Melt Cosmetics Morning Star Digital Dust Highlight Review & Swatches

Morning Star

Melt Cosmetics Morning Star Digital Dust Highlight ($39.00 for 0.28 oz.) is a bright, pale gold with warmer undertones and pink and gold micro-sparkle over a metallic finish. It had opaque pigmentation in a single layer, which was easily blended out for sheerer coverage or applied with a lighter hand (or more feathery brush) for more buildable coverage. It had a moderate glow in one layer, and it built up to more metallic, lit-from-space kind of glow with two layers of product.

The texture was smooth to the touch, firmer and denser without being heavy or thick, so it needed a more rounded, moderately dense brush to pick up product evenly (as it had more of a gel-powder formula). The powder applied evenly to my skin and blended out without difficulty. It didn’t emphasize my skin’s texture unless worn at high coverage and built up for a more intense glow, but one layer (and blended) of product was luminous without accentuating my skin’s texture. It wore well for eight and a half hours (though it was marketed as 12-hour wear) on my skin before fading noticeably.

Top Dupes

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Milani Pearl (PiP, ) is more shimmery (95% similar).
Laura Mercier Gold Radiance (LE, $44.00) is less shimmery, darker (90% similar).
Urban Decay Sin (P, $26.00) is more shimmery (90% similar).
Colour Pop Lunch Money (P, $8.00) is more shimmery, warmer (90% similar).
Tarte Daylight (LE, ) is darker (90% similar).
Milani Brighten Up My Day (PiP, ) is more shimmery (90% similar).
Kat Von D Helix (LE, $30.00) is more shimmery, warmer (90% similar).
MAC Gleam Sheen (PiP, ) is warmer (90% similar).
Tarte Skylight (LE, ) is more shimmery (90% similar).
MAC Double-Gleam (P, $33.00) is less shimmery, warmer (90% similar).

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Formula Overview

$39.00/0.28 oz. – $139.29 Per Ounce

The brand doesn’t have a great description of the highlighter formula generally, just descriptions of each shade. The lightest shade–Stargazer–is described as "buildable" but the other two are silent with respect to pigmentation, and the lightest shade was quite pigmented. Since there was no general description, I’m holding the formula to the average powder highlighter’s claims–pigmented, long-wearing, and blendable, except Stargazer, which I would expect to have "buildable" pigmentation. The formula has a denser, firmer texture, but it never felt stiff nor was it difficult to blend out on the skin. The coverage was semi-opaque and buildable with a high-shine to metallic finish. All three lasted eight hours on me.

Browse all of our Melt Cosmetics Digital Dust Highlight swatches.

Ingredients

Mica, Titanium Dioxide (Ci 77891), Cetearyl Ethylhexanoate, Hdi/Trimethylol Hexyllactone Crosspolymer, Squalane, Octyldodecyl Stearoyl Stearate, Glycerin, Polysorbate 20, Caprylyl Glycol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Tin Oxide, 1,2-Hexanediol, Iron Oxides (Ci 77491), Pentaerythrityl Tetra-Di-T-Butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate, Chondrus Crispus (Carrageenan), Xanthan Gum, Silica, Dicalcium Phosphate, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite.