Highlighters: Kide "Gold" vs. Honest Beauty "Midnight Reflection"

I'm pretty minimal in makeup, and don't feel the need to have more than one of certain products (with exception to lip products), so I was very happy with my Kide Y Highlighter in color Gold. I have a review on it here. However, I came across Honest Beauty, and to satisfy my interest in the brand I purchased a few products. One of those products was Luminizing Powder in color Midnight Reflection. The second I tried it out, I knew I want to make this comparison post.

Kide is a Finnish brand that uses diamond dust in its products. It caught my interest a while ago, but the only place to get Kide products in the USA is thedetoxmarket.com, and with high prices ($85 per item) it kept me in doubt for a while. Y Highlighter is still available on the website, and is currently on sale for $55. I have color Gold, but it comes in Silver as well.

Honest Beauty is Jessica Alba's company, which offers clean products for face and body. Luminizing Powder comes in 3 shades, and retails for $25.

Both highlighters come in the same size - 10 g / 0.35 oz, but the packaging differs a lot. Kide comes in a wooden box, and is quite bulky. That might not be a problem if you only keep it at home, but if you want to throw it in your handbag for touch-ups or when traveling it takes up a lot of makeup bag's space. Also, you probably noticed that the box looks dirty - it is, because the box is made from untreated wood, and every single dust sticks to it without a possibility to clean it. Honest Beauty's packaging is way sleeker, and is convenient to take with you on the go. It has a built in mirror as well which is a great bonus (even though I personally rarely use mirrors on product's packaging).  

While both of these products seem different in the packaging, the effect is super comparable after they're applied on the skin. As you can see from the photo, Kide highlighter (on the left) is multicolor with gold swirls in it. It also seems a bit darker, a bit powdery and has more visible glitters. It's softer to the touch and gets on the brush in a second while Honest Beauty has harder texture (not a hard one that requires struggle to transfer to the brush though!!!). Honest Beauty highlighter (on the right) has an even color, seems smoother, and is less shiny. In fact, for a moment I thought I might use it on the whole face, but that was until I tried it out.

I know this photo is very light, but I hope you can see the applied highlighters on my hand (top one is Kide, bottom one is Honest Beauty). I tried to capture the shimmer in the light from a few different angles. As you can see, the result on the skin is so similar that it's impossible to tell which is which. Both highlighters give a smooth effect without any single sparkling particles.


I still love having both of them in my makeup drawer, and choosing one of them would be tough. Due to the identical results and product size Honest Beauty's slimmer packaging and more affordable price seems to be a natural winner. Though diamond dust in Kide's highlighter is so tempting, because who doesn't like diamonds?