Becca Mini Highlighters Love to Break, so I Mixed Two Broken Powders With a Liquid to Make a Cream

By Kimberly

BECCA Mini Highlighters arrive broken almost as often as they arrive intact, so I would never recommend purchasing a mini. The price per ounce is also too high that way even though it is a beautiful highlighter formula. If you must have a mini, try to get it in a GWP, subscription, or a kit. The Champagne Pop I received in my July 2019 Sephora Play Box and Rose Gold I got in an Ulta GWP (did not write an article on that) arrived broken. Thankfully, I already owned both shades, so it was not a big deal. Instead of repressing them, I decided to combine them with some liquid opal to make a new shade in a cream format.

A Brief History of the BECCA Mini Highlighters Breaking

Ulta used to put out a lot of BECCA sets, and the mini highlighters in them rarely arrived intact. Repressing a shade when you already own it is not the best use of time or energy. Giving away a repressed shade (even when unused) is tricky. Very few people want it. The Rose Gold Shade I received in the Best of BECCA Collection was cracked, but I was able to successfully repress it.

The Opal in the Best of BECCA Blushed Radiance arrived broken twice.

The replacement was worse than the original.

The Moonstone in the Radiant Glow Kit arrived pulverized.

Sephora (with the exception of the Play Boxes) packages its BECCA Minis in kits better. They are incased in deep plastic to prevent them from moving during transit.

This helps them arrive intact more often.

As proven with the recent Ulta GWP, the standard box is not enough to protect it.

Making A New BECCA Highlighter From Three BECCA Shades

I grabbed and old Bite Beauty Lipstick Tin to use as my container to house my new cream highlighter. It does not have an airtight seal, but none of my other cream highlighters do either. This is what the holiday lipstick set usually comes in. There is plenty of surface space and a lovely mirror. Whether to use the Moon Mousse Magic Repair Kit or not was a concern. While I wanted it to dry out the product a little, I did not want it to reset it into a powder or a crumbly cream. That is the main reason I opted not to use alcohol.

Though I expected a light layer across the bottom, I really thought the BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed Rose Gold, the BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed Champagne Pop, and the three tiny samples of BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector Liquid Opal would fill the pan. It did not even come close.

I added a 0.68oz BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector Liquid Opal to the formula. It was at this point that I knew I would use the Moon Mousse Magic Repair Kit. Otherwise, I did not think it would finish as a cream. View that dedicated article to see how the product works.

Even after adding the Moon Mousse, I worried it would not become a cream. I did not want to break a powder highlighter to add more powder in case this experiment did not work out. My idea was to add a regular, setting powder to thicken it a bit. The Kat Von D Lock-It Setting Powder was out on my desk, so I used it. There was no other reason. This powder is only okay to me.

It did thicken the formula a little, bit I noticed it did not blend well with the other mixture. There was texture and powder that was not wet.

In case you wanted to see the mess from my experiment, here it is.

The next day, I was happy to see the consistency was right where I wanted it. This was a perfect cream that swiped like a cream. Yes, I could not resist swiping before I photographed it, so that is my fingerprint. What I was not thrilled to see but not surprised by either were all the air holes. That likely was caused by the setting powder I added in that did not blend into the formula. It left a less than perfect texture in the pan.

As expected, the resulting color is in between the three shades. It is not as light as Champagne Pop, not as dark as Opal, and not as pink as Rose Gold. The shade is still a little too dark on my skin tone to use as a traditional highlighter.

It also has a lot of texture, which is extremely uncommon for a BECCA Highlighter. While I could say that makes my experiment a failure, I plan on wearing this unconventionally, so I can use it. I will wear it on my neck and collarbone, shoulders when exposed, and the perimeter of my face when I want a glow. There is not a lot of texture in any of those places, so the odd texture cannot blend with the texture of my textured skin to make it stand out. Besides, unless I had medium skin, I could not have worn this as a traditional highlighter anyway.

Here it is on my neck and collar bone.

Here it is on the perimeter of my face.

Here is a side view of my face, so you can see how it lights it up. Yes, you can see texture on my face, because I never edit my pictures. The added texture is coming from the BB cream. It does not seem like the highlighter added much texture, but again, I did not place it in areas where I have a lot. Otherwise, it would have.

I enjoy the glow and color of both. This experiment was somewhat successful. If you choose to embark on a similar experiment for your broken highlighters, do not use setting powder, use less liquid highlighter, and use a smaller container. Have fun. See all DIY articles. Subscribe to the blog to get updates on all posts. View my main page for the guide map to the site and deeper deal exploration.

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