Review of Dr Perricone MD’s “No Highlighter Highlighter” skincare makeup with photos and swatch

Can I just say first of all No Highlighter Highlighter is a highlighter. A jolly nice one at that. I fell for it when I first clapped eyes on its cute little bottle.
Here is what Dr Perricone says about it-

No Highlighter Highlighter is an innovative color treatment designed with light-reflecting pearls to bring instant radiance to the skin. Formulated with Vitamin C Ester to help brighten the skin and diffuse imperfections caused by sun damage. Designed in one universal shade, No Highlighter Highlighter enhances contours, improves skin tone and smoothes skin’s texture.

Dr Perricone does a whole line of No Makeup Makeup- No Foundation Foundation, No Concealer, No Eyeshadow Eyeshadow… it’s too tedious to type them all out. It seems silly to say that this makeup isn’t makeup when it clearly is. No Highlighter Highlighter definitely is a highlighter. I imagine the “no” bit refers to its skincare focus also it’s a pretty Au Naturel sort of makeup, which I think will appeal to a lot of ladies.

I had a samples of the (not) foundation when I bought the highlighter and Dr Perricone High Potency Face Firming Activator so I’ll tell you about those too.

Dr Perricone No Highlighter Highlighter Review

No Highlighter Highlighter comes in a small matte glass bottle with a doe foot applicator. You get 10ml for £29. So not much. 

It’s active ingredients are Vitamin C Ester and DMAE. Vitamin C is proven to improve skin brightness and reverse sun damage. DMAE is a blahdiblah chemical that is meant to smooth wrinkles, here’s a Study on its effectiveness. No Highlighter Highlighter also contains date fruit extract and anti aging peptides. It will take 8 weeks of use before you begin to see results.
Here are the swatches, the brown one is the No Foundation Foundation-

Dr Perricone recommends shaking the bottle well then applying a couple of dots of No Highlighter Highlighter on the upper cheeks and dot with a finger. It’s a pale pearlescent liquid of a thin consistency. It’s thinner than Benefits Highglow for your reference.

No Highlighter Highlighter gives  the most lovely natural highlight. It feels like an oil and absorbs leaving plump glowing skin. I use it under the eye and over my cheek bones, where my face could do with some light and moisture. It really does the job of disguising sleeplessness. I’m totally sold on it. 

As you can see it’s a subtle effect. It doesn’t look like makeup, so it’s a perfect highlighter for daytime. I think it would work on any skintone because it’s translucent.

 I would be lying if I said it’s de-aged my eyes, I’d like to think it has. In fairness, I probably haven’t given it long enough to tell. Based on its makeup merits alone, It’s a great (if rather expensive) purchase.

No Foundation Foundation isn’t for me. I definitely chose the right Dr Perricone product to try. It’s a sort of tan coloured oil. It would be fine if you already have good normal skin, but for me- oily and spotty as I am, it’s not enough of a foundation .

Dr Perricone High Potency Face Firming Activator is a concentrated serum containing Dr Perricone’s proprietary ingredients ( DMAE, vitamin C ester, alpha lipoic acid) and other Antiaging things. It has about 10% glycolic acid. When I first tried it, I slapped it on willy nilly, not really paying attention. Until my face started burning! Which in my book is a good thing. If it hurts it means there’s a decent quantity of acid and it will actually be doing something. I would totally want a pot of this stuff, except that that pot would cost £80.

No Highlighter Highlighter by Dr Perricone is a great double duty product. I don’t mind that it cost nearly £30 because it does wonderful things.

Available from Lookfantastic!

  ( These products were purchased by moi. Contains affiliate links, so please click away! )