Here’s What Pat McGrath’s New Makeup Looks Like on 3 Different Skin Tones
The Skin Fetish trio. (Photo: Nadeen Nakib for Yahoo Beauty)
Meet makeup artist Pat McGrath’s latest makeup product(s): Skin Fetish 003. Shimmery, ethereal, iridescent — the $72 highlighter-balm-pigment combo pretty much guarantees you runway skin and glowing cheekbones.
There are three components to the kit. First is a creamy highlighter, on one end of a chubby stick applicator. On the other end is a balm that glides on more like an oil than a lip balm, which is nice if you’re using it near your eyes. Then there’s a powdery pigment that looks like her cult favorite eyeshadow but is sheer enough to work anywhere on your face. The kit comes in two shades: Version Nude (pictured and used here), with a nude highlighter and pink pigment, and Version Golden, with a golden highlighter and fine gold pigment.
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There are three ways to use the products too. The first is by swiping the highlighter or balm on solo to make cheekbones pop. Bump it up a notch by combining the two, dabbing balm on top of highlighter for dewy accentuation. Take it all the way by brushing the pigment on top of the balm and highlighter — plus on your Cupid’s bow, chin, nose, and anywhere else that needs some luminosity.
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We’d already seen the kit in action at the Valentino runway show in February (surprise, surprise — the models looked luminous), but what would it look like in the real world? To test out the kit, three Yahoo Beauty staffers tried each of the three methods on the back of our hands. Would it work on everyone’s skin tones, I wondered? (Spoiler alert: Yes. It would.) Something to note: We laid the highlighter on thick, half because I needed it to show up in pictures, and half because I wanted our hands to shine with all they’ve got. So the following pictures are slightly exaggerated for clarity, but you’ll get the idea.
My hand. (Photo: Yahoo Beauty)
On my pale, ruddy hands (note to self: start using sunscreen on hands EVERY DAY), the highlighter looked slightly chalky, but using balm underneath mellowed it into a pearly glow. Adding balm was key for all our hands, I found — it turned shimmer into sheen and smoothed out any cream highlighter that sunk into wrinkles. See how strong and accented my tendon looks in the photo, like it could take on the world? The balm-highlighter combo did the same thing for my cheekbones when I tried it later. The pigment didn’t do much on me, to be honest — it just made the shine stick looks a little less shimmery and more iridescent.
Hanifa’s hand. (Photo: Yahoo Beauty)
On Hanifa, our photo intern, the highlighter appeared a little silver. The balm smoothed it out into a mellower sheen that looked like her skin was lit from within — in a pretty way, though, and not like when you stick a megawatt flashlight under the palm of your hand (try it). The pigment turned up the color to a rose gold, which made her look even more like the angel she is (thanks for your help with this shoot, girl!).
Jihan’s hand. (Photo: Yahoo Beauty)
For Jihan, an editor at Yahoo Style, the highlighter was pretty pale — though we really did layer it on. Adding balm to the equation smoothed it out into a high-beam luster (her tendon could take on the world too). But she really lucked out with the pigment. On her darker skin, the pigment looked truly pink — so pink that I spent another minute furiously piling it onto my own skin, but it stayed the same pearly tint for me. On Jihan, it was the perfect shade of sheer, silky ballet-shoe pink.
So what did we learn here? The kit really molds to each user, and there’s a reason a balm is attached to the highlighter. Use it. Want to swatch it on yourself? You can’t scoop one up just yet — the kit goes on sale at noon on April 26 on patmcgrath.com, and on sephora.com and in Sephora stores on May 10 — but you can daydream for now.
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