When I caught a first glimpse of Fenty Beauty's new Killawatt Foil Palette — the brand's first-ever highlighter palette — I immediately had two thoughts.
The first was, "Holy cow, I need this." The second was, "Oh, none of these shades are going to work for my pale skin." Turns out, that second instinct was not true.
After the brand sent me a Killawatt palette to try out for myself, I spent a week discovering just how versatile it really is for any skin tone. Unsurprisingly, I fell head over heels in love.
Yes, the new Fenty Beauty highlighter palette pops most on deep skin tones — and that is a great thing.
Pale women such as myself have endless highlighters to chose from, given the beauty industry's systemic exclusion of people of color. Historically speaking, the darker your skin is, the fewer options you have in the world of mainstream cosmetics.
Rihanna is out here straight-up changing the way the world works for the better.
That being said, if you have a light or medium skin tone, that should not deter you from buying this palette if it caught your eye like it did mine.
First of all: THIS PACKAGING. It's everything you want in a palette.
It's lightweight, feels sturdy, fits easily in the palm of my hand, has a large mirror I can effortlessly fold backward, is uniquely shaped yet flat and easy to store, and it's holographic. Goddamn flawless.
Every shade in this palette glides on like a buttery metallic eye shadow would, except for shades Subzero (second from top) and Scandal'Ice (bottom), which have a sheer base with chunkier glitter.
But what sets these highlighters apart from the rest is how multidimensional they are — and how truly unique this combination of colors is.
Heart Burn shifts from brown to a deep berry in the right light; Scandal'Ice has a color-shifting blue base with chunky purple glitter, as does Chillz.
And though these shades look very intense in finger swatch form, their formula is easy to build and blend out to whatever opacity you like.
For maximum color payoff on my eyelid, I use my finger to swipe on a little bit of Heart Burn on my outer corners.
After the few seconds it takes to blend that out, I pat the tiniest bit of Subzero on the inside, and WOW.
Once Subzero's blended out, it transforms from straight-up silver to a sheer blue-green white that practically looks wet.
And that's without the help of a wet brush or setting spray.
To amp my entire face up a notch, I dab Stone Cold all over my black lipstick, and it feels shockingly comfortable.
Finally, because this is a highlighter palette review after all, I dip into both Stone Cold and Subzero and achieve cheekbones that, if I do say so myself, could blind a man.
I'm serving space alien realness, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
After attempting several other looks with this palette, I can officially confirm that it is, indeed, LIT.
This highlighter palette has a pretty steep price tag, but I understand why. Every shade in this palette has about 16 different uses or more, if you're willing to get creative with it. I've spent the past week using every shade not just as highlighter, but eye shadow, eyeliner, lip topper, blush — you name it, I've used a shade in the Killawatt palette for it.
And this could very much go for any skin tone, given this palette's wide range of both deep and light shades.
Dammit, I love you so much, Rihanna.
I can't live without you … or this palette.
