theBalm Mary Lou Manizer Highlighter Review

So, my loves, I need to confess something. I might be cheating am pretty much letting this pan of gorgeousness take over my life, my feelings and all my day dreaming and night time um, dreams too! Ever since I saw this on Kaushal (from Kaushal beauty!) wearing this, I was sold. I did see it on a lot of other fair ladies first, but I din't know if it would be any good as a highlighter on my medium deep Indian skintone (NC 40 in MAC , for reference). I din't want to look like a disco- ball sprinkling frosty glitter as I twirled, no? I might have given a lot of you a horrifying mental picture, sorry. Read on to know why I love this girl.

First, let's take a moment and soak the beauty in. Just look at the vintage packaging, you guys! I'm not one to fall for packaging usually, because as long as a product works great, and the packaging has no 'mechanical' faults. I'm good. But this here, is pure genius. I crave the Cindy Lou Manizer now! Not the Betty Lou Manizer, because I don't know what it would do (too dark as a highlighter, and too glowy/ shimmery as a contour?!). Let me dream about it first! Okay so, anyway, Mary Lou, here is convicted. And she sits in the jail called my heart now! Ok, sorry again for that mental picture! No more. I promise.

It's a vintage looking round pan full of product. It comes with a mirror of its own that's very helpful. The packaging seems sturdy enough, but I have a feeling it'll break shatter into pieces if dropped. So, don't.

It's the most stunning pale gold colour, with just a hint of champagne in it, and I think this quality of this highlighter makes it so universally flattering. Mary Lou Manizer adds a glow to ones face, without gritty sparkle/ shimmer. But the 'glow' is intense, you guys! So just a tiny bit of product goes a long way.

The Balm 's Mary Lou Manizer is insanely pigmented, and extremely soft. With texture like butter, it's a dream to blend it into my skin. You just need to start off with little product a keep building.

I like using it with my Real Techniques Contour Brush from their Duo Fibre Collection, and the sparsely packed upper bristles of the brush pick up just the right amount of this product. It can be used as an inner corner (eye) highlight, the brow bone highlight & an all over wash over eye lids as well. 

What I love most about this highlighter is the fact that it looks completely natural and blended and jiust adds the right glow without making one look oily or shimmery. Extremely shimmery highlighters emphasize open pores and look tacky. This doesn't.

 In the photos below, Ive worn them quite heavily for it to completely show up in the pictures and in the last picture, I wore it as I normally would and the glow is so stunning!

I ordered my Mary Lou Manizer from the Luxola India website where, unfortunately it's out of stock right now. It's also available on Amazon.in and many other websites.
I paid Rs 2447 for my pan. Prices vary based on the website.
It goes without saying that I love theBalm Mary Lou Manizer a lot, and while highlighting can seem like an 'extra step' or an after thought to re rest of your makeup, Once you start doing it, you can't wait to finish putting your makeup on, (because I do, just this!) just so you can get to the part where you make yourself glow! Or let Mary glow you, whatever!