The Reason Why RMS Beauty’s Newest Luminizers Are SO Good

RMS Living Luminizer is one of the most praised highlighters out there. Launched in 2009, it gets name checked by models and makeup artists alike, is the brand’s best seller and is made of only seven ingredients. But when Canadian founder and makeup artist Rose-Marie Swift was developing it, she had other versions that she was considering which ultimately didn’t make the cut, and she shoved them in a closet. But last year, Swift unearthed the rejects and decided to have the lab re-visit them, telling them to remove the glitter particles, refine it and make the colours more subdued. When they were returned, she phoned the lab to ask if there was a new chemist to which they replied yes. Then Swift asked if the chemist was a woman and the answer was the same. “I said ‘I knew it.’ They were PERFECTION,” says Swift on a recent visit to Toronto.

She took the four shades and put them in a quad called Luminizer X, which came out last July. But one shade in particular, “Champagne Rosé", stood out to Sephora, who Swift says “freaked out” and asked that it be available on its own. The retailer had it exclusively for awhile, but it’s now being made widely available, landing first at The Detox Market. As for how to wear it, like all luminizers, Swift is adamant that it’s about placement. “I see a lot of people highlight their skin and they just look like a sumo wrestler,” she says. “It’s a grease slick everywhere.” One of her favourite ways to apply it is a dot on eyelids, just above the iris, rather than the whole area. “It looks more sexy to just pop a bit through the middle.”