The TikTok-Viral Hack That Proves You've Been Doing Your Nose Highlight Wrong

Highlighter is like the cherry on top when it comes to makeup, adding extra dimension and brightness to your look. Unlike foundation, which should match your skin tone, you want to use a highlighter that's a couple of shades lighter than your skin tone so that it can reflect light and accentuate parts of your face. You might highlight your cheekbones, brows, and temples — but don't forget that adding some highlighter to your nose can make you even more radiant. The most common way we've been told to highlight the nose is by drawing a thin line down the bridge. But this idea that we need to make our noses perfectly sculpted and thinner is a bit outdated. You don't have to change the shape of your nose for it to be beautiful, and that's where today's tip comes in. 

We're here to share a highlighting hack from makeup artist and online content creator Rachel OCool. She's well-known on TikTok for her series called "Lil Tips," where she shares her favorite makeup advice in video form. Her very first piece of advice that went viral was a video about using highlighter to elevate your look. The video received over 440,000 likes, and it's still a hit two years later, which she celebrates in a recent video. Her followers have given her lots of love, commenting things like, "the highlighter nose tip actually changed my life." But what does she do that's different from other tutorials? Let's take a look. 

Rather than applying highlighter to the bridge of her nose in the video, Rachel OCool places it on both sides of her nostrils as well as the tip of her nose. Because the highlight is placed on both sides, this ensures a glimmer from every angle and gives the nose an upturned, button-like look. As you turn your head to either side, the highlighter will catch the light and reflect it naturally. The video's caption reads, "It's the little placements that make the look POP," and we couldn't agree more. It's amazing what just a subtle sweep of highlighter can do. 

This hack is aimed towards people who love a shiny, shimmery look. OCool uses the Charlotte Tilbury Beauty Light Wand, a gold-tinted liquid highlighter. You can use whichever highlighter you love the most, and if you're not sure whether to use liquid or cream highlighter, OCool has another nose highlighting tip for you.

Though we love a dewy look, sometimes using too much highlighter can make you look a bit sweaty, especially for those who already have skin on the oilier side. Rachel OCool received a few comments on her first highlight video from people who don't love the shine of a liquid highlighter, so she delivered a tutorial on how to use a matte highlight instead. For that smooth, matte finish, she uses Glossier's Stretch Concealer with a square foundation brush and Expert Face Makeup Brush from Real Techniques. 

She contours her nose by using concealer that's two tones lighter than her skin, and she applies the product from the side of her nose to her under eye, patting with a brush to blend. The amount of contouring you want depends on how much you blend. A more dramatic look involves sharper lines, while a more natural look is more blended out and subtle. You can also apply the concealer to the sides of your nostrils, as she does with the shimmer highlight hack. This way, you won't be as worried about feeling oily.