How To Recreate TikTok's Viral Golden Hour Glow Makeup
There was a time when we used our cameras to take pictures of memorable moments. Unfortunately, there were no retakes at that time if you blinked or weren't looking at the camera.
Nowadays, with smartphones, you can take hundreds (even thousands) of pictures of the same moment and choose the best ones. You want to ensure the angle and lighting are right before posting them online. While ring lights are great for shooting videos on your phone, there's a time in the day when pictures taken during that moment turn out almost picture-perfect naturally; it's called the golden hour.
Professional photographers use this "golden" time, which is "the last hour before sunset and the first hour after sunrise," to take the most magical pictures (via Adobe). According to photographer Jenn Byrne, "It's hard to overexpose or underexpose parts of an image, like a subject's face, because the light is very even and has a beautiful golden hue." It's when it looks like the sun is gently kissing everything it touches, making it a great time to take selfies.
It's the most popular time to take selfies because your pictures look "younger and healthier," per the JD Institute of Fashion Technology. With the limited time frame, however, it's hard to always take pictures in the golden hour, but you can fake it by trying the TikTok golden hour glow makeup that'll make you look like you're always in the golden hour.
What is golden hour glow makeup?
This viral makeup trend has 1.8 billion views (and counting) on TikTok because who doesn't want to look like they're walking around with the golden hour filter? Beauty blogger Victoria Lyn created this ethereal look on TikTok and called this makeup trend "no-makeup makeup's big sister, a little more glam." Inspired by the "prime time for selfies," it's now a makeup look that will last longer than the actual golden hour. Lyn starts by prepping her face with a tinted sunscreen and serum.
For goddess-level glow, you need bronzing drops, and she uses them on her forehead for "sunkissed ... glowy summer skin." Next up, she uses a darker gold eyeshadow all over her eyelids and a lighter one in the center for that pop. For the lips, she lines them with a brown-based lip liner and tops it with a gold lip gloss. Pick natural fake lashes, as you're already going extra with the gold. Then she uses a gold highlighter on her cheekbones, brow bone, and inner corner of the eyes where "the sun naturally hits." Use a spray highlighter on your shoulders so that the radiance is kissing every inch of you.
One of Korea's most popular beauty bloggers, Pony, recommends prepping your skin with hydrating products first for flawless makeup application in her YouTube video. Her look is more subtle, but she glows like a ray of sunshine with strategically placed rainbow highlighter on her eyes, cheekbones, and cupid's bow.
Best products to create the golden hour glow every hour
To look like you're permanently walking around with the golden hour filter, let's find the perfect beauty products to create your magical glow. Beauty blogger Victoria Lyn used Supergoop! Glowscreen Tinted Sunscreen in her TikTok video to moisturize and protect her skin as it has a beautiful natural glow. With over 7,000 reviews on Amazon, one reviewer said, "You get a pretty warm golden glow that lasts and lasts all day. No need to re-apply."
Try Anastasia Beverly Hills Soft Glam Mini II Eye Shadow Palette with eight shades for the perfect golden eyeshadow. You can go as glam as Lyn or subtle as beauty blogger Pony did in her "Golden Hour Glow Makeup" tutorial. The palette beautifully captures the colors of the sunset. For the perfect gold lip gloss, try Pat McGrath Labs Lust in Blitz Gold, as it has 204.1K likes on Sephora, and a reviewer raves, "It's like you just drank water and drenched your lips in liquid sunlight!" Just the perfect gloss to complete your ethereal goddess look.
The glow is never complete without the perfect highlighter on your cheekbones and the high points of your face. Try Fenty Beauty Liquid Killawatt Freestyle Highlighter in Trophy Wife, a drool-worthy metallic gold. "Love this highlighter! Gives a beautiful golden glow on the skin," a Sephora reviewer raves.