Why stick makeup will totally revolutionise your beauty regime
If you feel completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of foundations, eyeshadow palettes and highlighters staring back at you from the makeup shelves, we have two words for you: Stick makeup.
If you're low on time, space and f*cks to give, these clever cylinders of colour are a convenient way to create your face without taking up too much space or time.
The slide-onto-skin formulas deposit product with precision but melt to be blended with a quick sweep of a finger or buffing of a brush.
GLAMOUR's top tips for working with sticks:
1. Warm up your mattes. If you find a stick is dragging rather than gliding across your skin, run your finger across the top first to warm it up and make it malleable.
2. Start with little, add more. It can be easy to get carried away when your drawing on your face, but our advice is to blend before adding more. You may use less than you think.
3. Finish on clean skin. To keep your stick 'clean' for the next use, swipe it across the back of your hand when finished. This will clear off any other makeup it collected when being swiped.
Here are our favourites...
The Multiple, £29, NARS
Depending on which shade you choose, this stick can create flushed cheeks, poppin' highlighter, and bronzed bone structure. The possibilities are... multiple.
Match Stix, £21, Fenty
You could do your entire face with Match Stix if you needed to. Available in both matte, shimmer and skin colour options, you can conceal, contour, add blush, eyeshadow, highlight, errrrrything. We like using 'Mocha' for chiselled cheekbones and 'Yacht Life' for a glorious holiday glow.
Long-Wear Cream Shadow Stick, £23.50, Bobbi Brown
Create a smokey eye in a flash by adding a criss-cross of colour to the outer corner of your eye, and blend. We like using 'Bark' for a sultry night eye and 'Sand Dune' swept across the lids during the day.
Chubby Stick Sculpting Highlight, £20, Clinique
You can't mention stick makeup without the iconic Chubby Stick. We were obsessed with the lip crayons, but the highlight and contours also have us converted.
Skin Love Glow Glaze, £24, Becca
If you like skin that looks like skin, this is the highlighter for you. Glaze couldn't be a more accurate name, adding a donut-like sheen in all the right places. Just make sure you finish with a 'clean skin swipe' if layering over other makeup.
Nudies All Over Face Colour, £28, Nudestix
Nudestix is all about ease and the on-the-go girl, which is why 90% of their range comes in stick form. Our favourites? Nudies in 'Naughty N' Spice' for blush and lip tint, and Glow in 'Brown Sugar, Baby' for a lit JLo bronze.
Beach Stick, £30, Charlotte Tilbury
Available in four shades depending on your holiday destination, this is the ultimate swipe-on blush. Each contains iridescent and light-diffusing pigments for full-blown radiance.
Vanish Seamless Finish Foundation Stick, £42, Hourglass
One of the more superior selections when it comes to stick foundation, a little goes a long way with this high coverage formula. Available in 32 shades, you can pick your match or go two shades darker and lighter for contour and highlight.
Pro Base Smooth, Set & Prime Blur Stick, £5, MUA
Minimise pores and smooth the skin in just one swipe pre-foundation. This peachy-smelling sensation is a steal for the price.
Perfect Skin Foundation Stick, £25, Lord & Berry
If you like natural makeup, this soft-matte stick will give you the coverage you crave while remaining comfortable and basically undetectable. Plus it's pumped full of skincare goodies like hyaluronic acid and oak stem cells.
