1 Woman Made Her Own DIY Rainbow Highlighter, and the Results Are Epic

Updated on April 30, 2016 at 2:00 PM

If you're still dreaming of getting your hands on the rare rainbow highlighter from Bitter Lace cosmetics, you will find great delight in this genius DIY.

Reddit user The Kitten Butcher decided to create her own magical version of the viral pigment using various eye shadows and a classic powder-salvaging technique. After carefully crushing and mixing her own concoction, she was left with an epic color palette — almost identical to the Bitter Lace compact.

She broke down her process in detailed steps so you can try the trick at home. And if rocking a rainbow glow every day isn't necessarily your thing, you can still use this method to mix your favorite illuminating powders for a customized highlight. Check out her entire process below.

I've been seeing Bitter Lace Beauty's Prism highlighter all over Instagram, and it got me thinking that I could probably create something that would give a similar result with products I had lying around. I used:

Elf Ultimate Eyeshadow Palette (haven't reached for this in forever)

Elf Gotta Glow Highlighter (this was already broken)

A few pearls from my Guerlain Meteorites (for the shimmer and the violet scent)

Mac Vanilla Pigment

Empty clinique Blush compact

Rubbing alcohol

The process is basically identical to what you do when you are repairing a broken pressed powder. Crush the powder, add alcohol, and press with paper towel.
I chose the pans of eyeshadow I wanted to use, and pryed them out of the palette with a knife, and scraped them into a muffin tray to keep the colors separate. I crushed them as finely as I could, then added the crushed highlighter until I was satisfied with the colors.

I added alcohol a drop at a time until a paste was formed. Then I used a toothpick to lay down strips of color in the pan. I pressed the pan with paper towel until color stopped transferring, and allowed it to fully dry, which took about 24 hours.

The first face swatch in the album is one swipe. The second face swatch is more built up, I think I did three passes with my brush. It is possible to use something like a duo fiber brush swirl it in the pa n and lightly dust it on the face like a traditional highlighter, you don't HAVE to streak it on like some kind of 80s unicorn. It's just something different, and it it's a lot of fun to do if you happen to have broken and unused products like I did.

I think the final result is close enough to the Prism highlighter that I won't need to buy it. I wouldn't call what I made an exact dupe though. I doubt it's as finely milled, and it doesn't have that beautiful floral pattern stamped into it. But it was fun to do, and it's a cool way to repurpose stuff that would have gotten thrown away anyway. I might experiment with other colors and see what kind of blushes I can come up with.