carrillonevertheless, introduced me to a special approach: “I exploit the belly of a barely-damp Beauty blender,” he says, explaining that he likes to dab the highlighter-dipped sponge onto the inner corners of his clients’ eyes, in addition to the information of their noses. “You may press within the glow making it look more skin-like and fewer powdery.”

Sigma Beauty F03 High Cheekbone Highlighter Brush

$21 at Nordstrom

$21 at Neiman Marcus

Beautyblender The Original

$20 at Sephora

$20 at Ulta Beauty

He goes on to elucidate that it blends the highlighter more evenly, so the finish is “less like a highlighter was placed there,” and I could not agree more.

The above selfies show what the highlighter looks like when applied with a brush in addition to a wet sponge. When using a brush, I discovered that the finish was much a more-intense, mirror-like glow. (Take a look at how the sunshine just bounces off of the world with the powder swept onto it.) With the damp-sponge method, the radiance is diffused. My skin looks more like skin, and fewer like skin with highlighter on it. To not say either method is best, but I prefer the latter final result.

Rare Beauty Positive Light Silky Touch Highlighter

$25 at Sephora

I put this formula to the test in lots of scenarios: to the office on busy work days (it looked just nearly as good because it did once I first put it on), Solidcore workout classes where I inevitably forget to remove my makeup beforehand (it looked much more diffused and skin-like), and date nights with my fiancé (where I, *wink*, confirmed with confidence that the formula is transfer-proof). It is a dreamy highlighter, made much more otherworldly with its price point. Highlighters with an analogous effect range from $9 to $42, and this one with its unique texture and formula falls right in the center.